The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: will.i.am & Taboo Talk 'East LA, Black Eyed Peas, Childhood, Giving Back To LA Communities, AI +More

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club, will.i.am & Taboo Talk 'East LA, Black Eyed Peas, Childhood, Giving Back To LA Communities, AI. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Oh guys. Will.i.am and Tabbo. Welcome fellas. What's up, what's up, what's up? How you feeling? Oh, it's good to be here. Good to see you. Man, y'all got the new record out of East LA. Yeah. Talk to us about that, man. I'm sorry, I love it. Thank you. It's good to be here, good to see you. Man, y'all got the new record out of East LA. Talk to us about that, man.

I'm sorry, I love it. It's a bop. Thank you. Thank you. I love it. Thank you so much, appreciate the love. Obviously we sampled Carlos Santana, so thank you for clearing that.

It's been sampled a bunch, but there's a part in the song where he says, Maria Maria fell in love with East LA. So I just wanted to highlight that part of the song and shout out the community that's being hit pretty hard by the ice raids. And what's beautiful about that is I also got a text from Wyclef saying he's a producer of the song.

Like, yo, let me get a clip of the video so I can post that. So that meant a lot. But what's going on in our communities is pretty harsh. And I'm all for making sure our borders are safe, but it's just inhumane to go after anybody that looks Latin, that there's people that have been detained that are residents and citizens, there was a person who served in our military that has been detained. I just think that's a pretty bad execution that took a good idea and turned it into a bad idea.

Because they could have been going out to making sure our communities are safer by apprehending criminals, but to go after hardworking folks, people that are working two to three jobs to keep food on their table, their kids going off to four-year colleges. I know this firsthand because of my program,

my foundation, the work that we do, getting kids to go off to four-year colleges. We've witnessed the fear that's been instilled into our neighborhood. So we just wanted to lift up the vibration and celebrate the community. And also as Angelino's, born and raised in East Los Angeles. His mom went to Roosevelt High School,

my mom went to Garfield, so there was always this beautiful rivalry, but at the end of the day it was about uniting and bringing East LA together and standing in solidarity with those folks that are crying out for help, justice. So what does East LA mean to both of you personally? Like is this record more of a tribute?

Is it a time capsule or is it something else? Well for me, it's a thank you. I see you, I love you. I have a lot of just beautiful memories there. I was born and raised there. Spent 25 years of my life there in the projects, dreaming. Was able to move my family, you know, and we migrated out of the projects.

But I still, you know, loved my neighborhood. My program, I got a robotics program right in the middle of the projects that I'm from. My after school program is right down the street from that. My aunt still works at the homeless shelter there. My uncle still works at the park, keeping the kids off the streets. So although we moved out of the projects,

we're still in the heart of the community. So East LA is like an ongoing dialogue of commitment, dedication, to change the vibration of the neighborhood. And for me as a native Mexican kid from LA, it means a lot to be able to not only give back to the community in a sense of championing the idea of solidarity and oneness,

but also to be able to rap in Spanish or Spanglish. Like that was dope for us. Using slang specifically from East LA or Ball Heights. Really loving the vibration and the frequency that is the color and the texture of East Los Angeles. And that's why the video is so colorful. You know, it's crazy. You said something earlier that a lot of people

don't necessarily say. You were saying that you're not mad if they're taking criminals off the street. Taking people that are doing bad criminals off the street, taking people that are doing bad things off the street, but there has to be a process and procedure to do it and to figure out the good from the bad. Is that what you're saying? Yeah.

It's like, you remember during COVID, they did a really good job making sure everybody got swabbed, making sure everybody got vaccinated. And specifically in Los Angeles- They kind of forced it on most people, but. Well, that's a different subject. But there was like a, where you volunteered and drove to the nearest stadium or the arena to get swabbed and vaccinated. And a lot of the folks that did that, not a lot,

a portion of the folks that did that were undocumented. So they know where the undocumented people actually live. They got all the information. But the way that they could have taken to boost our economy by turning undocumented folks to documented folks because these folks that have these jobs, income taxes are taken from their paycheck

and people in Beverly Hills and Brentwood, they know their services are needed. and Brentwood, they know their services are needed. Alta Dena and Malibu Palisades burned down. In reconfiguring these neighborhoods, they know the value of these people's services. And so I just think the way they went about it is horribly wrong. There could have been a better tactic that gave people dignity, gave them the opportunity to become citizens, just the way other countries do.

Just a blanket, just go into a neighborhood, mask people, right? In unmarked vehicles. You're inciting kidnapping because there's no way to be able, like who was that person? You couldn't even describe him. What car was that?

