Are they or aren't they together? No, that doesn't have anything to do with the status of Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber's teenage romance. But it is the question that's been volleyballed around the music industry about the status of pretty much the only relevant group in popular music.
TMZ recently caught up with Fergie and Taboo as they made their way home from a flight and they asked the two Peas if they were on a break or broken up. They both reaffirmed their committment to the Peas and said that they were merely on a break. It was pretty much the PR equivalent of saying, "Nothing to see here, folks. Move along."
Watch Fergie and Taboo talk about the group's status below
So BEP is staying intact, for now at least. But given the mediocre performance of their last album, The Beginning, and the fact that some of them are approaching middle age, maybe they really should consider hanging it up. After all, how much longer can they beat the futuristic, electro pop thing into the ground? Is "Boom Boom Pow" going to be fun to perform in their 40s?
Fergie has a voice on her and the success of her solo album The Dutchess is proof that she'd do fine in a post-BEP life. The same goes for will.i.am, who is a versatile producer capable of crafting gems like Nas' "Hip Hop Is Dead" and Rihanna's "Photographs." As for Taboo and apl.de.ap, they at least have their cultural backgrounds to fall back on, with apl enjoying support from the Filipino community and Taboo from the Chicanos.
And you know how the saying goes: Where there's smoke, there's fire. So what's really fueling all of the BEP break-up rumors? Aside from Kanye mistakenly talking out of turn about the group's demise. Whoops. Was Ye privvy to private conversations that made him think everything was dunzo?
It's no secret that the music industry currently favors solo artists. There are a myriad of reasons why solo artists are more popular today than groups:
- They're cheaper for the label. Having to pay for accommodations for more than one artist is an obvious additional expense that labels would love to avoid. Also, since a group has to split advances and royalties between multiple people, they might demand bigger payouts so that they each take home a bigger slice of the pie.
- People worship one hero at a time. It always happens with groups, someone gets deemed the "favorite." This leaves the other members of the group as nothing more than bit players, support staff. In an era where people devote themselves feverishly to one person (think of Gaga's little monster, Rihanna's Navy, etc.) it's pretty much impossible to find someone who spreads that kind of devotion evenly among members of group. And this is nothing new, that's why Jermaine Jackson is still bitter all these years about Michael hogging .
- It's hard to keep egos and relationships in check. It's tough for two people to get along all the time and it only gets worse when you throw more people into the mix. Break-ups over bruised egos, hurt feelings and bounced checks are par for the course for groups. Lasting more than a few albums is pretty much a laudable feat in pop music.
Any of these issues could be plaguing the Peas behind the scenes. Especially with will.i.am's profile rising while Fergie's has taken a backseat. Any issues for now though, are staying under wraps. But maybe it would be best for all parties involved to call it quits while on top, as Destiny's Child did, before anything unpleasant spills out into the open.
What do you think? Should the Black Eyed Peas stay together or go their separate ways?
