will.i.am Album: “Songs About Girls (Explicit)”

Will.i.am AKA William Adams known for most people as the brain and frontman behind Black Eyed Peas and also their producer. After several commercially successful albums with the band Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson went solo last year and released the album

that so far gave her three #1 hits and one #2. Not bad at all. With Fergie's massive success it was natural that also Will.i.am would go solo, however this is actually his third album. But I doubt alot of people heard his previous two albums that were released before Black Eyed Peas had their big break and never got alot of promotion amyway. "Songs About Girls" will be diffrent cause by now he's a well know man amd he also proved his versability as a producer by making hits for Nas, Common, Macy Gray, Nicole Scherzinger and he's currently working with Michael Jackson's new album aswell. "Songs About Girls" is exactly what it is, a Semi-autobiographical concept album about girls. Some songs are more serious and deal with the good and bad times of his 7 year relationship that ended sometime ago. Other songs are funny, less serious and deal about girls in general while some songs are as corny as they can with commercial appeal and deal with female bodyparts. But they are all about women. Will.i.am produces 2/3 of the album by himself while Polow Da Don and Fernando Garibay do the rest. The overall sound is very retro-ish late 70'-early 80's Influenced but with modern tecnique ofcourse. While most other superproducers have an orgy of guests on their albums, the only one here is Snoop Dogg. Let's take a look at the songs and see if he manage to make this album more worthwile then his first two.

It starts slow with a more serious song called "Over" about the failure of his longtime relationship. For those of you only fammiliar with BEP will be surprised. "Heartbreaker" another midtempo with disco beats continues where the first one ended with a confession of breaking his girlfriends heart. Perhaps not hit material but neither of the two are bad and "Heartbreaker" is a grower. Music lovers probably heard the first single "I Got It From My Mama", it's commercial with great beats but the lyrics are so corny that you just want to plug your ears. Will ask hot girls where they got their body's from and they reply "I Got It From My Mama". Later Will garantees that if their Mama is ugly they gonna be ugly like their mama. Question: What if their daddy was handsome?. One of the standouts is "She's A Star" with great hook and sound. I guess it's about his dreamwoman. "Get Your Money" is about the good hearted stripper that just strips for a living....and then Will's apparent fascinating for her. A pretty commercial song but it isn't bad at all, especially it's lethal electro sample beat. The worst song one the album is "The Donque Song" is just corny and annoying. Donque is reffering to a the female bodypart that strippers should shake. Snoop doesn't say much but this song is unbearable with or without him. Next up is the instrumental (or more or less) "Impatient" that sound like a disco song from 1977.

"One More Chance" is just as serious as the first two songs anout getting another chance in the relationship. It's amazing that this is the same guy that just sang about female bodyparts. Or maybe his split personality was the reason why it didn't work out?. Either way, this song is good. "Invisible" is more seriousness, this is a stripped down song where the lyrics are more in focus then the beats. Another good song. "Fantastic" samples Jackson 5's "I Want You Back", must have been the 250th person that does that. However, this is another song of his girl where he says that she shouldn't worry about him cause he's doing fantastic. Will changed his mind on "Fly Girl" where he regrets not marrying his girl and not trying harder to work things about, he also says he turned down others cause he was still in love with his ex. Let's hope she listen to this one and they can get back together or something. Next up is an interlude called "Dynamic" but it's just a bit over 1 minute. "Ain't It Pretty" is a great love song about a hot girl you just wanna stare at, probably my favorite production here. "Make It Funky" a funky uptempo indeed, not too clever lyrics and serves as mosly a feel good song. The closer "SOS (Mother Nature) isn't actually about a woman but mother nature. It's a political song about the problems of the world. It's one of the best with smart lyrics. More of this on his next album I hope.

Overall, the best albums are the one's you didn't have high thoughts of before you listened through them and they blew your expectations out of proportion. This album is one of those. I know that Will.i.am was a gifted producer and most of the songs with or without the use of samples are very good but I didn't know he was able to write so many strong serious lyrics. There are loads of great songs here that you wouldn't think the Black Eyes Peas leader could write. The only problem I have are a few corny songs like "The Donque Song" that feels like they were mostly done to get radio airplay and doesn't do the album any justice, considering that it will be the second single aswell. But regardless of a few missteps Will still makes a very good album that will surprise alot of people. 1. It's a concept album where all songs are about the same things (girls) 2. the sound is mostly cohesive 3. Will.i.am is the sole star here without too many lukewarm guests appearences. 4. he proves he's more then just a sound (great lyrics aswell). While Timbaland, Pharell and Swizz Beatz didn't deliver on their solo albums because of some of the reasons mentioned above,. Will.i.am does and he makes one of the best pop albums of the year.

