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July 23, 2025 45 mins

Today on The Breakfast Club, will.i.am & Taboo Talk 'East LA, Black Eyed Peas, Childhood, Giving Back To LA Communities, AI. Listen For More!

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Breakfast Club Morning.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
Everybody is the d j en Vy Jess hilarious, charlamage
the guy. We are the breakfast Club. We got some
special guests in the building. Well, I am a table.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
Welcome fella.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
What's up? How you feeling it's going to be here?

Speaker 5 (00:18):
Good to see you, man, y'all got the new record
out of East l A.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, talks about that, man.

Speaker 6 (00:23):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 7 (00:29):
Obviously we sampled Carlos Santana, so thank you for clearing that.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
It's been sampled a bunch.

Speaker 7 (00:37):
But there's a part in the song where he says, uh, Maria,
Maria fell in love with East l A. So I
just wanted to like highlight that part of the song
and shout out the community that's being hit pretty hard
by the ice raids. And what's beautiful about that is

(00:58):
uh also got it.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I also got a.

Speaker 7 (01:01):
Text from y Cleft saying he's a producer of the song, like, yo,
let me get a clip of the video so I
could post that. So that that meant a lot. But
what's going on in our communities, it's pretty harsh, and
I'm all for, you know, making.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Sure our borders are safe.

Speaker 7 (01:20):
But it's just inhumane to go after anybody that looks
Latin that you know, there's people that have been detained
that are residents and citizens. There was a person who
served in our military that has been detained.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
I just think that's a.

Speaker 7 (01:36):
Pretty you know, bad execution that took a good idea
to turned into a bad idea because they could have
been going out to making sure our communities are safer
by apprehending, you know, criminals, but to go after hard
working folks, people that are working two to three jobs
to keep you know, food on their table, their kids

(01:59):
going off to four year colleges. I know this firsthand
because of the my program, my foundation, the work that
we do getting kids to go off to four year colleges.
You know, we've witnessed, you know, the fear that's been
instilled in our in our neighborhood. So I just wanted
to lift up the vibration and celebrate the community.

Speaker 8 (02:21):
And also as Angelino's born and raised in East Los Angeles,
his mom went to Roosevelt High School, my mom went
to Guarfield, So there was always this beautiful rivalry, but
at the end of the day, it was about uniting
and bringing East La together and standing in solidarity with
those folks that you know that are crying out for
help justice.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
So what does East La mean to both of you personally?

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Like, is this record like more of a tribute, is
it a time capsule or is it something else?

Speaker 7 (02:45):
Well, for me, it's a thank you, It's a I
see you, I love you. I have a lot of
just beautiful memories there. I was born and raised there,
spent twenty five years of my life there in the
projects dreaming. I was able to move my family, you know,

(03:06):
and we migrated out of the projects, but I still
you know, loved my neighborhood, my program. I got a
robotics program right in the middle of the projects that
I'm from. My after school program is right down the
street from that. My aunt still works at the Homo
shelter there. My uncle still works at the park, you know,

(03:27):
keeping the kids off the streets. So although we moved
out of the projects, we're still in the heart of
the community. So East La is like an ongoing dialogue
of commitment dedication to you know, change the vibration of
the neighborhood.

Speaker 8 (03:43):
And for me, as a Native Mexican kid from La,
you know, It means a lot to be able to
not only give back to the community in a sense
of championing the idea of solidarity and oneness, but also
to be able to wrap in Spanish or Spanglish like
that was dope for us, you know, using slang specifically from.

Speaker 9 (04:02):
East la or Ball Heights.

Speaker 8 (04:04):
Really loving the vibration and the frequency that is the
color and the texture of East Los Angeles, and that's
why the video is so colorful.

Speaker 6 (04:11):
You know, it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
You know, you said something earlier that a lot of
people don't necessarily say. You were saying that you're not
mad if they're taking criminals off the street, taking people
that are doing bad things off the street, but there
has to be a process and procedure to do it
and to figure out the good from the bad.

Speaker 6 (04:27):
Is that what you're saying.

Speaker 7 (04:28):
Yeah, like you remembered, during COVID, they did a really
good job making sure everybody got swabbed, making sure everybody
got vaccinated and.

Speaker 6 (04:37):
Specifically and forced it on most people.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
But well that's a different subject.

Speaker 7 (04:45):
Yeah, but there was like a where you volunteered and
drove to the near a stadium or the arena to
get swabbed. And vaccinated, and a lot of the folks
that did that, not a lot portion of the folks
that did that were undocumented. So they know where the
undocumented people actually live. They got all the information, but

(05:09):
the way that they went about doing it is inhumane.
There is a you know, a path that they could
have taken to boost our economy by turning undocumented folks
to documented folks.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Because these folks that.

