Black Eyed Peas

The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo. Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and left the group in 2018. They have sold an estimated 80 million records, making them one of the best-selling musical acts of all time; they were ranked 12th on Billboard's 2000s Decade-End Artist of the Decade Chart and 7th on the Hot 100 Artists of the Decade. Originally forming as an alternative hip hop trio, they signed with Interscope Records to release two albums—Behind the Front (1998) and Bridging the Gap (2000)—before rebranding to a more marketable pop-rap act; their third album, Elephunk (2003), yielded the group's mainstream breakthrough. Its lead single, "Where Is the Love?" (featuring Justin Timberlake), peaked atop music charts in 13 countries, including the United Kingdom, where it spent seven weeks at number one and became the country's biggest-selling single of that year. Their fourth album, Monkey Business (2005), was met with continued commercial success; it received triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. The group's fifth album, The E.N.D. (2009), yielded their furthest commercial success; it peaked atop the Billboard 200 and spawned three Billboard Hot 100-number one singles: "Imma Be", "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling". For one week, the latter two songs made the group one of the 11 musical acts to have simultaneously held the top two spots on the Billboard Hot 100, where they remained for a then-record 26 consecutive weeks. Two other singles from the album, "Rock That Body" and "Meet Me Halfway", peaked within the top ten of the chart. "I Gotta Feeling" became the first single to sell over than one million downloads in the United Kingdom. At the 52nd Grammy Awards ceremony, the group won three awards from six nominations. The group's sixth album, The Beginning (2010), released the following year, and spawned the Billboard Hot 100-top five singles "The Time (Dirty Bit)" and "Just Can't Get Enough". In February 2011, they performed in the Super Bowl XLV halftime show. In 2011, the Black Eyes Peas announced they would be going on indefinite hiatus to pursue other activities, briefly reuniting in 2015. Fergie was announced to have left the group in 2018, and J. Rey Soul joined the group as a touring member that same year. Soul also appeared as a featured artist on select tracks on the group's seventh album, Masters of the Sun Vol. 1 (2018), which failed to chart. They followed this with the albums Translation (2020) and Elevation (2022), which delved into reggaeton and Latin influences.