Elephunk

Elephunk
Studio album by The Black Eyed Peas
Released	June 24, 2003
Recorded	2001–2003
Genre	Hip hop, R&B[1]
Length	59:29
Label	A&M, will.i.am, Interscope
Producer	apl.de.ap, will.i.am, Ron Fair
The Black Eyed Peas chronology
Bridging the Gap (2000) Elephunk (2003) Monkey Business (2005)
Alternative cover
Asian Special Edition
Singles from Elephunk
"Where Is the Love?" Released: June 16, 2003 "Shut Up" Released: November 4, 2003 "Hey Mama" Released: January 12, 2004 "Let's Get It Started" Released: June 22, 2004

Elephunk is the third studio album by American hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas, released on June 24, 2003. The album charted at number 14 on the American Billboard 200 albums chart and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and has gone on to sell 8.5 million copies worldwide, with 3.2 million being in the United States alone.^[2] The album was produced by Ron Fair and band member will.i.am, and was the first to feature current member Fergie and their first as "The Black Eyed Peas". Four singles were released from Elephunk, including "Where Is the Love?", which topped the singles charts of over ten countries.

Contents 1 Recording 2 Critical reception 3 Commercial response 4 Track listing 5 Personnel 6 Charts and certifications 7 References

Recording

Development of the album began on November 2, 2001 and was released just under two years later in 2003. At the time of development, only will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo were to feature on the album. During the production of "Shut Up" (the second single released from the album), they realized that a female vocal would work well with the song. Originally, Nicole Scherzinger (lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls) was approached to make a guest appearance on the record. She was forced to decline because she already was signed to a contract with Eden's Crush. Danté Santiago then introduced Fergie to Will who was impressed with her vocal talents. She immediately formed a bond with the band and became a permanent member of the Peas and her photo was printed onto the album cover. Nine out of the fourteen tracks were composed by lyricist Robbie Fisher, who has been working closely with the band since the beginning stages of the album.

Critical reception

Initial response to Elephunk was generally well received by music critics, and currently holds a score of 66 out of 100 on metacritic. John Bush from Allmusic said that Elephunk "possesses some of the most boundary-pushing productions in contemporary, (mostly) uncommercial hip-hop" and gave the album a 4/5 star rating.^[3] Chris Nettleton from Drowned In Sound complimented the album saying : "This record is full of first rate rapping, first rate tunes, first rate instrumentation. Look on the surface, and you've got an album full of memorable songs, hooks that lodge in your mind... but look in depth, and it's quality from the top down.".^[4] Village Voice also gave a positive review stating : "They remain unbelievable, but in pop that's just one more aesthetic nuance.".^[5] Robert Christgau praised the record giving it an A- grade : "In which the unbelievably dull El Lay alt-rappers fabricate the brightest actual pop album of 2003."^[6] Entertainment Weekly had more of a negative view on the record : "They try dancehall (Hey Mama), salsa (Latin Girls), even nu-metal (Anxiety with Papa Roach), but the biggest offense for a once smart-sounding rap collective is "Where Is the Love?", the horrifyingly trite single. It's enough to make longtime fans wonder, Where are the Peas?". The album received a C grade^[7] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 66, based on 15 reviews indicating generally positive reviews.^[8]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Robert Christgau	(A-)[9]
Allmusic	[10]
PopMatters	[11]
Drowned In Sound	(A)[12]
Alternative Press	[13]
Entertainment Weekly	(C)[14]
Village Voice	(A)[15]
Rolling Stone	[16]

Commercial response

In the United States, Elephunk reached number 14 on the Billboard Top 200 and is their first album to chart in the top 15. It gained even more commercial success in the UK Album Charts where it reached number 3. It has sold over 1.6 million copies in the UK and 8.5 million copies worldwide.^[17] The singles "Where Is The Love?" and "Shut Up" reached number 1. "Hey Mama" has been used for several advertisements including advertisements for Apple and iTunes. "Let's Get It Started" also received universal acclaim in the media section where a cover version of the song appears in the film Hot Tub Time Machine.^[18] After the success of Elephunk, the Peas were approached by EA games to feature some of their music on the 2004 game The Urbz. They remixed some of the tracks on Elephunk and translated it into Simlish and created new tracks for the game. They also feature in the game as playable characters.^[19]

Track listing

Personnel

The Black Eyed Peas

• will.i.am – vocals on all tracks except 11; Moog synthesizers on tracks 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13; drum programming on tracks 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10; clavinet on tracks 12 and 13; drums and piano on track 2; Wurlitzer electric piano on track 4; synthesizer on track 10; executive production; production; engineering on tracks 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12 and 14; mixing on tracks 10 and 14
• apl.de.ap – vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13; drum programming and production on track 11
• Fergie – vocals on all tracks except 7 and 12
• Taboo – vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12 and 13,[ guitar]

