Interscope RecordsForget about fun party jams like “Let’s Get It Started” and “I Gotta Feeling:” the Black Eyed Peas are back and they’re woke.
The group, minus Fergie, has released a socially conscious new single called “Street Livin‘,” which talks about how police brutality, gun laws, immigration and prison reform affect people of color. It features will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo spitting lines like, “Another cop got off with no charge/If you black in the hood, you at large/You’re guilty until we prove you’re innocent/If you’re ivory, they treat you different.”
Another lyric goes,”Listen, they derailed the soul train/And put a nightmare into every Martin Luther King/And privatized prisons are owned by the same/Slave masters that owned the slave trade game.”
The song was inspired by the Black Eyed Peas’ graphic novel distributed by Marvel Comics, called Masters of the Sun: The Zombie Chronicles. The video features photos of black men in prison, being arrested and being put to death, with their mouths animated so that they appear to be rapping the song’s lyrics.
The Peas have also released an augmented reality app as a companion to the novel, and it features voices provided by stars like Jamie Foxx and Queen Latifah. On top of that, something called The Masters of the Sun virtual reality experience, which features Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, Jamie, Latifah and Jason Isaacs, will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and be released January 19.
Both the app and the VR experience feature narration by Lee and a score by will.i.am and Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.
As for Fergie, she’s currently hosting the Fox show The Four, and promoting her album Double Dutchess.
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