The Black Eyed Peas - MASTERS OF THE SUN VOL. 1

Black eyed Peas
MASTERS PF THE SUN VOL. 1
2018
Spotify

I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point The Black Eyed Peas got it in their head that they were hip hop legends. Sure they have had some massive hits, but those were far more pop centric records than hip hop. Yet throughout this new record you will hear the now Fergie-less group tout their old school hip hop credentials. It feels odd form the jump, some kind of attempt to "return" to the golden era of hip hop, which The Black Eyed Peas were never a part of. I've been a hip hop fan for a very long time, and while The Black Eyed Peas have always had a presence, this idea that they somehow made a major impact on hip hop is just silly. On the first track "BACK 2 HIPHOP" featuring Nas, Will.I.Am actually says "hip hop die but we resurrect it". The group have always had delusions of grander, like it was their words that could change the world, but this many years on it feels way less possible. Will.I.Am loves to tout his ingenuity and business prowess, but besides designing a few failed projects I just don't see this massive impact the Peas have had on the culture. Dad Rap has become a bit of a punchline, but here it is a total joke. Taboo and api.de.ap just are not very good. They may have been able to hide their lyrical inability behind break dancing and flashing lights, but this going back to the basics album makes them stick out like a sore thumb. Fergie helped make them all stars, they seem to have forgotten that on this record and assume it's their lyrical prowess.

Some of the beats here are passable, but the lyrics seriously feel like the first thing that popped into their heads. There is an idea that Hip Hop is just about rhyming words together.; it's why you see all the YouTube videos of church groups and other cringe as shit groups making parody rap videos. "Black rhymes with whack so let's use that 300 times" seems to be the base for this record. There is so little invention on this record, and that was the thing that made The Black Eyed Peas enjoyable in the first place, just how different they were from the rest of the crowd in hip hop. Bringing in Fergie felt new and exciting, but that vibe as all but vanished. "DOPENESS" is the one track with some inventiveness going on, but that fades as the next track is just some wannabe version of Tribe's "Award Tour" complete with a verse from the Phife Dawg who passed in 2016. Strangely absent from the track is Q-Tip, giving more credence to the idea that this really is not a Tribe track in the slightest. The Black Eyed Peas have relied on the idea that they have the pulse of the culture for a long long time and this album proves that it just is not really true. MASTERS OF THE SUN VOL.1 certinaly does not get you excited for Vol.2 or anymore of the Peas to be honest. 

3.0 out of 10