You wouldn't even know if that was a government vehicle. I just think the tactic was just poor. It doesn't reflect America's best. It doesn't reflect, that sounds like a third world country. That doesn't sound like America. I agree. Why was West Side Story the right song to sample for this record?

Oh, because it's at East LA. That part is at East LA, yeah. That's the part, I just love that part. And he said it with so much emotion and I just wanted to just highlight that part Yeah, you know I wanted to highlight you know And and Carlos Santana has always been a hero in the Chicano community me growing up Mm-hmm, you know his brother did an awesome song shout out to kid frost for sampling his brother's record

you know, it's a it's it's a You know, and's a, it's a, you know, and I salute Carlos Santana once again for clearing that record. Yeah. Yeah, and it was beautiful to have like the musical transitions from the 3-0, which we're used to in East Los Angeles.

When you're on a date or you're doing something with family, you see 3-0s in restaurants, and then to go- What is that taboo? I don't know what that is. Threo is like a three. From the guitar? Yes.

Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So that frequency that you first hear, that's a threo. And these three dudes playing usually at restaurants or at different events. And then to be able to have it go into a transition of a cumbia with the undertone of a hip hop bop, as you said, like that's, it's really dope. What's the cumb, was it cumbaya? What'd you say? Cumbia with the undertone of a hip hop bop, as you said, like that's, it's really dope. What's the cumb, was it?

Cumbaya, what'd you say? Cumbia. He did not say cumbaya. What's that? A cumbia is a style of music that originated out of Columbia and then a lot of Central American countries have adopted it. The, hey, gano, a cumbia is really awesome. It's popular, but originated in Colombia. It's like a

It's like this rhythm like, you know reggaeton is And you know Trap has its signature rhythm, you know, there's all these house. Obviously has their four on the floor, but a cumbia is On the percussive that that's a floor. But a cumbia is ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch on the percussive that's a signature rhythm throughout every cumbia. And so we wanted to go from a trio to a cumbia because that's what growing up in East LA felt like. I grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood

which was beautiful. I heard you was the only black family there. There was like, okay, there was the Hamers. We don't know these people, beautiful. I heard you was the only black family there. There was like, okay, there was the Hamers. We don't know these people, Will. No, he's counting on us, he's counting on us, he's counting on how many people. There's the Hamer family, the Rose family, the Walkers, my family, which is pretty, pretty large.

The Ians? No, Canes. Okay. The Canes. The Ians. The Ians. And Clifford. The Ians? No, Canes. Okay. The Canes. The Ians. And Clifford. The I-isms. There's about five black families in our neighborhood. But to all the Mexicans, it was just one black family. You know what I mean? And it was beautiful. It was beautiful growing up there. People say that, you said that people tell you

that you're not from East LA, but you're from Boyle Heights. What's the difference? So growing up, East LA was East LA. But then we, like 20 years ago, they specified like, no, we from Boyle Heights. And Boyle Heights, Boyle Heights is, you know, just east of downtown,

but not as east as East LA. And these two schools, I think really define the rivalry between East LA and Boyle Heights, Roosevelt and Garfield. There's a lot of like, as far as the vibe, it's the same. As far as like, but the high schools, the gangs are totally, totally different. Yeah. But to, to Eastsiders, it's all one thing.

But then there's, there's a lot of people that's gonna be listening, watching this. So I have to be super careful to be like, will this boy, hi, fool, don't be giving up, you know, separating us or like, you know, same world together, but right now we all together. Right now we all together, right? You know, we talk about, you know, black and the Latin culture a lot, especially in New York, right? It's different. It's more Puerto Rican and Dominicans, right? And... And he's Dominican by the way. I'm not Dominican, I'm black.

He says I'm Dominican. You look Dominican. Everybody says that. I'm black. I'm Dominican, right? And I'm not Dominican, I'm black. He says I'm Dominican. You look Dominican. Everybody says that. I'm black. I'm fully black. But you know, growing up, it was kind of like, when I say us versus them, and not us as in, it was the blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans who stood together.

We stuck together, right? We clubbed, we partied together. It was against. So it's nothing to hear somebody Puerto Rican say, nigger, you know, that's my nigga, that's to the other. So a Mexican OT recently said that people had a problem with it.

It's different here because we didn't grow up with the Mexican community, we grew up with Puerto Rican and Dominican. So Fat Joe saying nigga was never a problem, J Lo saying it, we didn't think, oh my God, it was how we grew up, especially in Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, whatever. How was it growing up in LA?

