Original Black Eyed Peas Lead Calls Out Will.i.am

The woman who served as the original lead singer for the Black Eyed Peas has a message for Will.i.am … and it ain’t sweet.

Kim Hill, who was the groups front woman from 1995 to 2000, hopped on Instagram recently to address comments by Will that the group is not regarded as a Black group. ICYMI, Will gripped about how the group has been perceived while appearing on Wyclef Jean’s Run That Back podcast.

Kim caught wind of the conversation and set Will straight.

“You want to have the same community that helped build you—us coming out of the Native Tongue movement, to now hold you in the space where we hold Mos Def and De La [Soul] and Tribe [Called Quest] and Slum Village. These are all our people because we all toured with them. All these brothers, to this day, hold me to the highest regard. But I don’t get it from you, not publicly. You want that same community to validate you and you put a white girl in that place,” she said.

 

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A post shared by Kim Hill (@alwayskimhill)

The white girl as you know is Stacy Ferguson aka Fergie. Fergie joined the group which consisted of Will, apl.de.ap, and Taboo in 2003. In 2004 BEP dropped their third album Elephunk which shot them to superstardom. Meanwhile their sound leaned more toward pop and less hip-hop as Fergie became the dominant face for the group.

Will seemed to elude to the fact that as their success grew their perception as a hip hop group dimensioned.

“I’m a Black dude, but when you think of Black Eyed Peas, we got so big … and it hurts, it still hurts a little bit that we’re not considered a Black group … because we got that big. And when you think of Black Eyed Peas … it’s no longer urban or Black culture. [It] is not good for the Black community that Black Eyed Peas is not looked at as a Black group because we had international success. That should be credited to the Black community more so than letting it be adopted. That’s just a thing that we suffer from all the time,” he explained.

He failed to mentioned Hill speaking about their early days which also didn’t resonate well with Black women on Twitter. Folks then decided to remind the world of some of Fergie’s worst performances.

I think you’re all forgetting the best fergie performance pic.twitter.com/q7WeuPqP7j

— Deanna (@itsahatosaur) January 2, 2021

Fergie can’t even perform her own song and the NBA had her do the national anthem😭😭😭😭😭 https://t.co/eonhBsnFgb

— Feranmi 🇳🇬🇳🇬 (@lifeoffurry) January 2, 2021