Speaker 7 (05:29):
Have these jobs, income taxes are taken from their paycheck.
And people in Beverly Hills in Brentwood, they know their
services are needed. Altadena and Malible Palisades burned down in
reconfiguring these neighborhoods. They know the value of these people's services,

(05:53):
and so I just think the way they went about
it is horribly wrong. There could have been a better
tax that, you know, gave people dignity, gave them the
opportunity to become citizens, just the way other countries do.
Just to blanket, just go into a neighborhood, mask people
right in unmarked vehicles, you're inciting kidnapping because there's.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
No way to be able like who was that person?
You couldn't even you couldn't.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Even describe them.

Speaker 7 (06:25):
You know what car was that You wouldn't even know
what if that was a government vehicle. I just think
the tactic was just poor, you know. And and it
doesn't reflect America's best. It doesn't reflect that sounds like
a third world country. That doesn't sound like America.

Speaker 6 (06:44):
I agree.

Speaker 5 (06:45):
Why was West Side Story to write song the sample
for this record?

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Oh, because it's at East LA. That's the part.

Speaker 7 (06:54):
I just love that part. And he said it with
so much emotion that I just wanted to highlight that part.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, you know, I wanted to highlight you know.

Speaker 7 (07:06):
And and Carlos Santana has always been a hero in
the Chicano community me growing up. You know, his brother
did an awesome song. Shout out to Kid Frost for
sampling his brother's record.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
You know it's a.

Speaker 7 (07:19):
It's it's a you know, and absolute Carlos Santana once
again for for clearing that record.

Speaker 8 (07:28):
Yeah, and it was beautiful to have like the musical
transitions from the three to zero, which were used to
in East Los Angeles when you're on a date or
you're doing something with family, you see three oo's in
restaurants and then.

Speaker 10 (07:39):
To go what is like a like a yes, Okay,
so that frequency that you first hear that's a three
ozero and the three dudes playing usually at restaurants or
you know, at different events, and then to be able
to have it go into a transition with Cumbia with
the undertone of the hip hop bop as you said,

(08:00):
like that's it's really dope.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
What's the cool was it?

Speaker 7 (08:05):
Cumbia is a style of music that originated out of
Colombia and then a lot of Central American countries have
adopted it. Thenald Cumbia's is really awesome. It's it's popular,
but originated in Colombia.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's like a.

Speaker 7 (08:24):
It's like this rhythm, like you know, like I thought this,
and you know, trap has a signature rhythm. You know,
there's all these house has obviously it has their four
on the floor, but a cumbia's uh on the percussive
that that's a signature rhythm throughout every Cumbia. And so

(08:45):
we we wanted to go from a trio to a
cumbia because that's what growing up in East La felt like.
I grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood which.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Was you know, beautiful, The only black family there there was.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Like, okay, there was the Hammers, there were.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
We don't know these people, will.

Speaker 7 (09:08):
People, the Rose family, the Walkers, my family, which is
pretty pretty pretty large, No Canes. Uh, there's about five
black families in our neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
But to all the.

Speaker 7 (09:30):
Mexicans, it was just one black family, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
And it was beautiful. It was beautiful growing up there.

Speaker 6 (09:37):
Oh, people say you said that.

Speaker 11 (09:40):
People tell you that you're not from Easter Laborature from
boy Heights.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
What's the difference.

Speaker 7 (09:45):
So growing up was East l A. But then we
they like twenty years ago, they specified like we're from
Boyle Heights and Boyle Heights. Uh, boyl High it's just
you know, just east of downtown, but not as east
as East l A.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
And these two schools.

Speaker 7 (10:08):
I think, really you know, define the rivalry between East
East LA and Boyle Heights, Roosevelt and Garfield. There's a
lot of like, uh, as far as the vibe, it's
the same as far as like, but the high schools,
the gangs are totally totally different. But to to East

(10:30):
Siders it's all one thing. But then there's there's a
lot of people that's gonna be listening, watching this, so
I have to be super careful to be like Willie's
Boyle Heights food gonna be given of, you know, separating
us or like same world together. But right now we're
all together. Right now, we're all together, right you want to.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
You know, we talk about, you know, black in the
Latin culture a lot, especially in New York, right is different.
It's more Puerto Rican Dominicans, right, And I'm not Dominican,
I'm black, he saysn't.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
You look Dominican.

Speaker 6 (11:01):
Everybody said, I'm not. I'm fully black.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
But you know, growing up, it was kind of like
it was when I say us verse there and not
us as in it was the blacks, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
We stood together. We stuck together, right, We clubbed, we
partied together.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
It was against So it's nothing to hear somebody Puerto
Rican say nigga.

Speaker 6 (11:20):
You know that's my nigga. That's that. That's to the
ever So a Mexican ot recently said that people had
a problem with it.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
It's different here because we didn't grow up with the
Mexican community. We grew up with Puerto Rican Dominicans. So
say Fat Joe saying nigga was never a problem j
Loo saying it. We didn't think, oh my god, it
was how we grew up, especially in Bronx, queens Brook
and whatever. How is it growing up in LA Because
people were disturbed by that one time.

