Back in 2005, William Adams (will.i.am) of The Black Eyed Peas, via the BEP's online forum, wrote a set of very touching entries (the copy below is NOT edited, it was the ORIGINAL text by will.i.am himself) on the struggles of his best friend and co-band mate Allen Pineda (apl.de.ap) in their early years. They've come a long way since...
PART 1
it took 13 years...
and he did it...
nov i think of 1989 allen pineda shows up in my living room right off the plane from philipines...
my mom tells me to stay home from school for a couple of days, so my uncle (faye) friend get enrolled in school...
i was real upset...
for more than one reason...
1. i was becoming pretty popular in the 9th grade...
2. i had a little rap group and dance crew at paul revere jr. high school, and i love going to school to practice...
3. my 1st girlfriend ever...(carmen perez) wow...she look like a 15 year old jennifer lopez...(i was already about the latin girls in the 9th grade)
and 4. carmen perez...
anyway...
i was upset when i had to take a little under a week off school...
little did i know the bomd that was going to help add positivity to the world is geeting ready to happen when i walked down the stairs...
and wow was i shocked...
this dude was like so out of style, and wow!!!....i mean peewee herman meets belky from (perfect strangers)...
and he didnt know any english...
i was like wow...
this is going to be a blast...
so that was it, the starting of the black eyed peas...
1989, trying to communicate with someone who doesnt speak english, and not in sync with the times...
and from his prospective...
trying to communicate with someone who doesnt speak tagolog, illicado, or papanga...and to him not in sync with anything he's accustomed to...
so that being said that was the begining of the whole idea of black eyed peas...
understanding differences from colture...
and finding one single thread that will link them...
for me and apl, the thing that linked us was hip hop...
that was what made the week livable...
he showed me what dances people did in the phillipines, and i showed him what dances we did in the states...
and it was history from there...
16 years...
16 years...
wow...
it seems like yesterday when apl would be crying right befor we would go to sleep...
i mean think about it...
15 years old...
you just got seperated from your family..
a huge family at that in the phillipines...
your mom, brothers, sisters, granda, grandpa, home cooking, farming, friends, the country...
and your thrown to a city, with one dude you have as a friend, that doesnt speak your language...
i mean he must of been scared as hell...
wow...
going to school as a 15 year old...
not knowing elnglish...
taking esl classes..(english as a second language)
people teasing you...
my mom was strict on me...
the only dude she let me hang with was apl...
so heres how it started...
on the weekend apl and i would hang out at the mall (glendale galleria)
we would practice dancing on the weekends...
his english was getting better by the 1st year...
i would be writing raps...rapping dancing...
and this dude would be reading the dictionary...
i think thats why his vocabulary is much bigger than mine...
"just pay more attention to the songs...
his vocab is pretty large...
anyway...
we would go out in glendale and dance against other dancers...
we formed a dance crew (tribal nation)
i would rap against other rappers...
and it was turning out that me and apl were getting pretty popular in glendale...
but that wasnt enough...
when we would go to sleep after the clubs and parties we would say things like...
"imagine if we didnt have to wait in line"
"if they just let us in like to cool dudes".?.
hA HA...
we seen some of those "cool dudes" recently...
funny...
but anyway...
we eventually didnt have to wait in line in glendale...
it took about 5 months and some victories over wack dance crews...
we served alot of ancers to win our rapid club entrance...
but people thought me and apl was stuck up...
they thought we were to cool or something...
when actually i was shy as shit...and apl was even more shy, cuz he couldnt speak english that well...his accent was way fobby...
but we eventually started socializing with a girl hip hop dance crew by the name of "asian pursuation"...
for every male crew, you had to have a girl crew you were down with...
so they became out homie crew, and that really made tribal nation popular in glendale and now the surrounding valleys...
apl went from focusing heavey on school to the last year paying more attention to what we built...
2 years of building popularity and skill recognition in l.a, glerndale, san gabriel valey, silmar, vanuys, noth ridge...
but we never went to hollywood...
untill 199...
we didnt like the hollywood crowd because the "drugs"...
we were so anti cigeretes, drugs, alcohol back then...
wow...
we actually wouldnt let people in our crew if they did anything...
our crew was dope man, the sickest dancers was down with us...
undefeated in a hip hop battle...
undefeated in a rhyme battle...
and then we went to hollywood...
serving crews left to right...
"BUD BUNDY" from (married with children) had a club called balistix...
and that became our home...
didnt have to wait...
just walked in...
and all this time apl knew a little bit of english...
enough to have a conversaton though...
but anyway...
you know that guy "RANDY JACKSON" from (american idol)
along time ago he offered me a record deal...
i was 17...
i was rapping at balistix...and he saw me there...
offered me a deal by myself...
i said i have a crew...
he said i just want you...
i said no!!!...
if it aint me and my crew no deal...
so we didnt sign...
but a week later "EAZY E" from (ruthless records) signed us...
and apl only knew a little but of english...
but so what...
