Committed rapper and philanthropist, Will.i.am, of the group Black Eyed Peas has become, after the planetary success of his song I Gotta Feeling produced by David Guetta, one of the figures of the black community in the United States.
In 2008, he recorded a viral video to support Barack Obama’s candidacy for the United States’ presidential election. Confined to Los Angeles where he grew up in one of the city's social housing units, he comments on the events currently shaking the United States as the group's eighth album is released on Friday, June 19, Translation.
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The release date of your new album has been maintained despite the context of confinement. Why this choice ?
We thought about postponing it, but it would not have been fair because people need to cheer them up. Not everything has to be grim all the time. There must be a little bit of optimism, positivity somewhere.
For example, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, we released the album Elephunk while the United States was at war. In 2008, there was the financial crisis, banks were bailed out, houses mortgaged, and we released The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies). Now we need to hear songs that tell us that there is hope. We don’t even have to be explicit, just make music that brings people together.
It will be difficult because concerts are still prohibited…
Getting together doesn't necessarily mean attending a concert, but you can get together emotionally, spiritually and mentally.
For more than two weeks, protests have followed one another after the murder of George Floyd to denounce racism and police violence, and we have not seen any new peaks of the pandemic when tens of thousands of people have marched together . Besides, I would like to thank all the people who came out to protest against the injustices.
This album has a very Latin tone, with guests like the Colombians Shakira, J Balvin. And most of the texts are in Spanish, why?
If you go to Spotify, the most streamed music is Latin music. And what's great is that, for once, not everything has been translated.
In the 1970s, Julio Iglesias had to sing in English to become famous; in the 1980s, Ricky Martin and his group Menudo had to make English versions of their songs to get attention; the same for Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.
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