Who are the “Black Eyed Peas”? You mean will.i.am, Fergie, and those two other guys that perform with them? Wait, what are their names? What started the group Black Eyed Peas?

The members of the group are will.i.am, the main leader, who is also a main rapper, vocalist, producer, and songwriter. Secondly, comes in Fergie the main vocalist, sub-rapper and songwriter. These two other guys you don’t know of are Taboo and apl.de.ap., both of which are lead rappers, sub-vocalists and songwriters.

The Black Eyed Peas go way back to when William Adams (will.i.am) and Allan Penda (apl.de.ap) both were in eight-grade. They performed and rapped all around Los Angeles. They were signed to Ruthless Record in 1992; this business was run by Easy-E. They caught the attention of a close friend of Easy-E named Dante Santiago. They were called Atban Klan, meaning a tribe beyond a nation. Shortly after Easy-E died in 1995, Atban Klan had changed the group name to the Black Eyed Pods, and then to Black Eyed Peas. Dante Santiago was then replaced with Jamie Gomez ( Taboo). Jamie Gomez became a background singer. Years later, Fergie joined when the album Elephunk was being made, which was developed in November 2001, but not released until 2003.Nicole Scherzinger was originally asked to join the Peas, but declined because she was under another contract. Santiago then introduced will.i.am to Fergie who then joined the group in 2002.

The Black Eyed Peas was originally a Hip-hop group but evolved into more genres as the years passed, including R&B, pop, dance, electro, and techno. After all this time, the Black Eyed Peas has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide and have become the second best selling group.