I listened to this cd on my way back from class(i go to a huge school). ANyway, i thought the whole cd was just way to generic. It seems like he was honestly trying to be too cool. I got it from my mama, i thought it was ok. It wasn't that great. It was pretty boring, but sometimes i had nothing to listen to on my zune, so I shuffled it on their. I HAD TO GET USE TO IT! But overall the rest of the songs seemed like they kind of sucked! The only reason i gave it three stars, if your at a party and need some party music, (when everybodys not in conscious state). Then you could play this cd, and actually put it on. It does have some decent club beats. Other then that i would only buy this cd from the 5.99 section.

Will.I.Am is probably best known as the brains behind the Black Eyed Peas - he's listed as one of the main producers and is probably the most visible of the group aside from their first lady of funk, Fergie. As of late, the BEP have been critiqued for selling out, in part through the addition of Fergie...so the question on most people's minds when they heard that Will was coming out with an album of his own was whether he could produce some hot new tracks without the assistance of a female vocalist which BEP has relied on quite heavily on their last two albums.

The stunning thing is - he does it. Although there is the odd use of a female vocalist, most of the album is just Will and most of it shockingly entertaining and well-produced. Don't buy this if you're expecting a bunch of collabs with other artists (in the vein of Timbaland perhaps) but do buy it if you dig the general sounds of the BEP and expect slick production and great tunes to dance and groove to.

The first single of course was the "I Got It From My Mama" - which might not be everyone's fave tune but it's a relatively clean version of your standard hot girl rap song, and it's awfully catchy. Another likely single is "Heartbreaker" - a repetitive-chorus tune in the same vein of "Shut Up" and "Don't Lie" by the BEP.

Other faves of mine include the upbeat guitar number "Invisible" which features a great singalong chorus, and the beat/vocals on Fantastic are unbeatable. In terms of collabs there is one with Snoop Dogg, but his participation is minimal - The Donque Song up where "My Humps" left off, and may just end up as the surprise runaway hit of the album. There is no single word to describe the album other than - slick - but it does draw inspiration from a variety of sounds including the 70's on the disco-tinged 'Impatient', orchestral strings on "She's a Star" and grittier hip hop beats throughout.

Overall this is a solid offering by Will.I.Am. Although it lacks some of the lyrical inspiration of BEP's albums, it still packs an awesome punch of catchy, fun, slick r'n'b/hip hop for the masses.

The Black Eyed Peas didn't really get a whole lot of mainstream love until Fergie joined the group, a point driven home by the fact that the songs where she was predominantly featured became the biggest hits -- not to mention that almost every single off her solo album

became a #1 hit. I guess Wyclef, Jr. -- I mean, will.i.am wanted a little bit of that action for himself, which is why HE went the solo route for Songs About Girls.

This is a concept album: if the title didn't tip you off, the songs are pretty much all about women (maybe he's trying to be the new LL Cool J?). And although it's true that Will is a better rapper than apl.de.ap and Taboo, he still isn't exactly the most exciting rapper in the world. But that's not even what the real problem is; the problem is the lyrical quality. It feels more like an R&B album DISGUISED as a rap album; and the album as a whole is cornier than a can of Del Monte. This is especially evidenced by "I Got It from My Mama", a phrase that has gotten played out (well, not exactly, but no one really SAYS it any more).

Another questionable track is "The Donque Song", which is made even less interesting by Snoop Dogg's third verse, which has him interpolating his own "Gin and Juice" but instead making it about women. "She's a Star" is cheesy, "Make It Funky" and "Impatient" are mindless club tracks (especially the latter, a techno song that Will isn't even in), and "Get Your Money" is an unfocused tribute to strippers.

The only song that isn't about girls is the obligatory end-of-album we-are-the-world song, "S.O.S. (Mother Nature)". The two-in-a-row of "Invisible" and "Fantastic" (which uses a clever sample of Jackson 5's "I Want You Back") are okay, but they're not enough to make the album more exciting. In the end, Songs About Girls is a pretty forgettable album (I don't even remember what the first single was), so you can do without it.

Anthony Rupert

Will I am is the Producer mind behind the Black Eyeed peas. some things there are catchy, some are alright and some are head scratchers and it seems that most folks got hip to BEP after they Brought Fergie into the mix. but this Project reflects alot of the formula that has been part of Will's past, present and where he is now. which basically is more Groove based music, but nothing that truly goes for songwriting. the usual funny catchy cuts are here,but nothing on this album is gonna make Will I Am seem any different as a Solo Artist than he is in the Black Eyed Peas. i can bop my head to the beats and a Groove,but to be this hip happening Producer that is labeled as such, i don't feel that here at all.