Will.i.am (4 page)

Will was proving to be an unstoppable force in these MC battles. As the Hollywood MC champion he managed a winning streak of weekly victories that ran for an astonishing eighteen months. He
seemed almost invincible – and certainly felt it at times. He even saw off a highly rated MC from Chicago, called Twista, an artist who had appeared in
The Guinness Book of World
Records
as the fastest rapper
in the world. As Taboo put it, ‘hip hop greats were bowing down’ to Will.

There was no doubting the ferocity of Will’s ambitions. Taboo recalls how Will used to talk about his ‘big dream’ and how he was going to make it work. He was a good talker
even then: Taboo describes how Will was a natural-born storyteller, who was ‘fast, clever and animated’. Although he could be shy and ‘guarded’ when he first met people as a
teenager, Will would soon open up once he knew someone – and as he opened up, he revealed huge reserves of determination, vision and ability. Few who met him left after an encounter with Will
unaware that he intended to go places in life and that he had the ability to do so. His energy was such that he did not only impress people with his own ambition: he also recharged their own
aspirations and positivity. He quite naturally had the sort of charisma and presence that politicians sometimes spend enormous sums to try to develop.

According to Taboo, Will was also an expert roller of joints. In his book, Taboo remembers Will handing him ‘the most expertly, perfectly rolled joint’ he had ever seen – he
described it as such a finely formed cigarette that it was as if Will had ‘micromanaged’ its construction. What also impressed Taboo was that the joint had been rolled so quickly
– but then Will has long lived his life as if he is
late for an important meeting with lots of other ambitious eccentrics. Not that Will was a pot-smoker himself.
According to his bandmate, having had a bad experience with the drug, Will had decided never to try it again – and it seems clear that he has abstained from drug-taking. Perhaps he felt that
cannabis, which has a reputation as a drug that saps its users of energy, focus, belief and ambition, was the last thing he needed, as he was positively overflowing with all those virtues. As Taboo
said, Will emitted an ‘invincible aura that screamed: “I’m going to be somebody”.’ Even the way Will dressed, Taboo said, absolutely shone with ‘fire and
hunger’. Extensive cannabis use would surely dampen that ardour.

When he was twenty, Will fell in love for the first time. It was an association that developed into an eight-year-long relationship, and not one that was entirely enjoyable.
During the relationship, when ‘things got hard’, the couple even went to a relationship counsellor, who encouraged them to do activities together. One of these was to cook food together
– ‘that’s why I know how to cook now’, said Will, looking back. ‘It wasn’t abusive, it was just destructive emotionally.’ He has been coy about the
identity of the
woman, only saying: ‘she still lives in the ghetto we came from, in Compton, LA’, and that: ‘she doesn’t care about entertainment, or
fashion, she’s just a real person’.

As a result, the more famous Will became while they were together, the more uninterested she became in the world of celebrity. While Will appreciated her lack of interest in fame, the two were
pulling in different directions. Their split was inevitable but, even after it, Will felt that what they had would, in a sense, last for ever. ‘I will always love my ex-girlfriend,’ he
later told the
Guardian
. ‘She’ll get married, but that love we had, regardless of exclusivity, is beyond that. Love lasts for ever.’ He would even go on to offer her a
slice of the profits from one of the songs she inspired.

Some of Will’s views on sex and sexuality have been highly controversial. He has, more recently, made some rather prim and prudish statements about it, and it is worth briefly stepping
forward in the story to connect them. He was asked what would guarantee to put him off a woman. ‘If she had condoms in her house, that would just fuckin’ throw me off,’ he said.
‘That’s just tacky.’ Some women found this statement highly offensive. At the time, his female interviewer took him up on his outburst, asking him why he was so offended by the
thought of a woman taking precautions. ‘I just think, like, if you’re into someone and you guys get to that level, then that’s something you
should converse
about together and say, “Hey, maybe we should get some”,’ he said.

Outraged women asked who he thought he was to suggest there was something wrong with them having contraceptives. Others felt his views were arcane or misogynistic. However they really seem to
hint at the contradictions that make Will such an intriguing character. As far as some of his fans are concerned, his contradictions and complexities survive to this day – they are what make
Will such a vulnerable, and therefore attractive, character.

