Black Eyed Peas' 'The E.N.D.' has a smashing beginning, but the people want Drake

Local hip-hop outfit the Black Eyed Peas score a rare feat on this week's pop chart, becoming one of the few mainstream acts to experience a first-week sales increase over its last album. The group's fifth full-length release, "The E.N.D." (Interscope), became its first to debut at No. 1, selling 304,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers released on Billboard. 

In 2005, the Black Eyed Peas bowed at No. 2 with "Monkey Business," which sold 291,000 copies in its first week and went on to sell 4.19 million. This year alone has seen such popular artists as U2, Kelly Clarkson and Eminem fail to live up to the sales numbers they set earlier in their careers.  

"The E.N.D." came with a lengthy setup, which included an appearance on "American Idol," and the March release of the single "Boom Boom Pow." The cut has topped Billboard's Hot 100 for 10 weeks, and has sold 2.8 million downloads. 

The song is still generating heat. According to data provided by BigChampagne Media Measurement, "Boom Boom Pow" ranked in YouTube's top-five streams in the last week, generating more than 1.6 million views. It's iTunes' No. 2 song, topped by another track from "The E.N.D.," "I Gotta Feeling." 

The Los Angeles-based quartet Black Eyed Peas is possibly the greatest bubble gum group of the Extreme Ice Fruit Explosion era. Following in the path forged by the Monkees, the Archies and the Spice Girls, the Peas present themselves as a cast of zany characters whose music is, on one level, like a child's game, and on another, as calculatedly smart and seductive as test-marketed pop gets.

The titles of the Peas' biggest hits tell the story: the giggle-inducing pun of "Don't Phunk With My Heart," the cheerily crude anatomical gesture of "My Humps" and now the Imax-ready sound effects burst of the chart-topping "Boom Boom Pow." Crass, good-hearted, funny, unfailingly loud scavengers of every shiny thing lying on pop's cross-cultural dance floor, the Peas present themselves as juvenile, but there's a lot going on behind the mugging.

"The E.N.D.," the group's fifth studio album and the third since the singer Stacy Ferguson (better known as Fergie) joined and took it from the earnest hip-hop underground to the glamorous, necessarily compromised pop mainstream, is more accomplished and more confounding than any of the foursome's previous efforts. It's likely to dominate radio and the Internet this summer, its sharp flavors simultaneously driving listeners nuts and drawing them back.

Will.i.am., the Peas' lead rapper and main idea man, has said that he doesn't envision "The E.N.D." (the acronym is for "The Energy Never Dies," a nod to quantum physics that's further explained by a robotically voiced introduction to the opening track) as a regular album. Instead, it's a template, designed to be constantly reworked through remixes, both in the recording studio and by DJs on the dance floor. Indeed, this collection has none of the attributes that make listeners love albums: no narrative arc, no ebb and flow, no break from the in-your-face beats and high-fructose hooks.

It’s a day of tie dye and top 40 as the faithful descend upon the two L.A.-area arenas.

Jerry Garcia might have died 15 years ago, but ambling through the parking lot of the Forum on Saturday night, you'd have been hard pressed to know he's gone. Two hours prior to the Dead's first L.A. show in more than a half-a-decade, the sun-scorched asphalt was already swarming with people. The scene was a cross between a Renaissance Faire, a Bedouin crossing and the world's most pot-addled family reunion.

Limousines ferrying baby boomers idled next to withered Winnebagos still following a band that first formed nearly 45 summers ago. Rusting school buses cloaked in rainbow Day-Glo paint were packed to the gills with AARP-aged hippies - the strains of "Scarlet Begonias" mingling with the smoke from dirty windows.

Not so far away, at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, a very different kind of arena show was underway: KIIS-FM's Wango Tango, a top-40 blowout featuring Lady GaGa, Kelly Clarkson and the Black Eyed Peas, in addition to a host of other radio-friendly favorites, attended by hordes of screaming teenage girls.

The weekend concerts illustrated two opposing approaches to being a devoted music fan in today's pop culture landscape: Either embrace every genre and artist with the same open-minded ardor or single-mindedly invest all your energies into the one performer, group or style that defines you.

U2 will perform in the Los Angeles area on Oct. 25, bringing its massive Live Nation-produced trek to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Tickets for the in-the-round tour, dubbed "U2 360," will go on sale April 6.

A press release promises that 85% of the tickets will be priced at less than $95, not including surcharges (expect about $18 to be added to the price of the ticket, based on Ticketmaster searches of U2 dates that are not sold out). At least 10,000 seats in the 90,000-plus capacity venue will carry an initial price of $30.