Because people were disturbed by it at one time, but I'm like, that might be the same thing as how we grew up here. It depends, like, Norteños, they say they drop embalms all the time. Who? Northerners, northern people from the north. Yeah, he was like,

Norteños, I was like, I don't know who Northerners are. Who's the northerner? So, Northern California, like, Latinos, I don't know who the Latinos are. The North. The North. The Northside. Northern California. Like, Vallejo and, you know, Richmond, and they, they embalm all the time. Sureños. Sureños. Southern, Southern Cali.

They don't really do that. Our manager, Polo, he be dropping it crazy. He ain't here though. Polo's Mexican. Polo's Mexican, like, yeah. Um, here though What was Mexican Polos Mexican like okay? Yeah, so it all depends on what which part of California you talk about But because there's more black and Latin Communities and in Northern, California where it's tightly

in Northern California where it's tightly mixed together, I could see why that has a tolerance. In Southern California, there has been a division between blacks and latins, highly because of prisons. So the prisons have separated blacks and latins. And so there was this notion that, wow, you survived. How did you get, how did you survive being one of the only black families in all Mexican neighborhoods?

For me, it was, it was, it was awesome. There's a lot of black people in Southern California that probably had a tougher time. But for my family, it was, and the other black families in our neighborhood and Aliso Pico, Aliso Village, It was awesome. And Tabu? Well, growing up in Dogtown Projects, which is close to where he grew up, and then I moved to Rosemead, California, it was predominantly Asian and Mexican. So we didn't really have to worry about that.

You know, it was more like, you know, the Mexican-Asian war, because it was heavy in the 80s, like the Wachings versus Bartlett Street or all these gangs that were in the San Gabriel Valley. But I always knew that there was this divide and this separation. So when Black Eyed Peas was formed, it was like, yo, hip hop brought us together. It was not a cultural thing.

It's not like, oh, Tabs Native American and Mexican, and Wills Black and Apples Filipinos. More like, nah, we hip-hop kids We grew up on Dayline tribe. So that whole essence of just like, you know Standing together for hip-hop b-boying MC in it was that thing So that the word was never really like a thing for us It's like you had your in your neighborhood you you got a lot of flack. Oh, because I hung out with the blacks. With the blacks.

When we like ate, the fool hangs out with the blacks. Oh yeah, so my son's mom, Josh, my oldest son, his mom was black. So I got a lot of flack, like, hey, you're living the taboo lifestyle. You have a black girlfriend. That's where the name came from? Yep, the taboo lifestyle, yeah.

So I was like, yeah, well, if I'm living the taboo lifestyle. Yeah, so so I was like, yeah Well, if I'm living the taboo lifestyle, I am taboo. Yeah, so then that whole energy came about like yo I don't I'm down with the blacks and down with the Filipinos down with the Mexicans the Asians and that's that that Connection that I had growing up. Yeah, how does um, like when you talk about East LA You know y'all have mentioned in all the different types of music that y'all were influenced by that went into this record. How did that show up in y'all musical identity before? Oh, oh, oh. So if you listen to like songs like Eresis on our first album, if you listen to like songs like Latin Girls on our third album,

or people that we've collaborated with like Juanes and Joanne Sebastian. Debbie Nova. Debbie Nova. Debbie Nova, Sergio Mendes. If you see records on like Translation where we went and dove into like Reggaeton or when I collaborated with Daddy Yankee like on his first record. We've always been like fusing Latin rhythms.

Like our bio was in 1998, was like why is Black IPs different? We were like we infuse Latin rhythms because of our upbringings. Google it, Google it. But yeah, if Google has it. And it was dope being able to drop Spanish verses back then.

So I was dropping like, we did a song called Release. And I was like, es asi, si asi, musica es para ti, para te, para te, si tu quieres entender, muevele, muevele para hombre y mujer. Asi es, eso es, ahora si, puedes ver, mirame, voy a hacer lo que vas a conocer, esto es all for you. Spanish tongue is pink and true. So that was like-

You been talking that shit. You don't know what he said. I could have said this shit sucks. This fucking shows not. We would always we would always be like, you know, tab like, right. You know, you got to dig in. You got to go on your Latin bag, bro, on this one. Like, that's it's really like honing to our individuality. Cultural differences, you know, like, let's really like hone into our individuality, cultural differences.

You know, like, you the Latin, Native dude, you know what I'm saying, I'm the Black dude, from an all-Mexican neighborhood. Apple is like super Filipino, straight from the Philippines, they've only been speaking English for like 20 minutes. And you know, that's why Peas is like super international. I'll just let Fergie just be white. Like you know, just be white. This is before we even met Fergie.

