Elephunk



Elephunk is the third studio album by American group The Black Eyed Peas. It was released on June 24, 2003, by the will.i.am Music Group and A&M Records. 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 more than 9 million copies worldwide, with 3.2 million in the United States alone. This is the first album with Fergie on vocals.

Recording
Development of the album began on November 2, 2002 and was released just under one year 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, but was forced to decline because she already was signed to a contract with Eden's Crush. Danté Santiago then introduced Fergie to will.i.am who was impressed with her vocal talents. She immediately formed a bond with the group and became a permanent member of the Peas and her photo was printed onto the album cover.

Critical reception
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. John Bush from AllMusic said that Elephunk "possesses some of the most boundary-pushing productions in contemporary, (mostly) uncommercial hip-hop". 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." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau commented that the group "remain unbelievable, but in pop that's just one more aesthetic nuance", and stated, "In which the unbelievably dull El Lay alt-rappers fabricate the brightest actual rap album of 2003."

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?'".

Commercial response
In the United States, Elephunk reached number 14 on the Billboard Top 200 and was 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. The singles "Where Is The Love?" and "Shut Up" reached number one in many countries. "Hey Mama" has been used for several advertisements including advertisements for Apple and iTunes. A cover version of "Let's Get It Started" was also featured in the film Hot Tub Time Machine.

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.

Personnel

 * The Black Eyed Peas
 * will.i.am - vocals on all tracks except 11; backing vocals on track 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
 * Taboo (rapper) - vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 13
 * Fergie - vocals on all tracks except 6, 7 and 12
 * Main session musicians
 * George Pajon – 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

The album is considered a victim of the Loudness war, with the worst possible ranking in the Hall of CD Clipping Shame, as 1 minute 19 seconds of the CD's audio has been destroyed by clipping.