In 2011, will.i.am told Vibe that Eazy-E wanted him to play a very specific role: “Dr. (Eazy-E’s highest-charting Hot 100 solo hit, 1995’s “Foe Tha Love Of $,” peaked at #41.) He was impressed enough to sign them to his Ruthless label. The early ’90s were wild.) One night, Tribal Nation performed at Balistyx, and gangsta rap legend Eazy-E caught their live show.

(He also released an album with the same title a year later. In 1991, David Faustino, the kid who played Bud Bundy on Married… With Children, opened up a rap club night called Balistyx. Adams became known as Will 1X, and Lindo, for reasons that I will never understand, took the name apl.de.ap. They joined up with a couple of other friends and formed a dance crew called Tribal Nation. In the late ’80s, Will Adams and Allan Lindo would go hit LA clubs and battle-rap other kids. In eighth grade, he met the Filipino-born Allan Pineda Lindo. (When Will was born, the Doobie Brothers’ “ Black Water” was the #1 song in America.) As a kid, Will went to raves and rap club nights. His father wasn’t around, but his uncle Lynn Cain played for the Atlanta Falcons. William Adams Jr., the man who would become will.i.am, grew up in the Estrada Courts housing projects in LA’s predominantly Latino Boyle Heights neighborhood. “Boom Boom Pow” was the culmination of a long, long journey. Maybe the Black Eyed Peas simply got a feeling. Sometimes, things simply don’t make rational sense. But I can’t tell you how “Boom Boom Pow,” a song with no real structure or chorus or lyrical point, held the top of the Hot 100 for three months straight. I can tell you that will.i.am went to raves as a kid, that he knew the history of intersection moments between rap and dance music. I can tell you how the Black Eyed Peas built a shameless brand over the decade, how the unexpected pop stardom of group member Fergie benefitted the rest of the Peas. I can tell you how the 2008 economic collapse left millions of young Americans in desperate financial straits and about how those young Americans turned to shiny, frictionless European club sounds for consolation - how that sensationalistic inebriation-soundtrack shit hit the zeitgeist.

I can point out the currents that led to that moment. It seemed strange in the moment, and it seems even stranger in retrospect. Somehow, though, they rose up to absolutely dominate the pop charts, both in America and around the world, for half of the 2009 calendar year. They’d been fluffy alt-rap also-rans and even-fluffier pop-rap punchlines. When the Black Eyed Peas reached #1 for the first time, the group had been around for many years. When it comes to the Black Eyed Peas, though, I have no idea. I write this column because it’s fun to trace the social and musical threads that brought all these songs to the top of the mountain. I’m reviewing these songs - talking about if I think they’re any good or not - but the song’s story is usually a whole lot more interesting than whatever my opinion might be. How did this song cut through the noise and, however briefly, become the most popular single in America? That’s what I’m always trying to figure out. How did this happen? If this column has a point - debatable - then it’s that question. Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music. well done black eyed peas.In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.

Rahul from Chennai, Indiai really really dont now what this song means and what it's tryin to say.but good beat.

Stormy from Northport, MiIt's one of those songs that get's stuck in your head.you have to hear it to itch it out of your brain!.

Jordan from Union Grove, Txi heard that if you play this song backward it says 'i love satan' will someone enlighten me pls.

at least they're not talkin bout gals.at least i think so.lol.

Rahul from Chennai, Indiathis is way way way way better than my humps n all.Rahul from Chennai, Indiabackmasking? dont get me s all bulls-t.Breanna from Henderson, NvI hate this song! This song is so anoying! I can't stand it!.Tessa from Washingtonville, PaThis is awesome! This song is just sweet, and Jordan ( this song does not, but some bands songs do ).The black eyed peas are one of the best bands in the world or atleast thats what i think!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would like to congratulate n thank the black eyed peas for doing what they do Thank you, you guys are awesome Marissa from Springfield, Pai dont no what this song means but its a good song.Chris from San Jose, Costa Ricahey the second most downloaded song of 2009 wasn't right round, it was just dance.Everlee from Tucson, AzI love this song so much ).

Boom boom boom pow