Opening for U2 will be locals the Black Eyed Peas, who are set to release a new album this summer. The pairing may inspire a collaboration, as the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am worked with U2 on the new album's "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight."

The North American leg of the tour, in support of U2's "No Line on the Horizon," opens with a two-night stand in Chicago beginning Sept. 12. The album debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts after selling 484,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. After three weeks on the charts, it currently rests at No. 2.

-- Todd Martens

Photo: EPA

Ultra Music Festival brings out raucous revelers as well as electronica’s elite as DJs share the limelight.

"The DJ is the most important thing in music right now," will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas said in Miami on Saturday as the throb of the Ultra Music Festival vibrated the press tent around him. "In Europe, Australia, Brazil, Los Angeles and New York, electronic dance music really has this new inspirational energy. It reminds me of what hip-hop was in the 1980s."

The Peas chose Ultra, the massive, two-day flagship finale of the annual Winter Music Conference, to play "Boom Boom Pow," their new beat-driven single, being released digitally today.

In terms of A-list talent in Miami, they weren't alone: Although DJs and dance-music mavens have been flocking to the WMC for decades now, this year hip-hop was in the house.

Black Eyed Peas ringleader will.i.am says he's about "about a week away" from putting the finishing touches on the Peas' forthcoming album, "The E.N.D." But if takes a little longer, perhaps the blame goes to Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

Will.i.am and Zimmer were speaking via phone last week to promote their collaboration on upcoming Paramount/DreamWorks feature, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which is due in theaters Nov. 7. Together, the pair worked on four songs for the film, as well as a remix of "I Like to Move It," a holdover from the first film.

The high-profile pairing -- Zimmer won an Oscar for his work on "Rain Man" and "The Lion King," among others, and co-wrote the industrial-tinged score of this summer's "The Dark Knight with James Newton Howard -- should generate a fair amount of lobbying for Oscar song consideration. Will.i.am, who also voices one of the characters in the film (a hippo named Moto Moto), helped turned Zimmer's orchestrations into peppy, danceable showtunes.

Of the pair's work, "The Traveling Song" puts some hand-clap beats around Zimmer's strings, and adopts some ever-trendy, electronically manipulated vocal effects, whereas "Big and Chunky" is a more kid-friendly "My Humps." Another holdover from the first film, "Best Friends," is given an embellished arrangement, as well as lyrics and vocals, courtesy of the Peas' frontman. The reworked song will likely bring to mind some of Randy Newman's "Toy Story" work, as it's a sweet, upbeat number driven by acoustic instrumentation and some folksy whistling.

And "Madagascar 2" may not be the last time Zimmer and will.i.am collaborate. When the conversation turns to the Peas' forthcoming album, which will.i.am has stated stands for "the energy never dies," Zimmer interjects: "Will you let me do a remix?"

But when it comes to putting the finishing touches on the album, it seems that will.i.am already has designs on some of Zimmer's retro equipment, which is housed in the composer's Santa Monica studio -- in particular his vocoder. The device is often responsible for the digitally altered vocal effect that permeates pop, hip-hop and R&B today, from T-Pain to Kanye West, and Zimmer says his vintage Sennheiser machine is more fit for Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock than Lil Wayne.

"I've been wanting to call you," will.i.am says to Zimmer. "I've been using this vocoder, and it's the same vocoder that everybody has."

But with or without Zimmer's vocoder, just when is that Peas album due? Will.i.am won't nail down a release date, but says the release date is virtually irrelevant, anyway.

Album review: Black Eyed Peas' 'The E.N.D.'

The Los Angeles-based quartet Black Eyed Peas is possibly the greatest bubble gum group of the Extreme Ice Fruit Explosion era. Following in the path forged by the Monkees, the Archies and the Spice Girls, the Peas present themselves as a cast of zany characters whose music is, on one level, like a child's game, and on another, as calculatedly smart and seductive as test-marketed pop gets.

The titles of the Peas' biggest hits tell the story: the giggle-inducing pun of "Don't Phunk With My Heart," the cheerily crude anatomical gesture of "My Humps" and now the Imax-ready sound effects burst of the chart-topping "Boom Boom Pow." Crass, good-hearted, funny, unfailingly loud scavengers of every shiny thing lying on pop's cross-cultural dance floor, the Peas present themselves as juvenile, but there's a lot going on behind the mugging.

"The E.N.D.," the group's fifth studio album and the third since the singer Stacy Ferguson (better known as Fergie) joined and took it from the earnest hip-hop underground to the glamorous, necessarily compromised pop mainstream, is more accomplished and more confounding than any of the foursome's previous efforts. It's likely to dominate radio and the Internet this summer, its sharp flavors simultaneously driving listeners nuts and drawing them back.