1992 we signed that deal...
apl only in america for 3 years...
and he had a record contract...
his dad "joe ben hudgens" was happy..
but told him..
"dont let it effect you eductaion"
and it did...
he practice rapping and dancing, and reading the dictionary so much..
by 1993 apl's english was great enoguh to start recording...
and we started recording with eazy e in 1993..
think about this...
50CENT, GAME, JAY Z...
all these gangster rappers never had the chance to record with the creator of ganster rapp...
wow...
GAME has a tatoo of eazy e on his arm...
and necer recorded with eazy...
WE DID...
ha ha...
on a song called marry mother ****ing christmas...
man when that song came out we were so popular in hollywood...
and we were still in the 12th grade...
and apls accent was still thick like clam chouder...
but from there we knew what we can accoplish...
apls dad was furrious though...
because apl decided not to go to college for enginereing...
but instead "rap"
apls dad was like...
"i didnt adopt you and bring you to the usa to become a (rapper)...
which i understand his feelings...
so apls dad pulled me aside and said...
and i remember this day like yesterday...
this is what you started, you destract my plans...
from now one you are responsible...
this is your dream...
but i can no longer support this...
i planned apl to come to the staes get and education, go to college, get a job, an support his family...
and now he wants to rap...
from this piont on if thats what you guys decide to do, your on your own...
and at 18, apl was in that states pretty much by himself...
just me and him..
eveyday since 1990 we pretty much have spoken or been in contact with eachother...
we werent scared we were signed to a lable our dreams were moving forward...
apl had an apartment...
we were cool...
we got paid...
we were recording songs...
we were doing shows...
we were meeting people...
people were noticing...
and then...
the worse...
2 years after gradution from high school...
no college, no plans other than music...
eazy e dies...
and it hit us..
what do we do...??...
apls dad was right...
apls not even a citizen...
APLS NOT EVEN A CITIZEN...
he had never finished his citizen paper work...
you see the plan apls dad had was graduate high school go to college, and around that time the paperwork for cual citizen ship will be finished...
that plan my friends was shot to hell with 2 turntables and a microphone...
so what were we to do...
we had no more money, no more recording...
we truned to friends...
apl slept on peoples couches, garages, closets...
i lived at home with my mom...
but i always was determined...
apls dad said "this is your dream its up to you"
and i couldnt let his nightmare come true...
so we hustled and kept our dream going...
recording at peeoples houses we met in hollwood...
"BRIAN AUSTON GREEN" from (90210)
he let us record at his house...
old high school friends "STEFAN GORDY" (barry gordy from motown records son"
"benyad" our friend from ruthless" he was in a group called (blood of abraham)
behind the front was pretty much recorded in bens bedroom...but we couldnt record on fridays because he was jewish, and on fridays they had sabbath...
we had a goal...
and nothing was going to stop us...
taboo was apart of our family...
and we eventually brought him in when we started black eyed peas...
and from there it was history...
we were doing shows everywhere on hollywood and colleges...
apl was homless pretty much, taboo was working at disney land picking up horse shit...
and i was always trying to get in someones studio...
wer all had eachothers back...
Part 2
theres so many friends that helped us...
so many...
and also so many frinds that almost destroyed the dream...
drugs came into the picture...
and nearly messed everythin up...
the very thing we were against in the begining was the thing that still haunts us "as a family" today..
but determination is everything...
and that we are...
we played so much, and recorded everychance we got...
we were starting to have a big following as the black eyed peas in l.a...and the valleys, and hollywood, and now san diego, and san fran...
all on our own from playing colleges...
2 years it took us to get a deal at interscope records...
and 2 years it took to finally get apl in apt.
you see i was o.k...
i didnt mind living with my moms in the projects...
and taboo didnt mind living with his mom in rosmead, thats were his son was anyway...
but apl...
he was homless...
and he didnt have a family here...
so we would work hard and to ake sure we had a hang out spot...
seeing that apl was always the place we would go to to be free, and dream...
the funny thing is even today its apls room we go to when we are on tour...
we hang out in apls room...
funny huh.?.
2 years it took...
from moving from couch to garage to closet to shanty apt.
but we did it...
we signed to interscope in 1997...
2 years after eazy e died...
