Black Eyed Peas - Awesome

[MyLastView]

Apr 13, 2015 14:45:06 GMT -5 Glove Slap said:

Apr 13, 2015 14:25:08 GMT -5 Au$tin said:

LOL @ them trying without Fergie. She has become too big of a face for the group for them to really be successful without her. I guess anything's possible, but it's highly unlikely at this point without some sort of rebranding.

Remember when Fergie's role was downsized in 2009 and people said they'd flop?

Pulse's obsession with over-crediting everything with a vagina is hilarious. Whether you like it or not, it's will's leadership that mapped their success.

While it is true he has had a major role in their success (obviously) I don't see it as her being overcredited. In two solo eras, will.I.am managed no hit albums and one big single (S&S, which featured Britney, so that can't be discounted). Fergie's one solo era had multiple top 10s and was certified 3x platinum. Will.I.am has seen more success as a producer than anything, whereas Fergie is more of a visible presence, which the public relates to more.

[trustypepper]

I think the general public just likes Fergie more than Will, so it would make sense to let her be the front.

[Glove Slap]

^^^This same argument was used in 2009, it didn't hold. Fergie's solo career is also a non-factor at this point. Back when The END was released, sure it was a very valid point to give visibility to her, but now no.

[SPRΞΞ]

I can't even get thru it. I hate his voice now.

[dbhmr]

Lasted 23 seconds.

[icefire9]

Sounds like a worse version of 'Everything is Awesome'.

[Deleted]

2 thumbs down. Sorry, loved The Beginning and E.N.D., but this... is terrible.

[Ragin]

Are we sure this wasn't an April Fool's joke delayed?

That is terrible.

[happythecat]

The beginning of this sounds like something from The Lego Movie, but maybe that's just me.

[Daryl the Beryl]

Yeah this sucks...

[jjose712]

Apr 14, 2015 12:45:59 GMT -5 trustypepper said:

I think the general public just likes Fergie more than Will, so it would make sense to let her be the front.

Well the brits love him. He have a good bunch of number ones there (and some of them are not better than this song)

[Deleted]

The song itself is okay...it does sound very Lego movie and almost like they were intentionally going for the so-bad-it's-good kind of vibe. It would probably be really hype in a club, but it's hard to imagine it doing that well on radio. But if "The Time (Dirty Bit)" could be a top ten why not this too. And Fergie's absence on this song doesn't necessarily mean she isn't involved with the group anymore.

The argument over whether Fergie is what made the group, hard to take a side on that because I don't care for what either side is saying. On the one hand comments like this:

Apr 13, 2015 13:50:54 GMT -5 @aaront said:

No Fergie? IMHO, her presence is the only thing that made the group successful, so no to this.

are, if not completely clueless as to BEP's full history, very dismissive of it. They originally were a critically acclaimed alt-hip-hop group with no pressure to sell a lot of records. A merger or two happened and the new suits in charge basically told them they needed to become more commercial - literally, an exec told them to "admit that they were not hip-hop" when hip-hop was all they they had ever been - and that was something they never had to worry about before. Fergie was a label decision (and she wasn't even the first choice). Of course everyone involved would put on a happy face and claim it was all love, and this isn't to say they didn't like Fergie or anything, but that move was NOT BEP's idea; their original background singer left because she felt the group was about to sell out and that was a direction she was not interested in. If anyone is ever inclined to care for the backstory, here is a 2005 interview with Vibe that talks about that.

So it doesn't actually matter that Fergie is the reason the group is such a success - the entire reason she was added was to make the group a success so that is a given - but that wasn't ever the point of BEP at first, so if the group decided they wanted to go on without her in the future they'd be well within their right. They existed for a decade before she even came along and that's not something that anyone should shrug off so easily.

OTOH Will's ego is kind of ridiculous and I'd look like a fool if I tried to argue that he was just taking BEP back its roots or wanted to go in a new musical direction that only included the original members of the group. It's actually hilariously ironic to read that Vibe article again and recall at the end how salty he was for the hip-hop community turning against him and calling him a sell-out, because his own solo production discography has so few hip-hop artists. He's damn near the poster child of selling out, no judgment but it is what it is. Almost everything Will has ever done since 2003 has been with commercial success in mind.

I get the strong sense that he has always been one to have a chip on his shoulder, and it's just a matter of who he's bitter with at any given time...so in 2005 it was with the hip-hop community for shunning him, and ten years later it's with music buyers as a whole for shunning him, I guess. When he says albums are dead you can't help but think he's mad about his own inability to sell them. But BEP never really had that problem - even The Beginning did okay - so he doesn't have to impose that mentality on the group.

I also believe that he thinks he is largely responsible for BEP's success because of his production, and maybe only views Fergie as a frontwoman; he might even consider himself as largely responsible for The Dutchess, given all the work he did on that too. Because of how Fergie was added, I will always wonder if harbors some resentment toward her presence; he might not like that she got much of the shine for BEP's commercial success when he's really the one who put the most work into the music. He's not entirely wrong to feel that way, but if moving units is what his goal still is, he shouldn't let his pride get in the way of making good music.

[leonagwen]

This is horrible.

[ddlz]

On iTunes tomorrow. Here's a preview of the studio version: vimeo.com/125194510

[Daryl the Beryl]

Oh boy...

[Linnethia Monique]

So they are really going to try and make this happen


BYE!

[Deleted]

I uh, don't hate this?

[KissMyAxe]

OMG this is one of the most cringe worthy songs I've ever heard :X
I couldn't even complete the first 30 seconds of it!!

[nikkominaj]

I am going to lmao if this goes number 1.

[Daryl the Beryl]

Apr 17, 2015 23:19:49 GMT -5 nikkominaj said:

I am going to lmao if this goes number 1.

I will face palm if it even goes top ten on CHR.

[jjose712]

Apr 17, 2015 23:19:49 GMT -5 nikkominaj said:

I am going to lmao if this goes number 1.

After Boom Boom Pow everything is possible. If there's someone able to make a hit of an awful song they are the BEP, but frankly this is simply too much and i don't know if they are so popular to really make this happen

[maine]

That chorus is awful, but I will admit, the verses don't sound too bad. Interested in hearing the full version tbh.

[Rocky]

After reading the comments I was prepared for a "The Time" 2.0, a song that will give me a headache, but I kind of ?like? the instrumental and other than that "baaaaabbbbeeeh babeeeeeh" part it's not that bad. I'm interested in the full version.