And so Black Eyed Peas, we... Stop dude, stop. That's the way she said it, that was funny. But our biggest audience outside of, we have more success in Mexico than the States. Really? Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like we could play like multiple stadiums at our height.

We was playing at Steka Stadium. We was playing stadiums all throughout El Salvador and you know, Guatemala, playing at Steka Stadium. We was playing stadiums all throughout El Salvador and Guatemala, Chile. Brazil. Brazil. Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela. Like, yeah, like that's where we would go to those places. That's the reason why the only stadium we played in America was in Miami.

We didn't play no stadiums in the States. Really? At the height of our career. At the height of our career, we never played a stadium in America. Just in Miami. In our mind, Black Eyed Peas was just big and that's all y'all did was stadiums. Yeah, outside of America. Wow. I don't know why I could have sworn they did the garden. Like all. No, no, we did, we did. That's arenas, arenas. Arenas. Arenas, yes. Arenas like 20, 30,000. Stadiums is 80,000. So no MetLife, none of those.

No, we didn't do that, just in Miami. But we was able to do 83,000 in France. Three times. Three times, in a row. Yeah, Japan, Korea. Did that bother you, that you were able to do it there and not necessarily here? Did you wanna do it here or you didn't care?

Success, you know, it didn't matter to you. No Can't nitpick be like no cuz some people want to do home like I want home like that, you know home is earth Okay, and we've always had It's true. We've always had the mentality like apples from the Philippines Our goal is less perform in the Philippines. We gotta go back to Apples motherland. So it meant international. The idea was we are gonna take this international.

Yeah. You know Will, being one of the only black people growing up in that Mexican community in Taboo, you know, getting flack, I guess, from your own community about being with a black woman. Did y'all have any identity issues growing up? No. Hip hop did a really good job that was like,

hey, Willie rap, don. Hey, rap about the neighborhood, they sing. Or like, hey, that fucker dance is dope, hmm. And so, because- Did they get mad at your access? That what? That what? That last one? Not even on. They're like, because, did they get mad at your access? What was the last one? Not even homes. They were like, hey, that fool gets it, dog.

You come to all the parties with his home. But that's how I talk growing up. That's how I talk growing up. If you would've seen me 15 years old, hey, that's what it was. What did your mother and pop say when you came home talking like that? Oh, my, what you talking about? My mom talks like that. My mom don't talk like that. What about your cousins? Who's in the hood hood and you came around with the hey honk.

So I just took my mom we had a every every summer my mom comes with me to Europe on tour for the past like eight years. So we were just there. We were in Turkey and France this summer. So my mom's like, hey Willie look, I got some pictures. So my mom's showing me pictures. I'm like, where's that? She's like, oh that's Maria's quinceanera.

I'm like, when was Maria's quinceanera? Willie that was last week. I'm like, why was May Graz Quinceanera? Willie, that was last week. I'm like, why didn't I do it? Why didn't I go and perform at it? Willie, cause y'all was out here. So a Quinceanera for those that's listening is like a Latin. Sweet 16. Sweet 16.

So, you know, my cousin wanted to make sure her daughter had a Quinceanera because she's half black, half Mexican. A lot of my nieces and nephews and cousins are half black, half Mexican. And half black, half Mexican, they end up looking Dominican. I call it homemade Dominican. Homemade Dominican? Yes, we got homemade Dominican. Yes, yes.

In our neighborhood. So a lot of our niece, my cousins look like you. You ain't Dominican. Yes, he is. I'm not Dominican, I'm black. They look like, you know what I mean? They look like El Alpha. Just married a Mexican man.

I did. You did? You look like my cousin Trisha. Okay, thank you. Y'all could look like sisters. Absolutely, thank you. My daughter is Mexican and black. That's dope.

Yeah, so I have a homemade Dominican. You got a homemade Dominican? That's a dope mix. I have a homemade Dominican because Chris ain't Dominican. No, no, no. Aren't you just listening to the story? Black and Mexicans, they kids look like Dominican,

therefore they're homemade. Yeah, homemade, homemade, y, you know what I mean? So Envy might be homemade then. I'm not Dominican. Oh no, your daddy ain't Dominican. Yeah, your daddy ain't Dominican. Black, my, what's your head? And here's the reason why.

If you think about what's, that island on the other side of DR is Haiti. So people look like us. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so obviously if you have black, any African descendant, this is gonna go, this not gonna go right to the Dominican community. They're gonna be like, we're not African descendants.