Main session musicians

• George Pajon Jr. – guitar on tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13 and 15
• J. Curtis – guitar on tracks 5, 7, 11 and 13
• Mike Fratantuno – bass on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 13, 14 and 15; guitarrón on track 7; double bass and acoustic guitar on track 13
• Dante Santiago – backing vocals on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6 and 10; vocals on track 7

Other contributors

Printz Board – horns on track 2; trumpet on track 7; Moog synthesizer and clavinet on track 13 Tim Orindgreff – horns on track 2; saxophone and flute on track 7 Terence Yoshiaki – drums on tracks 3 and 7 Noelle Scaggs – backing vocals on tracks 3 and 6 Tippa Irie – vocals on track 4

Ray Brady – guitar on tracks 5 and 9 Terry Dexter – backing vocals on track 6 Travis Barker - drums on track 15 Davey Chegwidden – percussion on track 7 Chuck Prada – percussion on tracks 7 and 14 Debi Nova – vocals on track 7 Sérgio Mendes – piano on track 8

John Legend – vocals on track 10 Jacoby Shaddix – vocals on track 12 Tobin Esperance – bass on track 12 Jerry Horton – guitar on track 12 David Buckner – drums on track 12 Justin Timberlake – vocals on track 13

Main production personnel Ron Fair – executive production; production on track 13; additional vocal production on track 5; piano on track 7 Dylan Dresdow – engineering on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13 and 15; additional vocal engineering on track 3 Christine Sirois – engineering assistance on tracks 1, 5, 6, 7 and 13 Tony Maserati – mixing on all tracks except 10 and 12 Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering

Additional production personnel Tal Herzberg – additional engineering on tracks 5 and 13 Jun Ishizeki – engineering on track 10 Jason Villaroman – engineering on track 11 Chris Lord-Alge – mixing on track 12

Charts and certifications

Chart (2005/2006) Peak position Australian Albums Chart 1[22] Austrian Albums Chart 3[23] Canada Top 50 2[24] Danish Albums Chart 3[25] Dutch Albums Chart 5[26] Germany Top 100 6[24] Finnish Albums Chart 3[27] French Top 150 2[28] Italian Top 75 6[24] New Zealand Albums Chart 2[29] Norwegian Albums Chart 2[30] Spain Albums Chart 55[24] Swedish Albums Chart 5[31] Swiss Albums Chart 1[32] U.S Billboard 200 14[33] UK Top 75 3[24]

Countries Certification Sales Argentina Gold[34] 50,000 Australia 4x Platinum[35] 280,000 Brazil Diamond[24] 500,000 Finland Gold[36] 23,541 France 4x Platinum[37] 413,000 Germany Platinum[38] 200,000 Indonesia Gold[39] 45,000 Japan Gold[40] 100,000 Canada 7x Platinum[41] 700,000 Europe 2x Platinum[24] 2,000,000 Mexico Platinum[42] 100,000 Switzerland Platinum[43] 40,000 Sweden Gold[44] 30,000 U.S. Billboard 200 2x Platinum[45] 3,190,000[46] UK 6x Platinum[47] 1,600,000

References

Preceded by One Determined Heart by Paulini

Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album August 23–29, 2004

Succeeded by Classified by Bond

The Black Eyed Peas will.i.am · apl.de.ap · Taboo · Fergie Kim Hill Studio albums Behind the Front · Bridging the Gap · Elephunk · Monkey Business · The E.N.D. · The Beginning Compilation albums Renegotiations: The Remixes · The E.N.D. Summer 2010 Canadian Invasion Tour: Remix Collection Singles "Joints & Jam" · "Karma" · "Weekends" · "Request + Line" · "Where Is the Love?" · "Shut Up" · "Hey Mama" · "Let's Get It Started" · "Don't Phunk with My Heart" · "Don't Lie" · "My Humps" · "Pump It" · "Boom Boom Pow" · "I Gotta Feeling" · "Meet Me Halfway" · "Imma Be" · "Rock That Body" · "The Time (Dirty Bit)" · "Just Can't Get Enough" · "Don't Stop the Party" · "XOXOXO" Promotional singles "Bebot" · "Alive" · "Missing You" · "Do It Like This" · "Light Up the Night" Featured singles "Mas que Nada" Video albums Behind the Bridge to Elephunk · Live from Sydney to Vegas Tours Monkey Business Tour · Honda Civic Tour · Black Blue & You Tour · The E.N.D. World Tour · The Beginning Massive Stadium Tour Related articles Discography · Atban Klann  · The Black Eyed Peas Experience Book · Category