Model Forum / General / Rockets / September 2007

(allhiphop.com)

Not many of their fans know this, but at one time The Black Eyed Peas
were signed to
infamous rapper Eazy-E's "Ruthless Records" distribution label back in
1995, alongside
rap quartet Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and a lot of local LA-based West
Coast "gangsta"
rappers. Needless to say, the socially conscientious rappers, then
known as Atban Clan,
did not fare well in such an environment. The group then just
consisted of will.i.am and
apl.de.ap, with now-departed members Dante Santiago and Mookie Mook.

"It was scary, man. Real scary.", says apl.de.ap, aka Allan Pineda.
"Will was accustomed
to dealing with rough characters thinking that we were punks, back
from our breakdancing
days; he could fight and I wasn't no pushover either. But these people
that were walking up
and down these hallways were straight up killers, man. Killers. Lots
of gang members and
that showing off their automatics and tattoo tears. Even Eazy, who
wasn't around that often,
probably because of his illness by then, scared the hell out of us,
and he was like only 5'4!".

Even Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson felt the heat from the friction between
the band and the label.
"The band had advertised for a backup female singer, and I was between
records with my
former group,", says Fergie, who was fresh off stints as a child actor
for Kids Incorporated
and as a voice actor for Charlie Brown's sister on various "Peanuts"
cartoons, and was
then a member of a dance music group called "Wild Orchid". "I thought
that this would
be a nice chance to expand my horizons as well as make a couple of
dollars. Little did I
know what level of hell I had stepped into. As I demo'd some of my
[Wild] Orchid tracks
and sang some samples for them, a bunch of thugs rushed into the
recording room and
began making lewd comments and gestures at me, pawing at me and
calling me nasty
names when I refused to do the groupie thing for them just because
they happen to be
in some rap videos. I even got my good dress ripped off of me, and if
it wasn't for Will
God only knows what would've happened to me. You would've thought
they'd never
seen a white blond girl before. Soon after that I really started to
get into my meth
addiction due to that bullshit. I was afraid to tour in certain places
for a while. But
thankfully both Will and Allan remembered me and contacted me a few
years later
after their last singer didn't work out ...and the rest is history."

Will.i.am says the incident with Fergie along with the "album review"
with Eazy
was the last straw. "We had finished a DAT (digital audio tape) with
an initial
album, tracks and all. But after listening to the first track, in
which we tackled
the plight of Ethopia and how Clinton cut and ran from it, Eazy
literally tore the
tape out of the machine and stomped on it, calling it "a load of
bullshit". That
was months of love being stomped under his boots, man. I went nuts
and
jumped right at him! It was on! But then like ten gangstas came out of
nowhere
with bats and sh.t! We was done, man. It was like our Vietnam! And
Mookie ran
like a bitch, too! That's why we kicked him out!"

Will, Allan, and singer Dante all received injuries at the hands at
Ruthless staff.
Later Ruthless manager Jerry Heller settled the matter with the Peas
by releasing
them from all obligations with Ruthless, freeing them to pursue other
labels, which
they did by ironically signing to then-rival label Interscope Records,
home to sublabel
Death Row.

"It's all good...it's all good. We ain't got no beef. We moved on up.
We altogether
sold more records than all of Ruthless Records ever did. That's kinda
funny...Fergie
outselling Eazy and MC Ren on the rap charts...who'd thunk that a
white girl could
outsell two of the hottest talents in NWA?" said Dante Santiago, who
no longer
performs with the Peas but does a lot of "unofficial" appearances as
well as
executive producing for many of their projects. "Only in the 21st
century!".