BLACK EYED PEAS Covers: Rollacoaster Magazine Autumn/ Winter 2020
THE MUSIC INDUSTRY INDUSTRY ORACLES ON BLACK LIVES MATTER, SURVIVING CANCER, AND CRAFTING THEIR NEW ALBUM TRANSLATION IN LOCKDOWN.
In the distant future, when the world has been reduced to smouldering dystopian plains, and curious extraterrestrial life finds itself methodically dredging the decimated earth for past relics, you can count on any Black Eyed Peas record – like a cultural time capsule – to reflect exactly where humanity was at, at that exact time. Or just before.
You see, throughout the last three decades, the salient pioneers have managed to maintain their status as one of the biggest boundary-pushing groups in the world – restlessly warping, reinventing and redefining their addictive olio of pop, hip-hop, dance and conscious rap. The three founding members – will.i.am, Taboo and Apl.de.ap – harbour a preternatural foresight that has consistently positioned them teetering all-knowingly at the precipice of the next zeitgeist, right before it topples over us. Music industry oracles, if you will.
Photography by Bartek Szmigulski
Words by Maybelle Morgan
Cover Design: Milan Miladinov