The music group Black Eyed Peas was formed in 1995 and since then they’ve gained international success. Will.i .am thinks their success is the reason they aren’t considered a “black” group.

“In 2004, Black Eyed Peas, we were just trying to get on. I’m a Black dude, but when you think of Black Eyed Peas, we go so big that…and it hurts, it still hurts a little bit that we’re not considered a Black group because we got that big.”

He added, “When you think of Black Eyed Peas…it’s no longer urban or Black culture, which is…it’s not good for the black community that Black Eyed Peas is not looked at as a Black group because we had international success.”

Will.i.am went on to list genres that were originated by Black musicians but eventually colonized. “…That should be credited to the Black community more so than letting it be adopted.  That’s just a thing that we suffer from all the time. When you think of Jazz, you no longer think of Black anymore. When you think of Rock n’ Roll, you don’t think of Black anymore…I don’t know why we have that. When you think of even country, you don’t think of Black. A lot of the things that we create and we invent, we dispose of or it gets stolen from us to the point where it’s not associated to its origins.”

The Black Eyed Peas replaced Fergie with The Voice of the Philippines season 1 finalist, J. Rey Soul.

The rest of the original group, Will, Taboo, and Apl.de.ap, previously shared that they’re still on good terms with Fergie, who wanted to focus on motherhood. “Fergie is our sister, so even with these small connections, she’s always going to be our sister. But unfortunately, our schedule is displaced by (her) wanting to be a great mom, and she wants to focus on that. And like Will said, we support her 100%.”