We're not black. Which is a different- Conversation. Conversation. But, if you unpack it all, they, you know, ancestors look like me and got you you know we look alike yeah we could be in the same family yeah envy have you guys noticed ice out here like the way it is in LA oh yeah absolutely not like

LA though no not like LA but yeah like you see him over in Jersey heavy in Jersey heavy you see that's a Puerto Heavy. In Jersey Heavy, you see it like- Puerto Ricans and Dominicans? Dominicans, yeah. You see, and they're all online, and they'll send out a text, hey, just let you know Ice is in Paterson today. Ice is in this town. Ice is in this town.

And yeah, they're running up and grabbing people. NB never used to let people know he not Dominican more than he do now. Before, he used to kind of embrace it. He's a liar. That's a fact. He did a whole interview with TMZ, and the headline is like, I am black.

I'm like, what? I'll show you the headline. I am black. That's because of him, Simon. He plays around all the time. He says I'm Dominican. He was even going to say, I'm going to do a ride along and call ICE to see if they grab you.

He was going to do that. Shut up. Crazy. DJ MP Like he's gonna do that. Shalom. Deja Empty confirms he's 100% black. Why? Because you keep saying I'm Dominican. Why? Because you keep saying I'm Dominican. What's the point of that?

I won a Dominican award too, but I'm not Dominican, I'm black. I won a Dominican award. I don't get it. What about you Taboo? Do you have any identity issues? So growing up in Los Angeles is a mosaic of cultures. I don't get it. What about you Taboo, do you have any identity issues? So growing up in Los Angeles is a mosaic of cultures. So I just felt comfortable moving through understanding and loving and appreciating,

learning about all these different cultures. Growing up, dude, I'm native and Mexican. So on one end my grandmother was connected to the Jerome roots, which is the native side, and on another end I got my Mexican Chicano roots, right, growing up in LA. My Uncle Chris is definitely somebody worth talking about. He was the kind of guy that used Confederate flags as window curtains, lived in a trailer with an ex-con and a retired stripper, left loaded machine guns laying around, drank a bottle of whiskey a night, claimed he could kill a man with his bare hands,

drove a garbage truck for a living, spoke fluent Spanish with a thick southern accent, and is currently buried in a crypt alongside the founding families of Panama. Listen to the Uncle Chris podcast to hear all about him and a whole lot more. This collection of stories will make you laugh, it'll make you cry, and if I do my job right, they'll let you see the world and your place in it in a whole lot more. This collection of stories will make you laugh, it'll make you cry, and if I do my job right,

they'll let you see the world and your place in it in a whole new way. I can't wait to tell you all about Uncle Chris. Listen now to Uncle Chris on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Kelly Harnett spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. I'm 100% innocent.

While behind bars, she learned the law from scratch. Because oh God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer. And as she fought for herself, she also became a lifeline for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. So many of these women had lived the same stories. I said, were you a victim of domestic violence? And she was like, yeah.

But maybe Kelly could change the ending. I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? I'm going to be the first one to do that. This is the story of Kelly Harnett, a woman who spent 12 years fighting not just for her own freedom, but her girlfriends too. I think I have a mission from God to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fuelled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the

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Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like great shoes, great books take you places through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts. Every week I sit down with your favorite book lovers, authors, celebrities, book talkers, and more to explore the stories that shape us, on the page and off. I've been reading every Reese's Book Club pick, deep diving book talk theories,

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So it was a tough, heavy lift to like bring other nationalities to the house sometimes. But at the end of the day it was like, this is who I am and so I'm gonna be, I'm gonna live this taboo lifestyle, people rock with it or not, it's all good, this is who I am, I stand on business. You know what's dope too,

like I was reading the comments on YouTube and there's a couple of people that are like, hey Willie, your mom raised me at the park. My mom took care of, you know. So my mom in the projects was the mom that took care of people's kids. And so there's a lot of people that are on that when I travel out there, when I'm out in the streets, when I on the comments on the videos that are like, your mom took care of me, your mom raised me, your mom helped raise my kids.

And so the love in the community was real. The only time I, I wouldn't say it was an identity issue, my mom was real strict growing up. Like I couldn't really go outside and play too far from where she gets in line of sight. And so, and then a lot of my friends growing up, their parents were kind of like, you know, free willy. They could go out and do whatever they wanted.

And so I would always be like, damn, my mom is mean. I wish my mom was like Andy's mom. I wish my mom was like Lalo's mom. But now that I got older, I'm so happy that my mom was strict. You know, rest in peace, Lalo. Rest in peace. That I grew up with.

