Did you know that the original lead singer for the Black Eyed Peas was a Black woman, and not Fergie?
During a recent appearance on Wyclef Jean’s Run That Back podcast, Will.I.Am expressed his hurt and dismay that the Black Eyed Peas was not considered a “Black” group.
Now Kimberly Hill, the former lead singer, has responded to frontman will.i.am‘s recent comments about the group’s lack of acceptance. She Blasts Will for replacing her with a white woman and acting surprised at the results..
Hill joined the band in 1995, and the group toured with recording artists including No Doubt and Eminem before she left in 2000. Wild Orchid singer Fergie then joined the hip-hop act in 2002, and Black Eyed Peas went on to become one of the biggest pop bands of the aughts.
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“In 2004, Black Eyed Peas we — we were just trying to get on,” he said. “When you think of — like, I’m a Black dude, but when you think of Black Eyed Peas, we got so big that…and it hurts, it still hurts a little bit that we’re not considered a Black group because we got that big.”
“For you to make that statement as if the onus is on the Black community to celebrate you and the band when you didn’t celebrate us. It’s almost like there’s this cultural smudging,” Hill said in an Instagram video.
Hill’s 10-year-old son, Cassius, added: “You’re not in those Black roots anymore. So, I don’t understand how you’re not even going to talk about the Black girl that you had in your group and you’re going to skip to 2004 and you say, ‘I don’t understand how the Black community isn’t embracing us.”