Before Fergie came on board, Black Eyed Peas were an earnest , politically aware hip-hop group, complete with a song called “Positivity.” (Even their breakthrough hit, 2003’s “Where Is the Love?,” still bore traces of those origins, slipping a line about “terrorists here livin’ in the USA, the big CIA” onto pop radio.) With his group deep into a post-Fergie era, Will.i.am recently returned to topical music via the song “East L.A.,” teaming up with fellow Black Eyed Pea Taboo for a pointed celebration of a community under siege by ICE . “I’m a Black-xicano, so this is for La Raza,” Will raps on the song, which prominently prominently samples Santana’s 1999 hit “Maria Maria.”

“It’s response music,” says Will, who was raised in a relatively rare Black household in that predominan

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