But yeah, my mom was strict. And they would be like, where you going, Willie? Your mom told you to get a switch, huh? So my mom would be like, go get a switch. She'd make sure that I went and got a switch by where people were playing. I thought that was just some down south shit.

No, no, no. My mom was born in the south. Okay, okay. She was born in Louisiana. My grandma was born in Picayune, Mississippi and then brought a lot of that southern raising and how she disciplined us. She kept that ongoing in how she raised us. She'd be like, get your butt out there

and go give me a switch from over there where they at. So I had to go get a switch, and your mom's gonna hit you, huh? And your mom, me, oh. So they would follow me just to go see me get disciplined. Yeah, yeah. And then the ill thing about it, if you picked the wrong switch,

like you came back, go back and get another one. That taught you a lot about consequences and accountability though at a very young age. Not as considered abuse. Yeah, it's a different time period. You know, speaking about moms, my mom sent us a nice text about the song. She said, I'm proud of you and Willie

taking it back to the neighborhood. My memories of growing up in East LA start with the music playing loud and watching Chicano culture evolve and take over the streets. I never thought that my son would bring the music to my childhood neighborhood. Love you forever, mom.

Wow. And my mom's text was, I cannot believe I made a trailblazer, a way maker, an influencer, an innovator. That's my Willie. So. Wow. I love that. Yeah. You look like a Willie too, man.

Huh? You do look like Willie. What took y'all so long to create a song, I guess, paying homage to this particular community? That's a really good question. It is. I tell you, I tell you, so if up until this point, if you did a record it would be it would be gang alignment. My neighborhood is, you know, we know the gang in the neighborhood. And I didn't want to make like a record

that can be misconstrued. We misconstrued as like gang alignment. I didn't wanna make a record that, that was like street, you know, and celebrating, you know, the conditions of life. And so now the record is about it's urgent. If we'll have songs like Latin girls, we'll have songs that that that shout out, you know, the lifestyle of where we were raised.

But it was all fantasy music. So using your imagination. Most people like want to keep a real living reality. I wanted to stay fantasy. using your imagination. Most people like wanna keep a real living reality. I wanted to stay fantasy. I wanted to make music that was like different from, you know, the conditions of life. I don't wanna relive that.

So music, especially De La Soul, Trap Girl Quest, I was escape from my reality. And I think if I look at, you know, that was a heavy question because it makes you reflect on like, hey, why didn't we do that? Why didn't we have like a East LA record in 1998, 99, 2000, 2001, 2002? I think it's been two decades, you know, plus. So why now? And the reason now is because the urgency

and the need for, you know, changing the vibration and, you know, thanking the community and at the same time, letting the community know that we got your back. There's a lot of folks that don't wanna speak up because there's a lot of politics on speaking up. There's a lot of folks that remain silent because of like, what is it gonna mean?

There's a lot of, you don't know who owns what. There's a, you could be signed in a contract, you could be doing something with a certain organization and that organization owns things. You don't know who owns what. So for that, we've already had a career and now's the time to do that. If there was a time, it would be right now, more so than then. And I would also add that we are from the cloth of self-destruction, Boogie Down production, Miss Melody, Doug E. Fresh, MC Lyte, all that era. And then you had, we're all in the same game on the West Coast with Young MC, Eazy E, that record. So we've always been pillars

of activism, but movement with like songs like Where's the Love, right? Where we advocate for people that may not have the same platform that we have and in this situation it was Raza. It was people that we grew up with. It was the voices that didn't have the platform and it was our love letter to our childhood but also to stand in solidarity with those people also also, there's You could talk about the community or you could be about the community and go to the community and bring solutions to the community Mm-hmm, so I'm more a solution orientated like I don't have to talk about the community to go out there and and you know have success, come back to the community and build robotics programs, college

prep programs. And then during COVID, when we realized that when people were working from home, when they were educating themselves from home, they didn't have access to the internet, go back to the community, provide free wifi for the projects so kids could learn from their home. Because we realized that they were putting themselves in harm's way when they had to go up to an area where they had free wifi. So we brought, so my foundation in collaboration

with WeLink brought free wifi to the projects. And so you could talk about it or you could do about it. And so I, we always wanted to, I always wanted to do about it. And now it's time to talk about it and do about it at the same time. That's dope, I did the same thing in South Carolina. Same exact thing during quote.