Will.i.am., the Peas' lead rapper and main idea man, has said that he doesn't envision "The E.N.D." (the acronym is for "The Energy Never Dies," a nod to quantum physics that's further explained by a robotically voiced introduction to the opening track) as a regular album. Instead, it's a template, designed to be constantly reworked through remixes, both in the recording studio and by DJs on the dance floor. Indeed, this collection has none of the attributes that make listeners love albums: no narrative arc, no ebb and flow, no break from the in-your-face beats and high-fructose hooks.

It’s a day of tie dye and top 40 as the faithful descend upon the two L.A.-area arenas.

Jerry Garcia might have died 15 years ago, but ambling through the parking lot of the Forum on Saturday night, you'd have been hard pressed to know he's gone. Two hours prior to the Dead's first L.A. show in more than a half-a-decade, the sun-scorched asphalt was already swarming with people. The scene was a cross between a Renaissance Faire, a Bedouin crossing and the world's most pot-addled family reunion.

Limousines ferrying baby boomers idled next to withered Winnebagos still following a band that first formed nearly 45 summers ago. Rusting school buses cloaked in rainbow Day-Glo paint were packed to the gills with AARP-aged hippies - the strains of "Scarlet Begonias" mingling with the smoke from dirty windows.

Not so far away, at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, a very different kind of arena show was underway: KIIS-FM's Wango Tango, a top-40 blowout featuring Lady GaGa, Kelly Clarkson and the Black Eyed Peas, in addition to a host of other radio-friendly favorites, attended by hordes of screaming teenage girls.

The weekend concerts illustrated two opposing approaches to being a devoted music fan in today's pop culture landscape: Either embrace every genre and artist with the same open-minded ardor or single-mindedly invest all your energies into the one performer, group or style that defines you.

U2 will perform in the Los Angeles area on Oct. 25, bringing its massive Live Nation-produced trek to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Tickets for the in-the-round tour, dubbed "U2 360," will go on sale April 6.

A press release promises that 85% of the tickets will be priced at less than $95, not including surcharges (expect about $18 to be added to the price of the ticket, based on Ticketmaster searches of U2 dates that are not sold out). At least 10,000 seats in the 90,000-plus capacity venue will carry an initial price of $30.

Opening for U2 will be locals the Black Eyed Peas, who are set to release a new album this summer. The pairing may inspire a collaboration, as the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am worked with U2 on the new album's "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight."

The North American leg of the tour, in support of U2's "No Line on the Horizon," opens with a two-night stand in Chicago beginning Sept. 12. The album debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts after selling 484,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. After three weeks on the charts, it currently rests at No. 2.

-- Todd Martens

Photo: EPA

Ultra Music Festival brings out raucous revelers as well as electronica’s elite as DJs share the limelight.

"The DJ is the most important thing in music right now," will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas said in Miami on Saturday as the throb of the Ultra Music Festival vibrated the press tent around him. "In Europe, Australia, Brazil, Los Angeles and New York, electronic dance music really has this new inspirational energy. It reminds me of what hip-hop was in the 1980s."

The Peas chose Ultra, the massive, two-day flagship finale of the annual Winter Music Conference, to play "Boom Boom Pow," their new beat-driven single, being released digitally today.

In terms of A-list talent in Miami, they weren't alone: Although DJs and dance-music mavens have been flocking to the WMC for decades now, this year hip-hop was in the house.

Black Eyed Peas ringleader will.i.am says he's about "about a week away" from putting the finishing touches on the Peas' forthcoming album, "The E.N.D." But if takes a little longer, perhaps the blame goes to Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

Will.i.am and Zimmer were speaking via phone last week to promote their collaboration on upcoming Paramount/DreamWorks feature, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which is due in theaters Nov. 7. Together, the pair worked on four songs for the film, as well as a remix of "I Like to Move It," a holdover from the first film.

The high-profile pairing -- Zimmer won an Oscar for his work on "Rain Man" and "The Lion King," among others, and co-wrote the industrial-tinged score of this summer's "The Dark Knight with James Newton Howard -- should generate a fair amount of lobbying for Oscar song consideration. Will.i.am, who also voices one of the characters in the film (a hippo named Moto Moto), helped turned Zimmer's orchestrations into peppy, danceable showtunes.

