Pop/Rock
Black Eyed Peas

Rarely has a band so completely changed direction — and had such incredible success doing so — as the Black Eyed Peas. The group appeared in the mid-90s as backpack rappers deriding mainstream rap and pop as garbage. Everything changed in 2003, when the band hired singer Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson. Over the next 6 years, they would achieve it with three platinum albums, 11 Top Twenty Five singles and a reputation as pop's biggest party-starters. The first hit single from the band's 2003 album, Elephunk, was "Where is the Love," featuring Justin Timberlake, helped the album sell more than two million copies. The Peas released their second album with Fergie, Monkey Business, which reached Number 3. The Peas' fifth album, The E.N.D. came out in June 2009. The single "Boom Boom Pow" reached Number 1 in the U.S. and stayed there for 12 weeks. The second single, "I Gotta Feeling," reached Number 1, pushing "Boom Boom Pow" to the Number Two spot, making the Peas one of very few bands in history to simultaneously hold the top two spots on the singles chart. In 2011, they performed the Super Bowl Halftime Show. 2018, Fergie was announced to have left the group and she was subsequently replaced by singer J. Rey Soul. The Black Eyed Peas have sold an estimated 80 million records, making them one of the best-selling groups of all time.