Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business

By Joshua O'Connell
Posted Friday, June 10, 2005

Coming off of the incredible success of their most recent disc, "Elephunk," Black Eyed Peas had unexpectedly struck gold with their third disc, their first featuring singer Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson as their female voice.

Their latest disc, "Monkey Business," will likely appeal to more recent fans of the group, but those looking for more of some of the experimental tracks and positive social awareness that they were fond of writing about at the beginning of their career may find this disc wanting.

Many of the tracks are catchy enough. Lead single "Don't Phunk With My Heart" bounces around quite a bit beat-wise and lyrically, making for a sonic question mark that is undeniably catchy.

"Don't Lie" heavily utilizes guitar for a fun midtempo jam that has succulent harmonies that prove that Fergie's addition is as important with the background vocals as she is in taking some of the leads.

"Feel It" is a straight-ahead party jam that works fairly well - it veers away from the minimal production of some of the other songs and the fuller feel carries the song better than many of the other tracks here - consider it this album's "Hey Mama" - a little different, but in the end it's all about getting on the dance floor.

Thrown at the end of the album almost as an afterthought, "Union" is the closest thing to a socially aware track they have, with Sting providing some additional vocals here. The positive, everyone unite message works about as well as it did when Amber (or Cher, for that matter) sang "Love One Another" - it's a good message, but it isn't going to drive a sudden unity between races, sexes and classes.

A slight offset between vocals and lyrics, "Ba Bump" reminds just a hair of Brandy's innovative "What About Us?" in concept, but it's unique in its execution and sound, which makes it work extremely well.

There are some weak tracks here though that show a sign of a band straining to meet the public's demand for a new album as fast as possible. (Forget the fact that "Let's Get it Started" remains even now a popular music download on sites such as iTunes.)

Album opener "Pump It" rides the coattails of the guitar riff that was omnipresent after the movie Pulp Fiction. That's really all that makes this track special, and is actually too distracting to actually work in any real way.

"My Humps" plays up Fergie's sexuality, and I've personally got issues with this one. Yes, Fergie is undeniably attractive, but many fans of the Peas remember Ferguson from her days as a bright-eyed child singing cover songs on "Kids Incorporated," and the image of little Stacy singing "My humps/my lovely little lumps" just scares me.

More problematic, the song seems more aimed to take aim at the number of sexually charged songs to make waves in the hip-hop world with female leads lately (see Kelis' "Milkshake") and it just doesn't work in that context either - Ferguson sings in a high-pitched voice and is trying to sound sweet and sexy. It fails at its goal - it seems forced.

Elsewhere, the album offers the vibe that while still able of making a catchy song, the Peas aren't trying quite as hard. "My Style" is catchy enough, but is entirely too generic compared to former BEP glory. An interesting old-time-styled string sample behind "Like That" adds a subtle intrigue to an otherwise generic minimal beat and song made popular by the Neptunes in recent years, but strings alone don't elevate a song. (Fergie sounds bizarrely like Macy Gray in parts of the song's chorus, singing really high in the background... is that really her? We're not exactly sure.)

Ultimately, there's enough redeeming qualities to the album, and it's not that it's bad. It's more a step backwards as far as the group's range of incorporated sounds and its positive messages, and more straight ahead hip-hop that will appeal to those who like much of what's on the radio today. Fans of solid hip-hop won't find anything wrong here; Black Eyed Peas fans will simply be disappointed that the group's evolution seems to be stunted by sudden success.

It should be noted that iTunes offers a bonus edition of "Monkey Business" that also includes three music videos filmed exclusively for the iTunes release, along with a digital booklet which serves as the album booklet that would normally accompany a CD.

The numerous pages, however, devoted to the "Black Eyed Peas Business Plan" seem more of a combination of a page taken from the Smoking Gun (stage directions, concert riders, etc.) and the bling-bling imagery of hip-hop groups (Black Eyed Peas bank account, eight seats for four band members on a private plane, etc.). Somewhat unnecessary, but on a more positive note the track notes on the songs are extremely detailed.

It appears from the page numbers that, except for the additional pages added for the video information and pictures of the band, that it's the same booklet that accompanies the CD, but we purchased the album from iTunes so any additional information from readers here would be appreciated.

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