Speaker 6 (11:43):
But I'm like, that might be the same thing as
how we grew up here.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
It depends, Like.

Speaker 7 (11:50):
Nathaniels, they say they drop in bombs all the time people,
So the northern California and California and you know Richmond
and they embomb all the time. Daniels, southern southern Cali,
they don't really do that.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Uh. Our manager, Polo, he'd be dropping it crazy.

Speaker 6 (12:17):
Here though, Mexican.

Speaker 7 (12:20):
Polo's Mexican, Like yeah, So it all depends on what
which part of California you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
But because there's more black and Latin h.

Speaker 7 (12:33):
Communities and in northern California where's tightly mixed together, I
could see why that that that's that has like a tolerance.
In southern California. Uh, there has been a division between
Blacks and Latins highly because of the prisons. So the
prisons have separated blacks and Latins, and so there was

(12:58):
like this notion that, wow, you survived, how did you
get how did you survive being one of the only
black families in all Mexican neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
For me, it was it was, it was awesome.

Speaker 7 (13:08):
There's a lot of black people in southern California probably
had a tougher time, but for my family it was
and the other black families in our neighborhood and Elisa Pico,
Elisa Village, it was awesome.

Speaker 8 (13:22):
In Tabo well, growing up in Dogtown Projects, which is
close to where he grew up, and then I moved
to Rosemey, California. It was predominantly Asian and Mexican, so
we didn't really have to worry about that.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know.

Speaker 8 (13:35):
It was more like you know, the Mexican Asian War,
because it was heavy in the eighties, like the Watchings
versus like Bartleer Street or you know, all these gangs
that were in the San Gabo Valley. But I always
knew that, you know, there was like this divide in
this separation. So when Black Eyed Peas was formed, it.

Speaker 9 (13:51):
Was like yo, hip hop brought us together. It was
not a cultural thing.

Speaker 8 (13:54):
It's not like oh, tabs Native American and Mexican and
Will's black and apples Filipinos more like now we we
hip hop kids. We grew up on dayline tribe. So
that whole essence of just like you know, standing together
for hip hop, B boying, MCing. It was that thing,
so that the word was never really like a thing

(14:16):
for us. You had your in your neighborhood.

Speaker 7 (14:19):
You you got a lot of flag because I hung
out with Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Like, hey, out with the blacks.

Speaker 8 (14:26):
Oh yeah, so so my son's mom, Josh, my oldest son,
his mom was black.

Speaker 9 (14:32):
So I got a lot of flat like, hey, you're
living a taboo lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yea girlfriend.

Speaker 7 (14:38):
The lifestyle.

Speaker 8 (14:39):
Yeah, so so I was like, yeah, well, if I'm
living the taboo lifestyle, I am taboo.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
So then that whole energy.

Speaker 8 (14:47):
Came about, like yo, I don't I'm down with the
Blacks and down with the Filipinos, down with the Mexicans,
the Asians.

Speaker 9 (14:52):
And that's that that connection that I had growing up.

Speaker 5 (14:56):
How does like when you talk about East l A
and you know y'all mentioned in all the different types
of music that you were influenced by it that I
went into this record, how did that show up in
you'll musical identity before?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Oh oh oh, so.

Speaker 7 (15:07):
If you listen to like songs like it, he says,
on their first album. If you listened to like songs
like Latin Girls on our third album, or people that
we've collaborated with, like Juanas and Juan Sebastian, DeBie Nova,
or a few Sergio Mendez.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
If you see.

Speaker 7 (15:27):
Records on like Translation where we went and dove into
like reggaeton, or when I collaborated with Daddy Yankee, like
on his first record. We've always been like fusing Latin
rhythms like our bio was in nineteen ninety eight.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
It was like wise Black Eyed Peace different were like we.

Speaker 7 (15:48):
Infuse Latin rhythms because of our you know, upbringings, like
you google it, google it, but yeah if Google has it.

Speaker 8 (15:56):
And it was dope being able to drop Spanish versus
back then. So I was dropping, Like we did a
song called Release, and I was like, s I see see,
I see Mosic guys, she took get it something that weather?
I said, yes, and so oh, I see what I said.
Okay said it's the offer. You Spanish tongue is spinaking true.

(16:18):
That was like you've been talking that ship.

Speaker 4 (16:22):
You don't know what he says.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
I could have said this ship sucks.

Speaker 9 (16:25):
This shows.

Speaker 7 (16:30):
We would always we would always be like yo time,
like right, you know, you gotta dig and you gotta
go on your your Latin bag bro on this one.
Like that's it's really like hone into our individuality cultural differences.
You know, like you the Latin native dude. You know
what I'm saying, I'm the black dude from an all

(16:50):
Mexican neighborhood. Apples like super Filipinos straight from the Philippines
don't even speaking English for like twenty minutes.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
And you know that's.

Speaker 7 (17:00):
That's why Black Eyed Peas is like super international.

Speaker 9 (17:04):
Just be white like you.

