He Sure Is Will.I.Am

Will.I.Am is one of the founders and leaders of the star rap, funk group called Black Eyed Peas. But he's taken on much other larger roles in the overall hip hop community, including starting his own record label and going solo on some of his artistic pursuits. Will.I.Am is even looking to solve the problem of digital music and copyrights, and getting into movies with the upcoming new X-Men movie.

But believe it or not, Will.I.Am didn't get his big start in rap. It was actually in design. He was a student at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, California. But of course, what he is best known for his work with Black Eyed Peas. The group was an alternative rap group, in the same vein of the Tribe Call Quest. But word is, they decided to take a more commercially appealing approach to their music careers, and brought in Fergie to deliver. She did, and they have since become the rap group with some of the biggest cross-over, pop appeal in recent memory. You can listen to Will.I.Am and Black Eyed Peas in everything from TV commercials to movies.

But Will.I.Am is also a serious musician on his own, releasing Will.I.Am records all the way back in 2001, the first then being "Lost Change." The second Will.I.Am record was "Must B 21" in 2003. Then came the wild popularity of Black Eyed Peas, but Will.I.Am returned solo in 2007 with the "Song About Girls" record. Keep an eye out for the Will.I.Am records "Black Einstein" and "Songs About the World."

More Than Just an Artist

Lately, Will.I.Am has involved himself in politics and campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. In January 2008, the Will.I.Am song "Yes We Can" was released to these ends. The Will.I.Am lyrics in the song actually came from a lot of Obama's speeches. Online, the song got millions of hits, with a video that featured not only Will.I.Am but many many big names from all over entertainment, including Nick Cannon, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Herbie Hanckick, and Scarlett Johansson.

Another Will.I.Am song came out in February of 2008 to follow up with the success and message of the first. This one was called "We Are the Ones." One of the main Will.I.Am lyrics from the song is simply the chanting of Obama's name. And the song scored with even more star power in the video, including Jessica Alba, Kerry Washington, George Lopez, and Macy Gray.

Where can he go next? Getting back to the fashion design that we talked about at the very beginning of the article, Will.I.Am is looking to get big with his new clothing label, called i.am, as well as a collection of exclusive denim clothes, called i.am.Antik. And what else? Of course, he is also designing clothing for Black Eyed Peas.

From Will.I.Am to Hip Hop Music