Even before he was famous, Will was building a reputation for himself not only as a promising musician and performer, but also as an attractive character of dazzling influence. Together, these
gifts would take him far. It was his mother who continued to influence him as he formed his musical energies into a three-piece unit, into a successful band, then fashioned that into a
world-conquering supergroup. ‘My mom keeps me down to earth,’ he said. ‘I’d hate for my mom to see me act like a dick, so I try not to act like a dick.’ Not that he
would use such language in front of Debra. As he told
The New York Times
: ‘When I get around my mom, all my cuss words are deleted from my vocabulary. Automatically, they just
leave.’

It was Debra’s example that lit the spark to the forcefield of motivational charisma that has come to serve Will so
well. She was the first to lift him from the
surroundings he was born into. First, she did so emotionally, by encouraging him to stay positive and not fall into the many traps that surrounded them. Then she did so by arranging for him to be
schooled in a better area. Will has honoured her in many ways, not least the fact that rather than writing songs that glorified the squalor and danger that surrounded him, he instead wrote positive
songs that encouraged everyone, whatever their background, to believe in themselves, to better themselves and to enjoy the ride. In so doing, he not only honoured Debra, he also put a smile on
faces around the world.

O
ne day, a momentous meeting took place when Will and Taboo met in the studio car park. As well as being significant in the history of the band
that became the Black Eyed Peas, this meeting is also pertinent to understanding Will’s own powerfully alluring charm. Prior to the formation of the Black Eyed Peas, Taboo had been in a band
called Pablo, and he had found himself growing increasingly disgruntled in the studio.

Taboo’s memories of what happened next do much to shed light on the power of Will’s positive charisma. He recalled that when Will fixed you in eye-to-eye contact, the energy he could
communicate was immense. Taboo said that even when Will was a teenager, his eyes could ‘hook you and plug you’ into his own vast reserves of self-belief. His charisma was also matched
by his compassion: Will has long been spoken of as a man with much empathy. These are the sorts of skills that jettisoned US president Bill Clinton
to the White House. One
wonders whether the opinionated Will might consider a crack at mainstream politics himself one day. He has stated that he will never do so, explaining: ‘I’ll never enter politics
myself, though. I’ve got too many skeletons in my closet.’ However, many a political career has been launched after fierce denials that the politician in question ever wanted to enter
the profession. It is as if reluctance is the final stage prior to acceptance. Furthermore, in his role as the unofficial but undoubted ambassador of the band, he has shown the stature and charisma
to have a good chance. America has always been open to the idea of celebrities moving into the political sphere, after all.

At this stage, three future members of the Black Eyed Peas had met each other. Will found that he had significant things in common with apl and Taboo. All three had grown up in poor families who
lived in tough neighbourhoods and without the presence of a father. All three had faced difficulties, obstacles and emotional pain as a result of these disadvantages. All three had also found that
in music there was a sense of salvation – and as a potential way to better themselves financially, it was a big draw. With their already heightened sense of being outsiders, they wanted to
make music for other outsiders. They also felt that the right way to do this was to create positive music that lifted its listener. If only, they rightly reasoned, Will’s personality and
presence
could be injected into the music, they would have something almost magical on their hands. The positivity was – and is – key to the Black Eyed Peas project.
Will was the pivot of that positivity. He was to be at the centre of everything.

For instance, it was Will who pushed for their act to include a live band. Here again, his approach was original. He knew that the presence of a live band would take his act outside of the rap
mainstream. ‘I got tired of DATs and records,’ he explained later. ‘I wanted to allow for a certain level of human mistakes in the music. I like the idea of having a different
vibe every night, you know, as to what the bass player might be feeling that night, or whatever. We just wanted live shit.’

His bandmates quickly agreed with his proposal. As Taboo commented, without a band they would resemble a ‘car without wheels’. He felt this would give them the edge. So he personally
assembled the musicians himself. They then set to work rehearsing in apl’s garage, under Will’s quasi-managerial eye. Apl loved the new intensity and freedom that the backing band gave
them. ‘It makes you want to be electric’, he reflected. ‘It gives you the freedom to move’.

