A couple of weeks ago, The Black Eyed Peas released a new video. The same The Black Eyes Peas that many moons ago was a genuine hip-hop group, before changing beyond all recognition into a pop act that polarized rap fans.
Nothing strange about that so far. But on closer inspection the new song is without Fergie, references and covers many hip-hop classics, and has a throwback video to match. Oh, and it also happens to be awesome. We let it sit there for a while, but we can’t ignore what just happened any longer.
Here’s the dilemma. As fans of what we all like to call ‘real’ hip-hop (however ridiculous that makes us sound), we can’t possibly like a The Black Eyed Peas song, can we? Of course we can. We’ll just take a bit of time to admit it.
Its easy to blame everything on the evil Fergie, but in reality, the driving force behind the move towards pop has been will.i.am, an artist at times so unbelievably pretentious its a wonder he hasn’t yet disappeared up his own back passage.
But the hark back to their hip-hop roots, and even further back to Golden Era rap, is a curious one. Its difficult to tell if this is a new (or old) direction for the group, sans Fergie, although its hard to imagine they’d turn down further mainstream success just to keep it real for a small section of hip-hop heads. It may also just be part of the celebrations for their 20-years-in-the-game anniversary.
Only time will tell. But one thing can’t be denied: Yesterday is a good record, and its ok to admit it.
If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it here.