The Black Eyed Peas

will.i.am and friends (including Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson) make fun and funky hip-hop.

Information: Black Eyed Peas
Suggested first purchase: Monkey Business

Monkey Business (2005) -- Although the album drags a bit by the end of the hour-plus running time, there are some great dance songs on here; the best ones are the tunes where the band decides to just have some fun. The opener "Pump It" uses a sample of "Misirlou" -- a song that hasn't been disassociated from Pulp Fiction yet -- but it still works somehow. "Don't Phunk with My Heart" is another fun radio tune that leads right into the smoove "My Style" and then to the good pop number of "Don't Lie." The next song is... I'll save that for later. The rest of the album is where things fall apart a bit; only "Ba Bump" and Jack Johnson's "Gone Going" really stand out. By the way, this has a billion guest stars, even by 00s albums standards which tend to have several: Justin Timberlake, Q-Tip, and James Brown appear, just to name a few. So, finally: "My Humps." The average joe seems to hate this song, or at best think it's funny, but I think it's one of the best radio songs to come out of this decade, up there with "Hey Ya!" and "Hollaback Girl." How could you not like it? In the end, an album that could have been cut by 20 minutes or so, but features some fun and fancy stuff throughout, especially the beginning.