The pleasures of Monkey Business

I still remember how blown away I felt on finding The Api Song in Elephunk, the breakthrough album by the hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas. Is this really api as in the Filipino api, I wondered. And it was! The cut even boasted of a rap in Tagalog. Well, it turned out that one of the members of the Peas is a Filipino who is mighty proud of his heritage and makes it a point to hark back to his roots while creating big-selling music.

If we had The Api Song in Elephunk, Monkey Business the latest album success by the Peas has a cut titled Bebot. The word as every Tagalog knows, is street speak for female, which evolved from ebobot, which in turn came from the backwards pronunciation of babae which was the slang style of a long time ago. Check out the album to find out the cool treatment that these guys gave Bebot.

Will, Fergie, Apl and Taboo, collectively known as The Black Eyed Peas are in even better form in Monkey Business. Why the title? With success, people treat you differently. They can go from viewing you like a person to viewing you like a product. And that’s one definition of Monkey Business. The gripe done away with in the title, the Peas settled down to produce one solid album of great fun sounds.

Like Elephunk, Monkey Business is a mix of hip-hop, soul, folk, funk and pop. It also boasts of star guests like the Godfather of Soul James Brown in They Don’t Want Music, the indomitable Sting in Union, which is rehashes his Englishman in New York, surfer- turned-pop icon Jack Johnson in Gone Going and for the second time around Justin Timberlake in My Style. The former ‘N Sync was also featured in Where is the Love, one of the big hits from Elephunk.

The other dance-driving cuts are Pump It, Don’t Phunk with My Heart, the first big hit, Don’t Lie, My Humps, the new single release, Like That, the reggae-hued Dum Diddly, featuring Dante Santiago. Don’t know who this guy is but he might also be Filipino. There are also Feel It, Disco Club, Ba Bump, Audio Delete at Low Fidelity and one bonus track, Do What You Want.

Top 10 tunes

Monkey Business remains one of the biggest selling albums in the US of A after 11 weeks of release. In fact, it is marked Greatest Gainer in The Billboard 200 because it went up five notches from number nine to number four. New single My Humps is also at number four in the Hot 100 chart.

The Top 10 tunes as per airplay and sales are Gold Digger by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx; Run It by Chris Brown; Photograph by Nickelback; My Humps by The Black Eyed Peas; Shake It Off by Mariah Carey; Like You by Bow Wow featuring Ciara; Soul Survivor by Young Jeezy featuring Akon; Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day; Because of You by Kelly Clarkson; and Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down by Fall Out Boy.

The Top 10 albums are: Unplugged, the recording of the MTV special by Alicia Keys which debuted at number one; All the Right Reasons by Nickelback; Tough All Over by Gary Allan; Monkey Business by the Peas; Late Registration by Kanye West; Life by Ricky Martin; Wildflower by Sheryl Crow; The Day After by Twista; All Jacked Up by Gretchen Wilson; and Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 by Young Jeezy.

The hits of 2Hot

Now that we are nearing the gift-giving season, you might want to check out the compilation albums that truly gives good value for your money like 2Hot. This one claims to contain the hottest hits and I must add, also the newest including Don’t Phunk with My Heart by the Peas. So if that is the only cut you like in Monkey Business, you can treat yourself or somebody special to 2Hot. Word of warning though, you will miss out on Bebot, which I think every Pinoy should have.

What you will get in return are It’s Like That by Mariah Carey; Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani; Mr. Brightside by The Killers; Lonely by Akon; Over and Over by Nelly featuring Tim McGraw; Let’s Get Blown by Snoop Dogg; Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own by U2; Switch by Will Smith; 1 Thing by Amerie; Incomplete by the Backstreet Boys; Girl by Destiny’s Child; We Believe by Good Charlotte; Unbreak My Heart (Regresa A Mi) by Il Divo; Get Right by Jennifer Lopez; Ordinary People by John Legend; Shiver by Natalie Imbruglia; Let Me Love You by Mario; and Why by Avril Lavigne.