Speaker 7 (17:08):
Before before we even Matt Fred before you mat fraid
and so black Eyed Peas.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
Not the way she said, and that was funny.

Speaker 7 (17:21):
But our biggest audience outside of the not we're more
We have more success.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
In Mexico than the States really really.

Speaker 7 (17:32):
Like yeah, yeah, like we could play like multiple stadiums
at our height. We was playing at Steca Stadium, was
playing stadiums all throughout Salvador and uh you know Bottomla Chile, Brazil, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela,
Like yeah, like that's where we would go to those

(17:52):
places that's the reason why the only stadium we played
in America was in Miami.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
We didn't play no stadiums in the States.

Speaker 7 (18:00):
Really at the height of our career, the height of
our career, we never played the stadium in America just
in Miami.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
That's in our mind.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
Black Eyed Peas was just big and that's all your
name stadium.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Yeahah, outside of America.

Speaker 6 (18:14):
Wow, I don't know why I could have sworn they
did the garden. No, no, we did. We did a
different arenas, arenas.

Speaker 7 (18:21):
Yeah, twenty twenty thirty thousand stadiums is eighty dollars, no
med life, none of those.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
No, we didn't do that just in Miami.

Speaker 8 (18:30):
But we was able to do eighty three thousand in
France three to three times in a row.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, Japan, all you that you were able to do
it there and not necessarily here. Did you want to
do it here or you didn't care success? You know
it didn't matter to you?

Speaker 1 (18:43):
No, no, no, I can't nitpick be like no.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Because some people want to do home like I want
home like that. You know, home is earth, okay.

Speaker 8 (18:52):
And we've we've always had It's true, we've always had
the mentality like apples from the Philippines.

Speaker 9 (18:58):
Our goal is less.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Performed in the Philippine.

Speaker 8 (19:00):
Yeah, we got to go back to Apple's motherland, so
it meant international.

Speaker 9 (19:05):
The idea is we're going to take this international.

Speaker 6 (19:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
Will being one of the only black people growing up
in that Mexican community in Taboo, you know, you know,
getting flack I guess from your own community about you know,
being with a black woman.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Did y'all have any identity issues growing up?

Speaker 9 (19:23):
No?

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Hip hop did a really good job.

Speaker 7 (19:28):
That was like, hey, Willie rapped on, hey, rap about
the neighborhood they seen, or like he that dances food and.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
So because not even like hey and I forgets it.
Now you come to all the kind of inside of
fucking parties with his home.

Speaker 7 (19:49):
But like that's how I That's how I talked growing up.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Like that's how I talked growing up.

Speaker 7 (19:54):
If you would have if you would have seen me
fifteen years old, like, hey, that's what it was.

Speaker 6 (19:58):
What did your mother and pop say when you came
home talking.

Speaker 7 (20:00):
Late that, Oh, my mom's talking about my mom talks
like that. Now, my mom don't talk like that.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
What about your cousins?

Speaker 11 (20:11):
Oh, in the hood hood and you came around with
the headhomes.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
So I just took my mom.

Speaker 7 (20:15):
We had a every every summer, my mom comes with
me to Europe on tour for the past like eight years.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
So we were just there.

Speaker 7 (20:24):
We were in Turkey and in France this summer. So
my Mom's like, hey, Willie, look I got some pictures.
So my mom's trying pictures. I'm like, where's that. She's like, oh,
that's Media's king. I'm like, when was mean, Willie? That
was last week? I'm like, why didn't I do? Why

(20:45):
didn't I go and perform at it? Really? Because y'all
was out here. So a King Sina, for those is listening,
is like a Latin.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Sixteen.

Speaker 7 (20:55):
So you know, my my and I wanted to make
sure her daughter had a She's half black, half Mexican.
A lot of my nieces and nephews and cousins are
half black, half Mexican, and half black half Mexican.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
They end up looking Dominican.

Speaker 7 (21:14):
Mm hmm, Jessica, I call it homemade Dominican.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Homemade Dominican, yes, we.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Got homemade Dominican.

Speaker 7 (21:20):
Yes, And in our in our neighborhood, like so a
lot of our niece, my cousins look like you.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Because you ain't.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
You ain't Dominican, but Dominican they look like you know
what I mean.

Speaker 6 (21:31):
They look like just married a Mexican man, you look.

Speaker 7 (21:35):
Like you can look like sisters.

Speaker 6 (21:42):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (21:42):
My daughter is Mexican and black. It's do so I
have a homemade Dominican. You got a homemade Dominican. That's
a dope.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Dominican. Becauserie Dominican.

Speaker 7 (21:53):
No, no, no, you just listen to the story Black and Mexicans.
Their kids look like Dominican. Therefore the yeah, so envy
might be homemade. Then I'm not dominic.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
And here's the reason why.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
If you think about, like, what's that island on the
other side of dominic d r is Haiti.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
So people look like got.

Speaker 7 (22:20):
And so obviously if you have black, any African descendant,
that's gonna go.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
That's not gonna go right to the dominic community.

