Hey there, it’s been a while.
I won’t go into detail about
what’s kept me for so long. The bottom line is I’ve been busy. I barely get to
have “Me time” anymore and it’s driving me bananas. That’s what makes crazy
people crazy; they don’t have enough time for themselves. Either that or they
have too much time. People with good time management don’t have any problems;
they’re the fortunate ones. The ones who politely excuse themselves from
hearing our complaints all day and are the first to leave a group get together
because they’ve got things to do and they’re on a tight schedule.
Oh how I envy them, Anyways…
As I sat on the John last
night I realized that this year marks the 10 year anniversary of something. No,
not the anniversary of “Revenge of the Sith.” Although it came out within a
week of today’s topic. I’m talking about Monkey
Business, the triple platinum album by the Black Eyed Peas. I didn’t think
that the Black Eyed Peas would be what took me out of hiatus, but here we are!
Time to pay homage to a childhood favorite.
Before Kanye West and
Kendrick Lamar I had OutKast and the Black Eyed Peas. The Peas were already a
popular group before Monkey Business
came out on May 25th, 2005. Their biggest album at the time was
2003’s Elephunk, which contained the
singles “Let’s Get It Started” and “Where is the Love?” It’s a great album that
holds a light to its successor. I like to remember it for the songs “Latin
Girls” and “Hey Mama.” Elephunk also introduced Fergie to the world as the
group’s newest member.
It was 2004 during my 3rd
grade year. My best friend at the time was a huge Green Day fan and he knew
everything about them from Dookie and
onward. American Idiot and “Napoleon Dynamite” were the talk of
the classroom. I wasn’t a huge rock fan and I had yet to see the movie so I
didn’t have a clue what anyone was talking about. And since I had nobody to
discuss OutKast with, I couldn’t wait for the Black Eyed Peas to come out with
new material. I had already bought Monkey
Business that summer and, during the 4th grade, the Peas became
everyone’s favorite—except for my friend. “My Humps” was the song of the year. My
friends and I would recite Will.i.Am’s verse and giggle at the fact that we
knew what Milk and Coco Puffs really meant.
One of my favorite memories
was waking up early in the morning before school to watch VH1’s Morning
Countdown. As the show wound down and James Blunt’s “Beautiful” and
All-American Rejects’ “Dirty Little Secret” took the number 2 and 3 spot I squirmed
around in excitement during commercial break because I knew what would be
number one. The TV reveals an Asian guy cracking his neck, getting ready to get
his butt kicked while his two unamused droogs stand in the back. In comes the
Black Eyed Peas who swerve to the scene in a decked out Honda Civic, blasting a
sample of Dick Dale’s “Misirlou.”
Hut,
Hut—HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA PUMP IT!
The “Pump It” music video was
no cinematic masterpiece but Will.i.Am beating up a bunch of guys with a soccer
ball and apl.de.ap literally running on people were the coolest things in the
world in my eyes. This was right before YouTube, so if I missed it on TV I had
to watch it on Aol Videos. I must’ve spent hours just staring at the screen and
hitting replay.
No song on the album was more
enchanting than track 6, “Like That.” The instrumental reminded me of elevator
music. Astrud Gilberto’s “Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)” interrupted
by Q-Tip saying “Wow, we’re in stereo?” did something to me. Once the song ended,
all I could do was keep replaying it. It was like an atom bomb of a soulful
beat, smooth rapping and mellifluous vocals detonated in my ears and sent a
shockwave through my entire brain. “Like That” swiftly dethroned OutKast’s
“Roses” as my favorite song. I credit it for molding my taste/liking for sample
heavy and soulful beats. It was my precursor to Kanye. If it wasn’t for “Like
That” I wouldn’t have appreciated “The College Dropout” as much.
Some of you might be reading
this and wondering: how does this pertain to my life, Deion? Why should I care?
I dunno. Maybe because I want to get you all to reminisce on some of your early
fanboy/girl experiences. What was your favorite album or music act growing up?
What was the concert you were dying to go to but couldn’t?
I know mine was when the Peas
came to the Bank Atlantic Center for their Honda Civic tour. I begged my mom to
let me go, but, like any good parent, she refused. In my eight year old mind
she was public enemy #1 for that. I grew sourer when a classmate came to school
the next day with a shirt from the show. Come to think of it, I wonder how many
prepubescent kids were at that concert. I can’t imagine thousands of middle
aged adults jumping up and down to “My Humps.”
What makes Monkey Business so good is how it
doesn’t belong to a specific genre. It’s more than alternative hip hop. It’s
hip hop, it’s pop, it’s funk, it’s world music. Monkey Business caters to all audiences. With the album going in so
many directions it could’ve easily been a cacophonous mess. But, thanks to the
genius of Will.i.Am, its consistency and pacing make it a Swiss army knife of
sound.
If you want bars—“Audio
Delight at Low Fidelity”
If you want bars in another
language—“Bebot”
Want a heartbreak anthem?—“Don’t
Lie”
You want a club song?—“Dum
Diddly”
Looking for a funky tune?—“They
Don’t Want Music”
There may be a stigma
attached to the Black Eyed Peas whether it be because of their more recent releases
or their Super Bowl performance (which I thought was great), but believe me
when I tell you that the Peas have made great music. They're called the Black
Eyed Peas for a reason, they make music for the soul. This is an album and a
group that I will be listening to for the rest of my life and I’m looking
forward to their upcoming seventh album.