By the rest of the band’s admission, Will was the most focused of the line-up, with apl also particularly on the ball. As for Taboo, he described himself at that stage as a
‘functioning reefer head’. It all began to make for an
improbably effective ensemble.

Even through the haze of his admitted extensive cannabis use, Taboo was sharp enough to see Will’s many good points. He learned a great deal from Will in the early months and years of
their friendship. For instance, during the aforementioned fateful car-park encounter, when Taboo confided in Will that he was lacking confidence as a rapper. He told Will, in fact, that he felt he
was ‘wack at rapping’. First, Will gave Taboo a general confidence boost, stating life was not necessarily about being the best, but that the overall performance was important. Then, he
offered Taboo a novel method to improve his rap technique, which involved placing a pencil in his mouth, between his teeth and behind his tongue. By rubbing his tongue against the pencil, Will
created a rhythmic sound effect. He then removed the pencil from his mouth and told Taboo that he too should perform that exercise each day.

At first, Taboo, understandably, felt this was a ‘shit-crazy thing to do’, but such was Will’s poise and confidence that Taboo was willing to try anything he suggested.
‘I listened and obeyed,’ said Taboo. For weeks, he would perform the pencil routine in front of the bathroom mirror each morning. Even as he did so, he would ask himself what on earth
he was doing such an exercise for. Yet he persevered and he found that the speed and smoothness of his rap
delivery improved very quickly. The confidence that this gave him was
huge – he said his self-doubts were ‘erased’ by the transformation that Will’s pep talk and pencil trick had prompted. This is an early, striking, example of Will’s
mentoring and coaching abilities. Some musicians who have gone on to become managers or talent-show judges have done so more on the strength of their celebrity, rather than their inherent
suitability for a mentoring role. Will, however, has had a mentor nature for many years.

The first official recording from Atban Klann was a track entitled ‘Merry Muthafuckin’ Xmas’. It was released on the Eazy-E EP,
5150: Home 4 Tha Sick
, which hit the
shelves on 10 December 1992. Clocking in at just under six minutes, it made for a bombastic, comedic and bawdy closer to the five-track EP. Alongside Will’s band on the disc were Rudy Ray
Moore, Menajahtwa and Buckwheat. The disc sold well, becoming certified gold within three months. ‘So that’s the first time I had a song come out,’ said Will. ‘That shit was
dope.’

Next, the trio began working on an album. It was to be entitled
Grass Roots
. However, the album was never released in its official form – the band shelved it after tragedy struck.
When Eazy-E was admitted to the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, it was first assumed that he was suffering from asthma. Instead, he was diagnosed with full-blown
AIDS. Having been sexually promiscuous from his early teens and having been involved in the drug world, Eazy-E had lived a life that flirted with danger.

Over the next month, he attempted to make amends with as many people as possible, but he died on 26 March 1995. Although his death was not entirely unexpected, it was a sad day for Will. Hip-hop
had lost one of its most extraordinary practitioners of all time, and Will had lost the man who had given him his first leg-up into the music world.

Meanwhile, Will’s band simply continued to evolve. Taboo’s renewed confidence and ability only hastened the day when Will would invite him to join his own band.
Soon, that band would be renamed from Atban Klann, to the Black Eyed Peas. It seems a wise name-change, even putting aside the benefit of hindsight. Where Atban Klann – the first word of
which stands for A Tribute Beyond A Nation – is awkward to pronounce and easily forgotten, Black Eyed Peas rolls off the tongue and stays in the memory. Black Eyed Peas had been the name of
Will’s production company, and he simply decided to transfer it to the band. As to its origins, it had been struck upon one day when, at a brainstorming session, Will and his bandmates had
been shouting out names of items
that include colours. They quickly centred on ‘Black Eyed Peas’, the name of the bean that is popular in both the West Indies and
America’s south. The bean is white, with a black dot – or eye. A popular soul food, according to tradition if it is eaten at New Year one experiences a prosperous year ahead. For the
band, this seemed to be a moniker that was appropriate on many levels.