Black Eyed Peas

Behind The Front

Black eyed peas: A black guy, a Filipino and an Indian. They rap, dance and use a live band.
Yep, I was preparing for the worst. But after listenining to their debut album, I must admit: they ain't that wack. Although "Behind the front" is their first official album, this Cali-based trio ain't new jacks to the scene. After being a dance crew, these three MC's Will I Am, APL and Tabooh formed The Atban Klann and released the single Puddles of H20 on Ruthless Records back in '92.
The Atban Klann recorded an album, but due to label difficulties the record never saw the light of day. Finally they signed to Interscope records and returned with a whole new sound.

The album kicks off with the funky 'Fallin up'. Starting with a drumbeat and followed by an acoustic guitar and a bassline, the first MC drops his lyrics. And immediately they confront you with the thing that is often the weakness of "these type of groups"; they're trying too hard to let the world know they're not your average hip-hop group:

I see you try to dis our function by statin' that we can't rap/
Is it because we don't wear Tommy Hilfiger or baseball caps

And these we-don't-fit-in-'cause-we're-just-ourselves lyrics set the tone for most of the topics on this album. I mean yo, it's cool to be original and we all know originality is not very present in the current state of hip-hop. But why do you have to mention it on almost every song?

The production on the album is done by Will I Am and characterizes itself by a sample-free live sound. This results in energetic tracks such as the dope first single 'Joints & Jam', 'Communication', and the earlier mentioned 'Fallin up'. Other nice cuts are 'A8' and 'Karma' with a reggea type chorus. But these joints are in contradiction with a couple of failures such as the boring love jam 'The way you make me feel', the corny Funkin' for Jamaica remake 'What it is' and 'head bops' which sounds like an unplugged version of GZA's 'Liquid swords'.
The biggest skip forward, however, is the electro influenced 'Be free'; Kraftwerk on crack.
The problem with most of the hip-hop groups that use a live band, is the fact that they fail to create that essential Boom Bap feeling. This, together with the somewhat overtaken topics, is exactly why Black Eyed Peas ain't the next level shit they intend to be.

Sure, these guys are musically very talented. And sure, they will do very well on festivals and leave an impact with their live shows.
But I guess Black Eyed Peas are just too live for the B-Boys.