Speaker 7 (22:28):
They're gonna be like, we're not African descendants, we're not black,
which is a different conversation conversation, but you unpack it
all they you know, ancestors look like me and gotcha.
You know we look alike. We could be in the
same family.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, MV.

Speaker 9 (22:50):
Have you guys noticed Ice out here like the way
it is in l A.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
Oh yeah absolutely not like no, not like l A.
But yeah, like you see him over in Jersey, heavy
in Jersey.

Speaker 6 (23:01):
But you see it.

Speaker 9 (23:02):
Puerto Ricans and Dominicans.

Speaker 6 (23:04):
Dominicans, Yeah, you see it.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Uh, And you know they're all online and they'll send
out of text, Hey just let you know Ice is
in Patterson today, Ices in this town, Ices in this town,
and you know, yeah, they running up grabbing.

Speaker 5 (23:14):
And he never used to let people know he's not
Dominican more than he do now. Before he used to
kind of embrace it.

Speaker 6 (23:20):
He's a lie.

Speaker 5 (23:21):
That's In fact, he did a whole interview with TMD
and the headline is like I am black.

Speaker 6 (23:32):
Side.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
He plays around.

Speaker 6 (23:33):
All the time, he says, the Dominican he was even good.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
I'm gonna do a ride along and call Ice to
see if they grab you.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
If he confirmed he's a hundred, why.

Speaker 4 (23:52):
Not.

Speaker 6 (23:53):
I want a Dominican a war too. But I'm not Dominican,
I'm black.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
I don't get it. What about you have any identity issues?

Speaker 8 (24:01):
So growing up in Los Angeles is a mosaic of cultures.
So I just felt comfortable moving through understanding and loving
and appreciating learning about all these different cultures growing up. Dude,
I'm Native and Mexican. So one end, my grandmother was
connected to the Jerome roots, which is the Native side,

(24:22):
and then on another end, I got my Mexican Chicano
roots right growing up growing up in La So it
was a tough heavy lift to like bring other nationalities
to the house sometimes, But at the end of the day,
it was like, this is who I am, and so
I'm going to be. I'm go an live this taboo lifestyle.
People rock with it or not, It's all good.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
This is who I am.

Speaker 9 (24:43):
I stand on business, you know.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
It's dope too.

Speaker 7 (24:45):
Like I was I rereading the comments on YouTube, and
there's this there's a there's a couple of people that
are like, hey, Willie, your mom, your mom raised me
at the park, mom.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Took care of you know.

Speaker 7 (24:58):
Yeah, so my mom in the projects was the mom
that took care of people's kids. And so there's a
lot of people that are on that when I travel
out there, when I'm out in the streets on the
on the comments on videos that are like, your mom
took care of me, your mom raised me, and your
mom helped raise my kids, and so the love in

(25:20):
the community was real. The only time I wouldn't say
it was an identity issue. My mom was real strict
growing up, like I couldn't really go outside and play
too far from where she could in line of sight
and so, and then a lot of my friends growing
up their family their their parents were kind of like,
you know, free, Willie. They go out and do whatever

(25:42):
they wanted, and so I would always be like, damn,
my mom is mean. I wish my mom was like
Andy's mom. I wish my mom was like Lollo's mom.
But now that I got older, I'm so happy that
my mom was strict, you know, rest in peace Lollo
that I grew up with. But yeah, my mama is

(26:02):
my mama strict, And they would be like, where you're going, Willie,
your mom did you get a switch, hunk?

Speaker 1 (26:08):
So my mom would be like, go get a switch.

Speaker 7 (26:10):
Make sure that I went and got a switch by
where people were playing.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
I thought that was just some down south ship we
was born.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
My mom was born in the South.

Speaker 7 (26:19):
She was born in Louisiana, and Grandma was born and
picking in Mississippi, and then brought a lot of that
Southern like, you know, raising how she disciplined us, She
kept that and ongoing and how she raised us.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
She'd be like, get.

Speaker 7 (26:34):
You put out there and go give me a switch
from over there where they at.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
So I had to go get a switch.

Speaker 7 (26:40):
And your mom's gonna hit you hung and your mom
me so they would follow me just to go see
me get disciplined.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
And then the old thing about it if you picked
the wrong switch, you can't. Yeah, that taught you a
lot about consequences and accountability at a young.

Speaker 6 (26:57):
Age, not abuse.

Speaker 9 (27:00):
Yeah, it's a different, different time, you know.

Speaker 8 (27:02):
Speaking about moms. My mom send us a nice text
about the song. She said, I'm proud of you and
Willie taking it back to the neighborhood. My memories of
growing up in East l A start with the music
playing loud and watching Chicano culture evolve and take over
the streets. I never thought that my son would bring
the music to my childhood neighborhood.

Speaker 7 (27:20):
Love you forever, Mom and my mom's My mom's text was,
I cannot believe I made a trailblazer, a waymaker, an
influencer and innovator.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
That's my Willie.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
I love that. Yeah, you look like a man. What
took y'all so long to create a song?

