Each Music Monday will be formatted as followed: an overview/ my opinion on their said career, followed by the ranking of their top 5 songs. No artist is without flaws, their worst three songs will also be judged and ripped to shreds.

As a reminder, this is not going to be a series where I list no-name songs off an artist’s shitty second album that’ll you’ll hear occasionally in an urban coffee shop. We only grade hits here. I’m not looking for songs that have the best underlying message. I’m not looking for songs that represent the artist’s struggle and triumph over something shitty that happened to them. I don’t care about any of that. We are only ranking the cream of the crop, the pinnacle of an artist’s success. Before you ask, I will not be ranking The Beatles’ songs, as I do not want to tarnish my blog with overrated garbage. If you have a problem with that, or my rankings, and want to make your criticisms known, you can email all of your concerns to VinnieWontCheckThis@gmail.com. Prior versions of this series can be found here.

So with that, let’s get it started in hereeeeeeeeeeee.

The Black Eyed Peas are a music group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo. The group formed in 1995 with another female singer who I have no interest in learning her name because she isn’t important to the story. The group was signed to a label in 1997 and released two albums before that nameless female singer left the group in 2000. In 2002 Nicole Scherzinger (you know her from her time with the Pussycat Dolls, and if you don’t know who she is, you’re dead to me) auditioned for the female lead but the group decided they wanted to get a little more Glamorous and added Stacy Ferguson instead. With the addition of Fergie, they transitioned their sound from straight hip hop to more of a pop sound and it paid off. The group’s first album (that matters), Elephunk was released in 2003. The album sold 9 million copies and spawned the groups first top ten hit (Where is the Love), and two songs that hit number twenty (Hey Mama, Let’s Get it Started). Where is the Love was the best selling song of 2003 and Let’s Get It Started won two Grammy’s for best Rap Song and Best Group Song. They followed up Elephunk’s success with Monkey Business in 2005. It sold 11 million copies and gave the group their first two top three hits (Don’t Phunk With My Heart, My Humps) and another song chart in the top 15 (Don’t Lie), and top 20 (Pump It). They won another two Grammy’s before taking a couple years off to do their own things. During the time off Fergie saved music by releasing her solo album in early 2006, will.i.am worked on several projects. Most notably he was helping compose Michael Jackson’s final music project, and I’m assuming Taboo and apl.de.ap just chilled in the basement of Taboo’s mother’s house smoking pot and eating Ritz Crackers waiting for will.i.am to call them to get back in the studio. After four years the group released their third album (that matters), The E.N.D in 2009. This was the album that took the Black Eyed Peas to heights that few music acts ever see. The album won 6 Grammy’s, the album had three number one hits (Boom Boom Pow, I Gotta Feeling, Imma Be) and had another two songs hit the top 10 (Meet Me Halfway, Rock That Body). Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling spent a combined 26 weeks at number one in 2009, which is a record for most time at number one in a calendar year. They spent 2010 touring and recorded The Beginning in between tour dates and released that album in November 2010. It wasn’t as impactful as The E.N.D but still spawned a number 3 and number 4 hit (The Time, Just Can’t Get Enough). They then performed at the Super Bowl Halftime show in 2011 and that stunk out loud. A couple months later they announced they were going hiatus. Even though they didn’t release anything during that time, Fergie announced she was leaving the group in 2015, marking The E.N.D. (lol get it?) of the Black Eyed Peas. Sure the group will continue releasing music (they didn’t in 2018) under that name but without Fergie it’s pointless.

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The Black Eyed Peas are complicated. They got overplayed to the point people turned on them and now think they stink; and it leads people to writing them off despite the fact that the music they made pre-2008 is incredible. The END and The Beginning are products of their time but it did pave the way for more pop-dance music in the ever changing music landscape.

Toughest Omission: My Humps: this song served as my Sex Ed when I was an adolescent. The lyrical choices in this song has always left me a wee bit confused. Is fergie singing to will.i.am? Is he singing to her? Are the singing to someone special? To a general audience? I guess I’ll never know.

5. I Gotta Feeling – I originally kept this song off my top 5. However the more I thought about it, I felt like leaving it off is a disservice to how big of a song this was when it was first released. I want to take you guys back- The year is 2009. It’s a Friday night. You’re in your Mom’s car bumping to this song. Your buddy is playing Angry Birds on their iPod Touch, and you’re making your way to your crush’s birthday party, dressed head to toe in Nike. Life is good and you know it’s gonna be a good, good night. With that said, this song didn’t age well and was a product of being overplayed. Is it the biggest song by the Black Eyed Peas? Without a doubt. Is it their best song? Not a chance.

4. Meet Me Halfway: this is one of the few songs off their post-Monkey Business albums that aged well. I’ll go as far to say this song aged like fine wine. Just a beautiful pop song.

3. Where is the Love: this song is the closest thing we have to world peace. When I was like 7, I was so moved by this song that I made little posters saying ‘where is the love’ and ‘spread love’ and I asked my teacher to put them around the school and she said no.

2. Don’t Phunk With My Heart: I actually HATED this song when I was younger. There was nothing wrong with it, I hated it because the song I wanted to hear non-stop was Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani, but my radio INSISTED on playing this. As I grew up, however, I realized how good this song is. It’s called growth.

1. Let’s Get It Started: Is there a better pivot in US history than the Black Eyed Peas reworking this song, changing “Let’s Get Retarded,” which is offensive and would never get played, into “Let’s Get It Started” which is a family friendly corporate anthem? This song is timeless, very versatile.

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Ranking Different Types of Peas

1. Garbanzo
2. Pinto
3. Black
4. Red
5. Kidney
6. Black-eyed peas

Your Turn

If you had a blog and were to rank every Black Eye Peas song that hit top 20 on the charts, what are your top 5?

Title	Year	Peak chart positions	Album
Where is The Love?	2003	8	Elephunk
Hey Mama	2004	20	Elephunk
Let’s Get it Started	2004	20	Elephunk
Don’t Phunk With My Heart	2005	3	Monkey Business
Don’t Lie	2005	14	Monkey Business
My Humps	2005	3	Monkey Business
Pump It	2006	18	Monkey Business
Boom Boom Pow	2009	1	The E.N.D.
I Gotta Feeling	2009	1	The E.N.D.
Meet Me Halfway	2009	7	The E.N.D.
Imma Be	2009	1	The E.N.D.
Rock That Body	2010	9	The E.N.D.
This Time (Dirty Bit)	2010	4	The Beginning
Just Can’t Get Enough	2011	3	The Beginning