Of the pair's work, "The Traveling Song" puts some hand-clap beats around Zimmer's strings, and adopts some ever-trendy, electronically manipulated vocal effects, whereas "Big and Chunky" is a more kid-friendly "My Humps." Another holdover from the first film, "Best Friends," is given an embellished arrangement, as well as lyrics and vocals, courtesy of the Peas' frontman. The reworked song will likely bring to mind some of Randy Newman's "Toy Story" work, as it's a sweet, upbeat number driven by acoustic instrumentation and some folksy whistling.

And "Madagascar 2" may not be the last time Zimmer and will.i.am collaborate. When the conversation turns to the Peas' forthcoming album, which will.i.am has stated stands for "the energy never dies," Zimmer interjects: "Will you let me do a remix?"

But when it comes to putting the finishing touches on the album, it seems that will.i.am already has designs on some of Zimmer's retro equipment, which is housed in the composer's Santa Monica studio -- in particular his vocoder. The device is often responsible for the digitally altered vocal effect that permeates pop, hip-hop and R&B today, from T-Pain to Kanye West, and Zimmer says his vintage Sennheiser machine is more fit for Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock than Lil Wayne.

"I've been wanting to call you," will.i.am says to Zimmer. "I've been using this vocoder, and it's the same vocoder that everybody has."

But with or without Zimmer's vocoder, just when is that Peas album due? Will.i.am won't nail down a release date, but says the release date is virtually irrelevant, anyway.

Live: The Dead at the Forum and KIIS-FM’s Wango Tango at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine

It’s a day of tie dye and top 40 as the faithful descend upon the two L.A.-area arenas.

Jerry Garcia might have died 15 years ago, but ambling through the parking lot of the Forum on Saturday night, you'd have been hard pressed to know he's gone. Two hours prior to the Dead's first L.A. show in more than a half-a-decade, the sun-scorched asphalt was already swarming with people. The scene was a cross between a Renaissance Faire, a Bedouin crossing and the world's most pot-addled family reunion.

Limousines ferrying baby boomers idled next to withered Winnebagos still following a band that first formed nearly 45 summers ago. Rusting school buses cloaked in rainbow Day-Glo paint were packed to the gills with AARP-aged hippies - the strains of "Scarlet Begonias" mingling with the smoke from dirty windows.

Not so far away, at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, a very different kind of arena show was underway: KIIS-FM's Wango Tango, a top-40 blowout featuring Lady GaGa, Kelly Clarkson and the Black Eyed Peas, in addition to a host of other radio-friendly favorites, attended by hordes of screaming teenage girls.

The weekend concerts illustrated two opposing approaches to being a devoted music fan in today's pop culture landscape: Either embrace every genre and artist with the same open-minded ardor or single-mindedly invest all your energies into the one performer, group or style that defines you.

U2 will perform in the Los Angeles area on Oct. 25, bringing its massive Live Nation-produced trek to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Tickets for the in-the-round tour, dubbed "U2 360," will go on sale April 6.

A press release promises that 85% of the tickets will be priced at less than $95, not including surcharges (expect about $18 to be added to the price of the ticket, based on Ticketmaster searches of U2 dates that are not sold out). At least 10,000 seats in the 90,000-plus capacity venue will carry an initial price of $30.

Opening for U2 will be locals the Black Eyed Peas, who are set to release a new album this summer. The pairing may inspire a collaboration, as the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am worked with U2 on the new album's "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight."

The North American leg of the tour, in support of U2's "No Line on the Horizon," opens with a two-night stand in Chicago beginning Sept. 12. The album debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts after selling 484,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. After three weeks on the charts, it currently rests at No. 2.

-- Todd Martens

Photo: EPA

Ultra Music Festival brings out raucous revelers as well as electronica’s elite as DJs share the limelight.

"The DJ is the most important thing in music right now," will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas said in Miami on Saturday as the throb of the Ultra Music Festival vibrated the press tent around him. "In Europe, Australia, Brazil, Los Angeles and New York, electronic dance music really has this new inspirational energy. It reminds me of what hip-hop was in the 1980s."

The Peas chose Ultra, the massive, two-day flagship finale of the annual Winter Music Conference, to play "Boom Boom Pow," their new beat-driven single, being released digitally today.

In terms of A-list talent in Miami, they weren't alone: Although DJs and dance-music mavens have been flocking to the WMC for decades now, this year hip-hop was in the house.

Black Eyed Peas ringleader will.i.am says he's about "about a week away" from putting the finishing touches on the Peas' forthcoming album, "The E.N.D." But if takes a little longer, perhaps the blame goes to Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

Will.i.am and Zimmer were speaking via phone last week to promote their collaboration on upcoming Paramount/DreamWorks feature, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which is due in theaters Nov. 7. Together, the pair worked on four songs for the film, as well as a remix of "I Like to Move It," a holdover from the first film.

