Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Most of my career, people have the misconception about me as being threatening and scary, and having an intense look, but that's not the real me.
A lot of people have a misconception about artists, that they're invincible, you know, they're on a different plateau. But I'm just a human being.
When I was touring with Peas, I was able to make the crowd feel the energy. When I said: 'put your hands up or make some noise,' they just did it.
We just decided to make our dancing as important as our MCing and our production. It's an element in hip-hop that a lot of people are afraid to use.
When it comes to being on stage, I might be on stage one minute and the next minute I might be in the audience, dancing and lifting people's spirits.
It's a natural thing for us to be working on content and finding ways to implement, whether it's visuals or the partnerships to go along with the audio.
We have songs that are inspired by the Latin side. We have songs that are inspired by rock, African rhythms. Whatever country we go to usually inspires us.
When I see children in New Delhi, babies walking around in no diapers and their mother is in a corner putting up bricks, it gives you a sense of being grounded.
At home, I'm daddy and a husband. There's no Superman's cape. I'm changing diapers, giving my kids baths, and coloring 'Angry Birds' and playing games with them.
Our first major hit was 'Where Is the Love.' That was what best represented us bringing people together, no matter what walk of life, and no matter what culture or creed.
In L.A., we played rock venues because we had a band, which hip-hop venues couldn't accommodate. And within that, we created a show which we could put on in front of anybody.
All I've got to say is if I'm a sellout, I'm selling out arenas all over the world, and I'd rather be selling out arenas than selling out of my trunk on the corner of my block.
I'm also a martial-arts practitioner, so it was an easy transition to go do 'Street Fighter,' which is action-packed and let me showcase my acting and martial-arts capabilities.
It's more about the music and doing good shows than it is about our ethnicities. We're not trying to label ourselves as the all-around universal ethnic group. It's not a gimmick.
Just being in the industry that I'm in, you get people building up your ego - 'Oh, you guys are the best, you guys are gods.' So I started believing the hype - 'Yes, I am a god!'
Apl, my bandmate, is from the Philippines. He came to America in 1989, and the first person he met was Will.i.am. And then, I met them when we were 17. Our common ground was music.
You gotta understand a lot of hip-hop kids are going to have the hip-hop mentality. And it's sad because they're not educated enough to understand what hip-hop culture is really about.
I grew up in a predominantly Asian and Mexican community, and because I did breakdance and poplock and all that, I did get a lot of criticism: 'You're Mexican, why are you doing that?'
I'm building my own brand outside of the Peas. It's not Black Eyed Peas, it's Zumbao. Zumbao is different from the Peas because it's all on me and I can't feed off of anybody other than me.
We're a direct mirror of the audience, and that shows how hip-hop has expanded. It's no longer just an urban thing, and it's no longer just an American thing, either. It's a universal thing.
The Peas is the mothership you always go to. But when you able to bring something new to the table, it makes you stand out as an artist. I am not chasing the same things as Fergie or Will.i.am.
We all had to dodge the idea we were spokespeople for our races. Like, 'Hey, it's the Mexican Guy! The Filipino! The Chick!' We've always stood up to it and said, 'Fine, bring it on and we'll show you how we rock.'
I did something that's a no-no in the music industry. I cut my hair. For years, my hair was my stamp. 'Oh, that's the long-haired guy from the Black Eyed Peas.' But when I did it, it was like a breath of fresh air.
When you're getting chemotherapy, you feel so alone, even when your family is there, or your friends are there with you. Sometimes it's just you, feeling like you're in a fight against something that you can't control.
Every time we come out, there's a hunger for creative expression or creative ways to put out content that isn't duplicated from our last run. Whether it's technology, messaging, visual… we're always pushing the envelope.
Black Eyed Peas music appealed to everybody and that's why we incorporated EDM influences, dance influences, house influences, and we mashed it up with the Black Eyed Pea melodic pop sensibility that still has bounce to it.
We want to be able to make our own songs and write our own arrangements. We want to incorporate the live sound so we can be free onstage and in the studio recording. That way we can come up with original and creative stuff.
We were just going for growth, bigger sound, just a spectrum of people. More global. That's how we decided to do a song like 'Where is the Love' - it allowed us to tap into a broader audience, because the message means a lot to us.
I grew up listening to a lot of hiphop music and R'n'B. Bands like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Big Daddy Kane, Boogie Down Productions, Cypress Hill, New Edition, Bob Marley, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and a lot of Spanish music.
Zumbao' is a word that is not commonly used in mainstream America or even mainstream Latino America. For me, I needed a word that describes me as a performer, as an artist and that is just me wilding out and being crazy. I'm Zumbao.
Our show is all about energy and all about the skill, so we never have to alter it for different audiences, although maybe we might get crazier at a punk-rock show. With kids moshing and crowd-surfing, we might have to get crazy as well.
Before the music and before the fame, I loved Apl for Allan Pineda, for being a brother that he is and for the inspiration - for him to actually come to the States from the Philippines and make something of his life. That's inspirational.
From alternative to Brazilian to hip-hop to old R&B, that's what we listen to. And we don't just listen to it only if somebody plays it. We actually go out and buy these types of things and support different forms of music because we love them.
I'm a b-boy for life. I'm a dancer, I started with free style dancing and b-boying during the '80s and I always said to myself that when I get the chance to do my own thing, I will always have the b-boy element and the dance element because that's where I come from.
I was in a group called Pablo, while Will.i.am and apl.de.ap were a part of the Atban Klann. They signed to Ruthless Records with Easy-E. When Easy-E passed away in 1995 they changed their name to the Black Eyed Peas and asked me if I wanted to be a part of it. The rest is history.
I was the first Pea to have kids - you know how it is - I have three wonderful children, and when we talked about that time, and Fergie would say 'Tab, what is it like?' I always told her when the time is right, it's gonna happen for you, and God bless her, and I can't wait to see baby Ferg.
They didn't tell me what type of cancer I had. They didn't tell me what stage I was in. They just told me, 'Mr Gomez, you have cancer.' My life flashed before my eyes. I thought about my kids, I thought about my wife. Nothing prepares you for the shock of someone telling you you have that horrible disease.
Brazilian music has always been a part of us, but it's even more valuable now because of the sentiment or the theme of the actual song. So I feel like 'Street Livin'' is paying homage to what we started and it's touching on a lot of serious themes to DACA, immigration reform, prison control... all the things we address in the video.
