Will.i.am Didn’t Care For Biggie and Tupac Growing Up: ‘That Kind of Music Doesn’t Speak to My Spirit’
Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am has been a musician for over two decades. And although he’s most known for his work as a hip-hop artist, he wasn’t a fan of two of rap’s biggest names — The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur — while they were alive.
will.i.am was discovered by Eazy-E
Will.i.am launched his music career in the late 1980s alongside fellow rapper Allan Pineda, also known as apl.de.ap. Together with fellow student Dante Santiago, the trio began performing around Los Angeles, and were soon discovered by N.W.A. rapper Eazy-E.
He signed them to his record label, Ruthless Records, in 1992.
He wasn’t a huge Biggie or Tupac fan
Will.i.am spoke about his music taste in his youth in a 2021 interview on Hip-Hop Confessions.
“When people say Tupac and Biggie, I’m such a Tribe Called Quest [and] De La Soul head that I don’t like Tupac and Biggie,” he admitted. “That kind of music doesn’t speak to my spirit. I like Boogie Down Productions, KRS-One … If it’s like Tupac or Biggie? It’s KRS-One. Why those two?”
He went on to note that he respected both artists deeply and would never want to discredit their contributions to music.
“If it’s Tupac and Biggie, I don’t hold them up like that. I hold Eric B. and Rakim like that,” he said. “Tupac’s dope – don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I don’t think he’s dope. It spoke to the projects. My escape is De La/Tribe out the projects. It took me out the projects while I was still in the projects.”
“It took me out the projects physically, as far as being able to reach my dreams, that was my path out,” he continued. “And it took me out of the projects as far as while I was in the projects, the worlds is painted for me. It kept me safe while I was in the projects. Had I loved Tupac and Biggie while I was in the projects, I probably would have been stuck in the projects still.”
Tupac Shakur was killed in September 1996, and his onetime friend Biggie Smalls died six months later in March 1997.
He formed The Black Eyed Peas in the mid-1990s
After Eazy-E’s death in 1995, the group changed their name to the Black Eyed Pods, and Will replaced Santiago with Jaime Gomez, better known by his stage name Taboo. They changed their name again in 1997 to the Black Eyed Peas and began recording their debut album, Behind the Front, with vocals provided by soul singer Kim Hill. Hill remained with the group for their second album, 2000’s Bridging the Gap.
Will eventually launched his solo career with his debut solo album Lost Change in 2001. The group then underwent a rebrand, with Fergie taking on the role of being the group’s singer. They released their first album of this new era, Elephunk, in 2003, followed by the smash album Monkey Business in 2005.