Speaker 5 (27:50):
I guess paying homs to this particular community.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
That's a really good question. It is, I tell you.
I tell you.

Speaker 7 (28:04):
So, up until this point, if you did a record,
it would be it would be a gang alignment. But
my neighborhood is you know, we know the gang in
the neighborhood. And I didn't want to make like a

(28:30):
record that can be misconscrewed. We misconscrewed as.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Like gang alignment. I didn't want to make a record
that that was like.

Speaker 7 (28:45):
Street you know and celebrating, you know, the conditions of life.
And so now the record is about it's urgent. We'll
have songs like Latin Girls was well, have songs that
that shout out.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
You know, the lifestyle of where we were raised.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
But it was all.

Speaker 7 (29:10):
Fantasy music, so using your imagination. Most people like want
to keep a real, living reality. I wanted to stay fantasy.
I wanted to make music that was like different from
you know, the conditions of life, like.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
I don't want to relive that.

Speaker 7 (29:28):
And so music, especially Daylight sold trump real quest I was.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Escape from my reality, and I think.

Speaker 7 (29:37):
If I look at you know, that was a heavy
question because it makes you reflect on.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Like, hey, why didn't we do that?

Speaker 7 (29:45):
Why didn't we have like an East LA record in
nineteen ninety eight, nine two thousand one. I think it's
been two decades, you know. Plus so why now? And
the reason now, it's because the urgency and the need
for you know, changing the vibration and you know, think

(30:08):
in the community and at the same time letting the
community know that we.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Got your back.

Speaker 7 (30:15):
There's a lot of folks that don't want to speak
up because there's a lot of politics on speaking There's
a lot of folks that that remained silent because of
like what is it? What is it going to mean?
There's a lot of you don't know who owns what.
M there's there's a you could be signed in a contract,

(30:38):
you could be doing something with a certain organization and
that organization owns things.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
You don't know who owns what. And so for that like.

Speaker 7 (30:50):
We've we've already had a career and now's the time
they do that. There's it if there was a time,
will be right now more so than then.

Speaker 8 (30:59):
And also add that we are from the cloth of
like self Destruction, Boogie Down Production, Miss Melody, Dougie Fresh
m See like all that era, and then you had
We're All in the Same Game on the West Coast
with Young MC easy that record. So we've always been
pillars of activism, but movement with like songs like Where's
the Love Right, Well, we advocate for people that may

(31:21):
not have the same platform that we have, and in
this this situation, it was RASA, It was people that
we grew up with. It was the voices that didn't
have the platform, and it was our love letter to
our childhood. But also to stand in solidarity with those people.

Speaker 7 (31:36):
Also, also there's you could talk about the community, or
you could be about the community and go to the
community and bring solutions to the community. So I'm more
solution orientated, like I don't have to talk about the
community to go out there and you know, have success,

(31:56):
come back to the community and build robotics programs, college
prep programs. And then during COVID, when when we realized
that when people were working from home, when they were
educating themselves from home, they didn't have access to the internet,
go back to the community, provide free Wi Fi for

(32:17):
the projects so kids could you know, learn from their
home because we realized that they were putting themselves in
harm's way when they had to go up to you know,
an area where they had free Wi Fi. So we
about any place any so we brought so my foundation
in collaboration when we link brought you know, free Wi

(32:38):
Fi to the projects and so you could talk about
it or you could do about it. And so I
we always wanted to I always wanted to do about it,
and now it's time to talk about it and do
about it.

Speaker 5 (32:50):
At the same time, though, I did the same thing
as South Carolina, same exact thing, d because I, you know,
I usually do like the book back drives and everything,
but like during that time, I'm like, all of these
kids are having to go to like fast.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
From restaurants to get Wi Fi.

Speaker 5 (33:02):
And so I did the same exact thing, got Wi
Fi for this, Yeah, the colony, Colony House of Projects
and Columbus Olina.

Speaker 11 (33:08):
And then the visual that goes along with it as well,
like even your heartfelt message at the end. Well, I
thought that was really dope because specifically Boyle Heights have
been like they've been going through a lot, you know,
with the LAPD officer shootings, and everything like that. I
don't know if y'all heard, but it was an unfortunate death.
Reci peace to Jeremy Flores. He and his family. They

(33:30):
just they underwent, They underwent like some crazy trouble right
with somebody called the police on him because he was
driving a white van and they said that they that
he had a rifle and then the police came and
they killed him, you know what I mean. Like, so
this is a great tribute to them, and just just

(33:51):
this song just alone, the visual as well, Shine's light
on East LA and some of those projects and communities
because they really really need like like some healing right now,
so that this what y'all doing is great. Now, is
this a Black Eyed Peas song? Or will I Am
in Taboo song?

Speaker 7 (34:11):
It's will I Am in Taboo? We struggle with that,
like is this black Eyed Peas?

