The party never ends for the Black Eyed Peas. Cue the club music,
pan to the crowded dance floor, program elaborate dance choreography,
sequence cheesy digitized vocals (with catchphrases like “Rock That
Body”) and you realize hip-hop’s most homogenized hitmakers have
returned with another great party mix, their first studio album in four
years. The acronym for this newest record stands for “the energy never
dies.” The 15 tunes on The E.N.D. are exactly what you expect
from will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo and Fergie —
ultra-polished club rap canned for mass production — but this
time it’s faster, more futuristic and even cornier.
Let’s face it — the Peas have already made this decade’s two
most embarrassing rap singles — “My Humps” and “Let’s Get It
Started” — but that doesn’t faze the foursome. Why should it?
They’ve sold more than 15 million records and will continue to make the
same daffy dance hits, more hyper-produced rap singles and even bigger
crossover music. The E.N.D. offers bouncy and bright dance rap
(“I Gotta Feeling” and “Meet Me Halfway”) with shameless lyrics (“A
phone go ring-a-ling ling, and the girls want ding-a-ling ling”).
Fergie captures it best. As the real star of the band, she sings, “If
we could party all night and sleep all day and throw all of our
problems away, my life would be so easy.” It’s all very sublime and
ridiculous, but it’s a formula that works exceeding well for hip-hop’s
ultimate party crew. — Keith Gribbins
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2009.