1997 was the year we were sapposed to graduate college...
and in a way we did...
our hip hop hustle college...
build it your self college...
turn your dreams into reality university...
and behind the front came out...
and we bacame so populat amongst the people who baught that record...
we were the happiest..
all we could think about was those days of unsertainty...
and we did it...
it was like we were laughing...
chuckling like we got away with something...
and that something was, we got away with a dream...
all these people that we looked up to, stop believing when times got tough...
and we kept on going...
and we travled the world...
london, germany..switzerland, holland...
we were so excited and happy...
they were wrong...
they said we couldnt do it...
they hated, they try to bring us down...
they made fun of how we dressed...how apl sounded when he talked...
ha ha...
so did i...
ha ha...
anyway...
and bridging the gaps came out...
and we wnent to australia...and japan, and new zeland...
it was about the world...
we wanted to go places people never been in hip hop...
glendale was enough....
san gabriel valley wasn enough...
northridge wasnt ebough...
north hollywood wasnt enough...
hollywood wasnt enough...
san diego wasnt enough...
san fransico wasnt enough....
california wasnt enough...
the world...
and bridging the gaos took us around the world...
and poor apl always had problems...
plillpinos do not get love in passport controll around the world...
remember...
APL NEVER FINISHED HIS PAPER WORK...
when ever we traveled he was always the last one...
he has missed connection flights because we never finished his paper work....
he has missed shows bacause they didnt let him in the counrty...
it was a problem...
we all had to go to the airport 3 hours early because of it sometimes...
this was befor 9-11...
3 hours early to the airport befor 9-11 was crazy...
btg took us places...
and we were so different from other groups because we were so happy and gratefull for our oppertunities...
we worked hard, interviews, travling like crzy to different places hip hop never went...
so many promisses of fortune came with bridging the gaps...
so many promissses management and the lable told us...
we were going to be rich, we could move apls family to the u.s.a...
all thses things...
but they never happened...
and our spirits were crushed when bridging the gaos sold less than behind the front...
we didnt care about sales in the first place...
we just wanted to tour and travel...
but with excitement from others and the hoopla that the industry creates around record sales its hard not to be influenced...
and we were crushed...
those dreams we had...
you see we were used to having a dream and making them happen...
now when someone influences you to dream of things you cant controll like prizes and rewards...those are not dreams...
and we fell into that trap...
and when those dreams didnt happend we felt like failures...
remember apl had no family to trun to when that feeling of failure came...
and freinds can only do some much...especially when your friends are feeling the same shit you are...
and that thing we were so against in the begining hit like a tsunami...
it almost destroyed apl...
and we were there as friends to lift our homie up...
that was probably the hardest thing we ever had to go through...
it was hard...
helping him almost destroyed him and our friends ship...
but like alll the things put in our life we get through it...
from english, to being looked at as weirdos, to deaths, homlessness, dreams shattered, to drug abuse, we get through it...
and elephunk helped us get through it...
it was theropy...
me and taboo was partying top much, so we stopped and wrote about it instead of doing it...
relationship problems like shut up...
to the world...
we recorded elephunk a little outside of san fransico..
and our last day there was september 11th...
and we even had a tour booked the day after we were schedualled to go on tour 9-13...
and we did...
my granda told me not to cancle it...
she said...
"when god calls apon you to do...you do...
dont sit at home scared"...
and we did...
we went on tour...
and right after that tour we wrote...
"where is the love"
because thats what it felt like...
we felt like thats what everyong was asking and feeling...
and that song changed our life befor anyone heard it...
we turned it and no one at the label liked it...
but that didnt stop us...
we still kept moving...
we still kept recording...
and finally people started gravitating to elephunk...
you see people we scared and didnt know how it would work with us talking about the cia the kkk and things like that around a very senstive time in america...
but it worked...
writing from your heatr works...
we eventually met fergie,,,
and fergie join the group adding here beautifull voice and soul to the powerfull peas that was already moving...
making it even more powerfull...
and we toured around the world as a quartet...
and its been beautiful...
elephunk took us to places we never thought of going...
or dreampt ot going...
like veitnam, brazil...
we even got a chance to go back to were apl comes from...
and man that dude is so large there...
here you have a guy that left the phillipines...
while he was in the phillipines he felt like an outsider being half black and phillipino...
getting torn aways from his family, and litterally forced into another...
with so many unsertainties surrounding him..
only having his friends to make him feel secure with himself becoming a man...
no family..
returning to his homeland 14 years later as a hero...
someone who has brought back hope not only to his family, but his country...
that the world is ready for what phillipinos have to offer as far as life style colture and entertainment...
phillipinos have lend a hand in the world but really have not been acknoledge for it...
i cant really speak on as much as many phillipinos out there, but i know its a fact...
and i am so proud of apl...
and his strength..
and his accomplishments...
his mom is now in l.a right now...
apl is now has a dope house...
and apl now...
GET READY FOR THIS...
is A DUAL CITIZEN OF THE PHILLIPINES AND THE U.S.A...
we did it dog...
im proud of you apl...
i hope you read this...
and i hope your eyes dont hurt after you read it...
seeing that i wrote a book, and you have a hard time reading small letters...
ha ha..
my dog for life...
will.i.am
APL IS A CITIZEN...
no more long waits when we travel...
mr. american...
and no...
he didnt sell out his country.,..
he is a phillipino citizen first...
american second...
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