Speaker 6 (34:17):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (34:19):
And I'm like, hey, why don't we do something that
we haven't done where you know, we we we know
what Votron's like, but if we could, like, you know,
highlight different clusters of what we are collectively, that means
a tab and Apple song will call a me and
Apple song, you know, you know, doing doing it like

(34:41):
that on this on this next face.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
But I'm in solo mode.

Speaker 7 (34:46):
I have records coming out, and I wanted to put
out as much human made music as possible.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Because hey, I take it over like that. Damn.

Speaker 7 (34:57):
Well yeah, it's really dopey the aim.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah, so I want to.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
That sounds crazy to even say I want to make
as much human made music as possible.

Speaker 6 (35:12):
Yeah, damn. How do you feel?

Speaker 3 (35:14):
You know, people got on Timberland when he signed his
first AI artists, and people were mad and said, you're
taking the jobs from regular artists, taking the creativity away,
taking you know, the fact.

Speaker 6 (35:26):
What are your thoughts on it?

Speaker 1 (35:32):
I think it's the way.

Speaker 7 (35:36):
The environment, the proximity of what Timberland was around as
he was doing the AI music. So for a couple
of years before that, he was, you know, wanted to
sign people by having them submit music. And then the
thing that he signed is an AI, not a human
I could see why that rough feathers.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
I thought, you just did this campaign.

Speaker 7 (36:01):
And then the situation with the dude and the beat.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
It's a there's a lot of noise around it.

Speaker 7 (36:10):
Had uh. For example, we did some version of that
where we're like the new member of the Black Eyed
Peas is an Ai when we were about to do Vegas.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
But like I said, I think.

Speaker 7 (36:24):
It's the proximity because he was adjacent to you know,
a call out, you know, magnetizing the community to send music,
and then the thing he signs is an AI. But
other than that, if you remove that out of the way,
there's no there's no there's no, it's no different of

(36:45):
lending your voice to a to a cartoon. For example,
I did Madagascar two that hippos a hippo.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
I did a bird on Rio one and two who's
was Pedro. So it's using your.

Speaker 7 (37:00):
Imagination and like building character.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
You know, Mickey.

Speaker 7 (37:05):
Mouse is the o g Ai character outlived freaking walk.
So there's nothing wrong with you know, avatars or you know,
uh alter egos. You know, there's nothing wrong with that.
It's just you gotta be careful in the environment and

(37:26):
they and the environment that you that you do it.

Speaker 6 (37:29):
In what happened with Vegas because you mentioned Vegas the virus.

Speaker 9 (37:34):
I was affected by the fires.

Speaker 8 (37:35):
To be honest with you, I'm an altaden opacity in
the area and I was displaced for a long time.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
I didn't have a home. Wow, fact.

Speaker 7 (37:43):
Yeah, so we had a well we well, we'll revisit
that now that you know, you know, people are safe,
people can live.

Speaker 6 (37:53):
You did you lose everything?

Speaker 8 (37:55):
I had to get rid of Every internal damage was bad,
so we had to get rid of everything internally structurally.
Structurally were okay, but our surrounding area was devastated. So
you know, my hearts go out to Yeah, my kid,
both of my son's preschool burned down, So my heart
goes out to Altadina, Malibu Palisades and all the people affected. Dude,

(38:15):
our our year started off fucked up twenty five so
to be able to have come back in the summer
and have healing, as you said, with this song and
this whole idea of how can we be of service
and help and do our part to advocate, Like that's
that's a blessing for us as.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
We made year.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Man, I feel like it was two years so far.

Speaker 7 (38:34):
Now.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
It's crazy because I feel like culturally LA is having
such a great moment, right, not a moment because y'all
at LA, but like, you know what Kendrick did well culturally,
but then it's like societally, the fire ice ray, It's
like God.

Speaker 7 (38:46):
Yeah, yeah, what is thirty fifty two.

Speaker 11 (38:50):
I noticed that it's shouted in the song Copley fifty.

Speaker 7 (38:53):
Two is a section and LAFC where the community they've made.
You know, the team did an awesome job making a
space for the community of Angelinos to really celebrate. You know,
they brought a tribal experience to sporting. The only place

(39:13):
we actually find that is outside of the States, the
Real Madrid or the Brazilian football team or Germany. You know,
you see this like a different level of fandom that's
that's tribal.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
So thirty two fifty two.

Speaker 7 (39:29):
I wanted to shout that out because I go to
I go to the games, and that section is you know,
a lot of the people from the community that I know.
There's people like Boyle Heights. They got the Boyle Heights
scarves and the Boyle Heights flags or.

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Different cut a hay. You know, the whole East Side
east Siders.

Speaker 7 (39:51):
Are there in the in the thirty two fifty two
like which is three thousand, uh three, five hundred and
fifty two seats.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
It's really what.

Speaker 9 (40:02):
It is, like the Seahawks, how they have the twelve
man like that.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
Okay, did you have you bounced back to that book from
your house.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
We did.

