Apl.De.Ap Moving Forward, Giving Back

CEBU, Philippines - After scoring massive success as member of the chart-topping American hip-hop quartet Black Eyed Peas, Apl.de.Ap is all about giving back to his home country and the people who helped shape him before all that fame and fortune.

Even before his six-time Grammy award-winning group hit the big time in 2003 with the breakthrough album Elephunk, which sold an estimated 27 million albums worldwide, Apl.de.Ap has never forgotten where he came from.

Apl, whose real name is Allan Pineda Lindo, Jr., included songs honoring his Filipino heritage and humble origins in several BEP albums. There was the “Apl Song” in Elephunk (2003), “Bebot” in Monkey Business (2005), “Mare” in The E.N.D. (2009) and “Someday” in The Beginning (2010).

“That’s what Black Eyed Peas is all about. We’re family. We like to share our culture with each other so, they love who I am, my background, and so, they gave me that chance to do it,” Apl told The FREEMAN in a brief interview prior to his recent charity gig at Lx, Vudu—the first stop of a series of club tours just last December.

Apl’s story is one that’s worth telling again, and again. He was born in Brgy. Sapang Bato in Pampanga on Nov. 28, 1974 to a Filipino mother and African-American father who deserted them not too long after Apl’s birth. He grew up with his mother, Cristina Pineda, Filipino stepfather, and six half-siblings. He experienced poverty and hard work early on in life. He helped his mother pack charcoal, yam, among others and sold them in a Pampanga public market, and peddled rice cakes after school, which was an hour-long jeepney ride from home.

But Apl’s life changed dramatically at the age of 14, when the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, which aids abandoned or orphaned Amerasian children, found him an adoptive parent in the US named Joe Ben Hudges.

The tough life in the Philippines notwithstanding, it was clear that he had loads of happy memories, which served as his inspiration in composing the “Apl Song.” 

“Some would call it hell but to me it was heaven God gave me the grace, amazin' ways of living                                                               

How would you feel if you had to catch your meal?

Build a hut to live and to eat and chill in.

Having to pump the water outta the ground

The way we put it down utilizing what is around

Like land for farming, river for fishing

Everyone helpin' each other whenever they can

We makin' it happen, from nothin'

to somethin'

That's how we be survivin' back in my homeland.” 

Now, the 36-year-old singer, DJ and record producer is going beyond musical tributes.

Last Dec. 17, he turned over a donation of $25,000 to the Pearl S. Buck Foundation - Philippines and pledged to contribute every year.  

On Dec. 18, he kicked off his charity club tour in Cebu at the reinvented LX, Vudu, enlisting the help of Filipino-American DJs Joker, Buddha and Mc Richi Rich plus DJ Ammo, whom he had collaborated with in BEP’s latest album.

“You know, as a kid, I’ve been adopted from the Philippines, and so it’s very important for me to give back and give the same opportunity. So I came up with the idea that I’ll do a DJ tour and the proceeds from these gigs go to the foundations that I have and wanna have, especially the foundation that helped me get adopted, and go to the US,” Apl told The Freeman. Apart from the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, other beneficiaries were the Rotary Club of Rizal West and the cancer-stricken kids of the Philippine General Hospital. 

Apl also allocated $100,000 for a classroom construction and established a learning center in Pampanga through his APL Foundation. “I have purchased 30 laptops and a building where I’m gonna have a center where kids could learn computers and all.”

He added, “The first one is in Pampanga, which is located around where I was born at, but I want to continually do this project all over [the country].”

Since it came to being in 2008, the APL Foundation has supported the country’s disaster relief initiatives and cultural preservation projects, having worked with the Department of Tourism in 2009 and NGOs such as the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation, among others. 

In 2009, he also formed his own record label called Jeepney Music, which provides recording contracts to emerging Filipino musicians. Last December, he did the first studio recording for a rock band called Faircat. 

Christmas was spent with his family in Pampanga. He has said to The FREEMAN that he’s been working hard because his “purpose is to help my family, and I never, never forget that.”

In a TV interview on ABS-CBN, he shared his fond memories of spending Christmas in the country: “Christmas is different in the Philippines. It's just so festive and I like [participating in] Simbang Gabi, bumibili ng puto bumbong, kutsinta, bibingka, that's my favorite."

The Philippine Star also reported that he led his family's yearly tradition of distributing food packages in the Aeta communities of Sapang Bato. This February, however, it would be a year since his youngest brother was gunned down in Pampanga. Apl, who is said to be now taking care of his brother’s daughter, has expressed in interviews that the pain of loss is still there and that he still grieves over his brother’s tragic death. But just like how he faced down setback and adversity in the past, he is moving forward.And Apl's song “Someday” from BEP's latest album, The Beginning, which talks anew of “where I came from and my struggles”, puts it best:

“Someday you're wondering if you're really gonna make it

Sometimes you wanna know if there's anyone to save ya

I know you came down before, like cannot leave the ground

Still got a little chance to turn it all around

Just know your time will come, forgive it all you got

Don't stop believin, forgive it all you got.”        

Apl.De.Ap is slated to return to the country on Feb. 25 to join in the commemoration of the Edsa Revolution and in the later part of this year, for the Asian concert tour of the Black Eyed Peas.