It's been five years since The Black Eyed Peas released its last album The Beginning, but ahead of its new album later this year, today (July 17), will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo reunited to release a new single and music video for the hip-hop tribute track "Yesterday."
Fergie is notably absent from the new single and music video, which pays tribute to and samples rap classics such as N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton," Wu-Tang Clan's "Killa Bees," Beastie Boys "Paul Revere" and more.
With Fergie absent, the three rappers of The Black Eyed Peas are free to return to their roots, rapping with a rough edge that is completely absent from the pop smash hits "I Gotta Feeling," "Boom Boom Pow" and "Imma Be." Typically, the line "Black Eyed Peas are hard as hell" would bring on laughs, but in this ode to old school rap, the lyric almost makes you forget about "My Humps." (Key word: almost.)
To fit in with the song's deep love of hip-hop, the music video for "Yesterday" features will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo in record store. As the three emcees sift through the vinyl for sale, they appear on select record covers, recreating the artwork almost by magic.
"Yesterday" is the first new song to be released from The Black Eyed Peas since 2010's The Beginning. At the top of this year, will.i.am promised that there would be new music this year to celebrate BEP's 20 years together and that the tracks would reflect their history as a band, which explains how "Yesterday" came to be.
"We're going to have new music. We'll have a bunch of new experiences. I don't want to call them albums, but we'll have some experiences and a bunch of stuff to get the Pea Bodies and the folks that supported us and got us to this point," he said in January. "We'll make music for them and we'll just reflect on the dream. The initial dream we had, June 1995."