Speaker 8 (40:10):
Yeah, we moved in fortunately, but still we have eight
hundred trash trucks taking the debris out. We probably won't
be up and running as a community as far as
like good for a couple of years. Some of the
lots are being sold. Some of the lots are being
taken over because they don't have insurance.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
Some of the people.

Speaker 8 (40:28):
You gotta understand, bro, these are marginalized communities on the
other side of Altadina, A lot of black families and
Mexican families that didn't have, you know.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
The proper insurance.

Speaker 8 (40:37):
They've been living there there for years and they were
affected by the fires, and unfortunately the city comes in
and takes their home because they can't pay for that lot.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
Is this song gonna be part of a bigger project
or it's just like a one off statement.

Speaker 7 (40:51):
Oh no, it's part of my solo project of one
of the three. So I got I got all pop
record that's like a big, big type of records.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Then I got like a just a.

Speaker 7 (41:07):
Like a nineties influence boom back a record, and then
I have just like a fusion project.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
This is the fusion project.

Speaker 11 (41:21):
I just saw that you collaborated with Mercedes.

Speaker 6 (41:26):
Yeah, yeah, he did. He did that. I tried to
get it for the last.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (41:31):
So we got two pieces of technology inside Mercedes. One
the sound drive that takes all the sensor data, yeah,
and aims at sensor data to a sound generation platform
that allows a driver to remix, reimagine songs just by driving.
And then I got this AI radio that's in Mercedes vehicles.
And because of that Qualcom, we just partnered up with

(41:52):
Qualcomm and we you know, just married our systems onto
Chip so they would get us in more OEM vehicles.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
So we I go to India.

Speaker 7 (42:01):
In two weeks to announce our partnership with three OHEM
auto manufacturers out there in India. What's awesome is one
of our kids that joined MY program. There's a kid
that comes from the same project as me. He joined
my my My program when he was like in the

(42:21):
ninth grade, tenth grade.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
He then went to school for computer science.

Speaker 7 (42:26):
He then graduated and now he's like one of the
lead in leadership implementing our systems and Mercedes. I'm just
really proud of his dedication, commitment and we rely on
him for his talents. But you know, just go to
show that people from the same projects can can align

(42:49):
and bring the best out of each other. So you know,
really really salute his h his growth and now leadership
at the company.

Speaker 6 (42:59):
So I love that you.

Speaker 5 (43:01):
That's really it's great when I sit here and I
listen to you and Taboo talk man, and I think about,
you know, the other members Filipino, with all the different
coaches in the group.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
How did y'all land on the name.

Speaker 5 (43:10):
Black eyed Peas because black eyed Peas is synonymous with
black folks.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah, I mean that accompanis.

Speaker 4 (43:20):
And on that name.

Speaker 7 (43:33):
I just I just uh, my grandma she used to
used to, you know, force me, not force me, but like, boy,
you ain't getting up out that table.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Tea finished in black eyed Peas and they were drive
and I didn't. I'm not. I'm not a fan of.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
The love black eyed Peas.

Speaker 7 (43:53):
Rights is good. It's just a peace by itself. Like
to me, sometimes it's good. But the way that way
I had it growing.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
Up, it was. And so the green beans.

Speaker 7 (44:06):
And black eyed peace when they get cold, I ain't
trying to add that. And so my grandma would be like,
you ain't getting up off that table to you finish
the Black Eyed Peace. So for me, it just meant like,
don't stop until you're done. You can't get up until
you finish something. And no matter how hard it is,
no matter what it is, if you got a dream,
if you were set to do something, you gotta see

(44:28):
it and you got to complete it.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
And it's good luck.

Speaker 7 (44:31):
You know, it's a good luck and so good luck
and you know, good vibes and what you magnetize and
what you attract.

Speaker 8 (44:40):
And also Black Eyed Peas and Soul Food and we
always felt like our music feeds the soul. And it
would have been weird being like, okay because your mexicanist
list named the group.

Speaker 7 (44:50):
But they had that or Bees and Rice.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Hit Listen. Black probably would have been whack if y'all
didn't make it.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
That's true.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
I want to change the name.

Speaker 6 (45:06):
Somebody was like Black Eyed Peas.

Speaker 9 (45:07):
No, no, no, because the idea of soul food is dope.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
We feed the soul with our music absolutely.

Speaker 7 (45:13):
And you know, there was two groups that were out
that was named after food, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I'm like, they got to smash the pumpkins. I'm like, yo,
they got food names. Bro, Like you know what I'm saying. Well,
let's get into the joint right now.

Speaker 6 (45:28):
Let's get into you and introduce it.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Yo, what's up.

Speaker 7 (45:31):
This is what I am Taboo and this is a
new record that we got called East l A.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (45:35):
We appreciate you guys for joining us.

Speaker 7 (45:37):
Man, thank you for having us all the time.

Speaker 6 (45:39):
Sarahs Breakfast Club one. Let's get into it.

Speaker 9 (45:41):
Wake that ass up in the morning.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Breakfast Club

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