The Black Eyed Peas (also known as BEP) is an American hip hop group from Los Angeles. As of 2009, the group is composed of will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo and Fergie. Since its breakout album Elephunk in 2003, the group's pop/dance-oriented style of hip hop music has sold an estimated 27 million albums and singles worldwide.

1998-2001: Behind the Front and Bridging the Gap

The group was signed to Interscope Records and released their debut Behind the Front in 1998. The album won the Peas (and their accompanying live band, the Bucky Jonson) critical acclaim. It featured the single "Joints & Jams", which was included on the soundtrack of the Academy Award-nominated film Bulworth. Their second album, Bridging the Gap, was released in 2000; it featured the single "Request Line" featuring Macy Gray. The album sold 1.2 million copies worldwide.

2003-2004: Elephunk

Their breakout album, Elephunk, was released in 2003. It was the group's first album to feature the vocals of Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson and she became the replacement for background singer Kim Hill, who left the band in 2000.

From Elephunk came "Where is the Love?", a single featuring Justin Timberlake which became Black Eyed Peas' first major hit, peaking at #8 on the U.S. Hot 100, but topping the charts practically everywhere else, including six weeks at #1 in the UK where it became the biggest-selling single of 2003. The single had similar results in Australia, staying at #1 for 6 weeks as well. The album subsequently spawned "Shut Up," which peaked at #2 in the UK and topped the charts in many other European countries including France and Germany, as well as Australia, holding on to the #1 spot for 3 weeks there. Elephunk won worldwide success and went Gold and Platinum in the US, UK, Germany, and other European markets.

The third single from the album, although significantly re-styled from the original Elephunk version, "Hey Mama" hit the top 10 in Australia, the UK, Germany and other European countries and reached #23 in the U.S. The song received even more exposure in 2003 when it was featured in the second of iPod's silhouette TV commercials.

During Black Eyed Peas' concert tour in Asia in 2004, apl.de.ap's life story was featured in a weekly Filipino TV drama special called Maalaala Mo Kaya ("Would You Remember"), which explained his childhood with his poor family in Pampanga, Philippines. ("The Apl Song", with the chorus written in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines, from their album Elephunk, also tells his story.) It was at this time that apl.de.ap formed the Filipino Songwriters and Artist Group (FSAG) with Leli, a songwriter also from Pampanga, Philippines, who had developed her writing craft in Compton in the early eighties.

Black Eyed Peas' song "Let's Get Retarded" was restyled as "Let's Get It Started" for an NBA Finals worldwide commercial. The song was quite successful on the charts worldwide, peaking at #21 on the U.S. Hot 100, #11 in the UK, and at #2 in Australia. This spot featured Carlos Santana. On the CD, it is listed as a bonus track, and is before the other bonus track "Third Eye." The unrevised song had great success as a single, particularly on the iTunes music download service and was also featured on the soundtrack to the stoner road trip comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The song earned the group a 2005 Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Black Eyed Peas were then featured in the video game The Urbz: Sims in the City as characters. They re-recorded "Let's Get It Started" and "Shut Up" as well as other songs in "Simlish," the dialect language used by The Sims characters. This revised version was also used in the ads for the iMac G5, with will.i.am and Fergie singing about the computer