That's dope. Because I usually do like the book bag drives and everything, but like during that time, I'm like, yo, all of these kids are having to go to like fast food restaurants to get Wi-Fi. And so I did the same exact thing, got Wi-Fi for this colony house of projects in Columbus, South Carolina. And then the visual that goes along with it as well, like even your heartfelt message at the end, well, I thought that was really dope because specifically Boyle Heights have been like, they've been going through a lot, you know, with the LA Times, you know, with Like even your heartfelt message at the end. Well, I thought that was really dope because specifically

Boyle Heights have been like they've been going through a lot, you know with the LAPD officer shootings and everything like that. I don't know if y'all heard but it was an unfortunate death Rest in peace to Jeremy Flores. He and his family they just they Underwent they they underwent like some crazy trouble right with somebody called the police on him because he was driving a white van and They said that they that he had a rifle and then the police came and they killed him you know what I mean like so this is a Great tribute to them and just just this song just alone the visual as well shines light on

East LA and some of those projects and communities because they really really need like like some healing right now. Yeah. So what y'all doing is great. Now is this a Black Eyed Peas song or a Will.i.am and Taboo song? It's Will.i.am and Taboo. Okay. We struggle with that. Like is this Black Eyed Peas? Oh yeah. and I'm like hey why don't we do something that we haven't done where you know we we know what Voltron's like but if we could like you know highlight different clusters of what we are collectively that means a tab in Apple song will come a me me and Apple song, you know, doing it like that on this next phase.

But I'm in solo mode, I have records coming out. And I wanted to put out as much human-made music as possible because- Hey, I take an over like that damn what yes it's it's really dope yeah yeah so I want to that sounds crazy to even say yeah I want to make as much human made music as possible yeah damn how do you feel you know people got on timberland when he signed his first AI artist and people were mad and said, you're taking the jobs from regular artists,

taking the creativity away, taking, you know, the fact, what are your thoughts on it? I think it's the way the environment, the proximity of what Timberland was around as he was doing the AI music. So a couple years before that he was wanting to sign people by having them submit music. And then the thing that he signed as an AI and not a human, I could see why that ruffled feathers. Like, yo, I thought you just did this campaign. And then the situation with the dude and the beat,

it's a, there's a lot of noise around it. Had, for example, we did some version of that where we're like, the new member of the Black Eyed Peas is an AI when we were about to do Vegas. Um, but, but like I said, I think it's the proximity because he was adjacent to, you know, like a call out, you know, magnetizing the community to send music. And then the thing he signed is an AI. But other than that, if you remove that out of the way,

there's no, there's no, there's no, it's no different of lending your voice to a cartoon. For example, I did Madagascar 2, that hippo, who's the hippo? I did a bird on Rio, one and two, who the hell is Pedro? So it's using your imagination and building character. Mickey Mouse is the OG AI character, outlive freakin' Walt.

So there's nothing wrong with av know Avatars or you know alter egos You know, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just you got to be careful in the environment and the and the Environment that you that you do it in What happened with Vegas? Could you mention Vegas the buyers? I was affected by the fires to be honest with you I'm an El Tadina Pasadena area and I was displaced for a long time. I didn't have a home. Wow. Faxed. Yeah so we had a we'll revisit that now that you know you know people are safe people can live. Yep. Did you lose everything? I had to get rid of

every internal damage was bad so we had to get rid of every internal damage was bad So we had to get rid of everything internally structural structurally. We okay, but our surrounding area was devastated So, you know my hearts go out to yeah my kid both of my son's preschool burned down Um, so my heart goes out to altadena malibu palisades and all the people affected. Dude, our year started off fucked up, 2025. So to be able to have come back in the summer and have healing, as you said, with this song and this whole idea of how can we be of service and help and do our part to advocate, like that's a blessing for us as well. We made it here, I feel like it's two years so far. I know.

It's crazy because it feels like culturally LA is having such a great moment, right? Not a moment because y'all are LA, but like, you know, what Kendrick did well culturally, but then it's like societally, the fire, the ice raves, it's like, god damn. Yeah. What is 3252? I noticed that LAFC where the community they made, you know, the team did an awesome job making a space for the community of Angelenos to really celebrate, you know, it brought a tribal experience to sporting. The only place we actually find that is outside of the states, Rio Madrid or the Brazilian football team or Germany. You know, you see this like a different level of fandom.

That's tribal. So 3252, I wanted to shout that out because I go to the games and that section is, you know, a lot of the people from the community that I know, people like Boyle Heights, they got the Boyle Heights scarves and the Boyle Heights flags or different cut of hay. You know, the whole East Side East Siders are there in the 3252, like this is 3,552 seats. Got you.

