The Non-Stop Life Of Will.I.Am

Black Eyed Peas Producer/Rapper Expands His Creative Horizons

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NEW YORK, Oct. 10, 2006 | by Judy Faber

(CBS)  This story was researched and written by TheShowbuzz.com's Judy Faber.

Rapper, producer, songwriter, and composer will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas is one busy man. Aside from recording and touring with the Peas, the 31-year-old manages to find time to work on albums with numerous other artists, score films, appear in a series of online films and run his own clothing line and record label.

So how does he relax? With more work.

"Going into the studio, just being there, and just being around stuff, thinking (and) solving problems, helps me unwind," he told The Showbuzz. "If I'm just chilling with nothing to do, then I'm tense. If my mind's not trying to fix something or create something, I don't know what to do. It just throws me off."

William James Adams Jr. was born and raised in Los Angeles — and was, by his own account, always a "super-duper hyperactive" child. He found a way to channel his energy in the ninth grade when he befriended Allen Pineda Lindo, or apl.de.ap, a newly-arrived immigrant teen from the Philippines. The two started a break-dancing crew and were later joined by Mexican-American Jaime "Taboo" Gomez.

The Black Eyed Peas was born.

After two successful albums and months of touring, the band added a female voice to the act, Stacy Ferguson — better known as simply "Fergie." With the new lineup, the band released "Elephunk" in 2003 and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. They followed up their success with 2005's "Monkey Business," which has sold almost 10 million copies to date.

Will.i.am has helmed the production of most of the group's albums, but that's not enough to keep his creative juices flowing. Recently, he teamed up with Fergie to do her first solo set, "The Duchess."

It's the first release off his record label, Will.I.Am Music Group.

"Her personality doesn't switch up, she's still Fergie, but, it's just more about her," will.i.am said, explaining the difference between working with Fergie in the context of the group and as a solo artist. "There's more melodies I have to think about, it's way more melodic. It was hard, because we were recording the record while we were touring."

The album spawned her No. 1 single "London Bridges," which will.i.am said evolved from the Peas hit, "My Humps."

"'My Humps' was an anomaly, a fun song I wrote that I didn't want to part with; I didn't want to give it away to anyone else," he explained. "I wrote it for the Pussycat Dolls, but then I said, 'I want to keep this bad boy for us. Hey, Fergie, you wanna sing this?' We would never have originally sung that. But doing that song kinda gave birth to a whole new Fergie character, a side of something that she could have fun with. And it kinda introduced that whole thing: sing-a-long, sing-songy fun music. That song opened the door for the 'London Bridges' song."

By Judy Faber
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