Is really what it is. Like with the Seahawks, how they have the 12th man, like that. Got you. Okay. Did you, have you bounced back, Taboo, from your house? We did, yeah. Okay, okay, okay.

We moved in, fortunately, but still, we have 800 trash trucks taking the debris out We probably won't be up and running as a community as far as like good for a couple years Some of the lots are being sold Some of the lots are being taken over because they don't have insurance some of the people you got to understand, bro These are marginalized communities on the other side of Alta Dena a lot of black families and Mexican families that didn't have you know The proper insurance they've been living there for years and they were affected by the fires

and unfortunately the city comes in and takes their home because they can't pay for that lot. Damn, damn. Is this song gonna be part of a bigger project or is this just like a one off statement? Oh no, it's part of my solo project. Okay. One of the three.

So I got a all pop record. That's like a big, big type of records. Then I got like a just a. Like a 90s influence. Boom bap. Record and then I have just like a fusion project. This is the fusion project.

Now, just so that you collaborated with Mercedes. Yeah. Yeah, he did that. I tried to get it for last car show. I tried. Oh, you tried. I tried. Damn. Yeah, so we got two pieces of technology inside Mercedes. One, a sound drive that takes all the sensor data

Yeah. and aims at sensor data to a sound generation platform that allows a driver to remix, reimagine songs just by driving. And then I got this AI radio that's in Mercedes vehicles. And because of that, Qualcomm, we just partnered up with Qualcomm and we just married our systems onto Chip. So they will get us in more OEM vehicles. So I go to India in two weeks to announce our partnership with three OEM auto manufacturers out there in India.

What's awesome is one of our kids that joined my program, there's a kid that comes from the same project as me. He joined my program when he was like in the ninth grade, 10th grade. He then went to school for computer science. He then graduated. And now he's like one of the in leadership implementing our systems in Mercedes. I'm just really proud of his dedication, commitment, and we rely on him for his talents.

But just go to show that people from the same projects can align and bring the best out of each other. So really salute his growth and now leadership at the company. I love that you do that. That's really dope. It's great when I sit here and I listen to you and Taboo Talk man,

and I think about, you know, the other members, Filipino, with all the different coaches in the group. How did y'all land on the name Black Eyed Peas? Cause Black Eyed Peas is synonymous with black folks. Yeah, that's it. I mean, that didn't come from this man. Woo!

And on that note, thank you, ladies and gentlemen. You have it here. Hey, yo! Well, I am. Hey, yo! Shabbo. I love you. Shit.

How'd y'all land on that name? I just, I just, my grandma used to, you know, force me, not force me, but like, boy you ain't getting up off that table till you finished in Black Eyed Peas. And they were dry, like. And I didn't, I'm like, I'm not a fan of Black Eyed Peas. I love Black Eyed Peas.

I know, I'm not either, man. Over rice is good. It just appeased by itself, like, I mean, sometimes it's good, but the way I had it growing up, it was I. And so the green beans and black eyed peas, when they get cold, I ain't trying to have that. And so my grandma would be like,

you ain't getting up off that table till you finish the black eyed peas. So for me, it just meant like, don't stop till you're done. Like, you can't get up till you finish something. And no matter how hard it is, no matter what it is, if you got a dream, if you were set to do something, you gotta see it, you gotta complete it.

And it's good luck. You know, it's a good luck. And so, good luck and, good luck and you know good vibes Yeah, what you magnetize or what you attract and also black eyed peas is soul food And we always felt like our music feeds the soul Yeah, it would been weird being like okay cuz you're Mexican is made. Let's name the group Beans and rice Arroz con frijoles

Beans and rice? Nah. Rice and beans ain't gonna work. Arroz con frijoles? Nah. Rice and beans might have hit. Rice and beans? Nah. Black eyed peas?

Listen, black eyed peas probably would have been whack if y'all didn't make it. That's true. That's true. But, but. Did somebody ever ask you to change the name though? Did somebody ever like black eyed peas? Nah, nah, nah, because the idea of soul food is dope.

We feed the soul with our music. Absolutely. And you know, there was two groups that were out that was naming out the after food like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm like yo they got Smash The Pumpkins. I'm like yo they got food names bro. Well let's get into the joint right now.

Let's get into it. You want to introduce it? Yo what's up this is Will.I.Am. Chabu. And this is a new record that we got called East L.A. That's right and we appreciate you guys for joining us Thank you guys. Thank you for having us all the time. So breakfast club. Come on. Let's get into it Wake that ass up in the morning breakfast club

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