The high-profile pairing -- Zimmer won an Oscar for his work on "Rain Man" and "The Lion King," among others, and co-wrote the industrial-tinged score of this summer's "The Dark Knight with James Newton Howard -- should generate a fair amount of lobbying for Oscar song consideration. Will.i.am, who also voices one of the characters in the film (a hippo named Moto Moto), helped turned Zimmer's orchestrations into peppy, danceable showtunes.

Of the pair's work, "The Traveling Song" puts some hand-clap beats around Zimmer's strings, and adopts some ever-trendy, electronically manipulated vocal effects, whereas "Big and Chunky" is a more kid-friendly "My Humps." Another holdover from the first film, "Best Friends," is given an embellished arrangement, as well as lyrics and vocals, courtesy of the Peas' frontman. The reworked song will likely bring to mind some of Randy Newman's "Toy Story" work, as it's a sweet, upbeat number driven by acoustic instrumentation and some folksy whistling.

And "Madagascar 2" may not be the last time Zimmer and will.i.am collaborate. When the conversation turns to the Peas' forthcoming album, which will.i.am has stated stands for "the energy never dies," Zimmer interjects: "Will you let me do a remix?"

But when it comes to putting the finishing touches on the album, it seems that will.i.am already has designs on some of Zimmer's retro equipment, which is housed in the composer's Santa Monica studio -- in particular his vocoder. The device is often responsible for the digitally altered vocal effect that permeates pop, hip-hop and R&B today, from T-Pain to Kanye West, and Zimmer says his vintage Sennheiser machine is more fit for Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock than Lil Wayne.

"I've been wanting to call you," will.i.am says to Zimmer. "I've been using this vocoder, and it's the same vocoder that everybody has."

But with or without Zimmer's vocoder, just when is that Peas album due? Will.i.am won't nail down a release date, but says the release date is virtually irrelevant, anyway.

L.A. gets its U2 date: Oct. 25

U2 will perform in the Los Angeles area on Oct. 25, bringing its massive Live Nation-produced trek to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Tickets for the in-the-round tour, dubbed "U2 360," will go on sale April 6.

A press release promises that 85% of the tickets will be priced at less than $95, not including surcharges (expect about $18 to be added to the price of the ticket, based on Ticketmaster searches of U2 dates that are not sold out). At least 10,000 seats in the 90,000-plus capacity venue will carry an initial price of $30.

Opening for U2 will be locals the Black Eyed Peas, who are set to release a new album this summer. The pairing may inspire a collaboration, as the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am worked with U2 on the new album's "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight."

The North American leg of the tour, in support of U2's "No Line on the Horizon," opens with a two-night stand in Chicago beginning Sept. 12. The album debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts after selling 484,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. After three weeks on the charts, it currently rests at No. 2.

-- Todd Martens

Photo: EPA

Ultra Music Festival brings out raucous revelers as well as electronica’s elite as DJs share the limelight.

"The DJ is the most important thing in music right now," will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas said in Miami on Saturday as the throb of the Ultra Music Festival vibrated the press tent around him. "In Europe, Australia, Brazil, Los Angeles and New York, electronic dance music really has this new inspirational energy. It reminds me of what hip-hop was in the 1980s."

The Peas chose Ultra, the massive, two-day flagship finale of the annual Winter Music Conference, to play "Boom Boom Pow," their new beat-driven single, being released digitally today.

In terms of A-list talent in Miami, they weren't alone: Although DJs and dance-music mavens have been flocking to the WMC for decades now, this year hip-hop was in the house.

Black Eyed Peas ringleader will.i.am says he's about "about a week away" from putting the finishing touches on the Peas' forthcoming album, "The E.N.D." But if takes a little longer, perhaps the blame goes to Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

Will.i.am and Zimmer were speaking via phone last week to promote their collaboration on upcoming Paramount/DreamWorks feature, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which is due in theaters Nov. 7. Together, the pair worked on four songs for the film, as well as a remix of "I Like to Move It," a holdover from the first film.

The high-profile pairing -- Zimmer won an Oscar for his work on "Rain Man" and "The Lion King," among others, and co-wrote the industrial-tinged score of this summer's "The Dark Knight with James Newton Howard -- should generate a fair amount of lobbying for Oscar song consideration. Will.i.am, who also voices one of the characters in the film (a hippo named Moto Moto), helped turned Zimmer's orchestrations into peppy, danceable showtunes.

Of the pair's work, "The Traveling Song" puts some hand-clap beats around Zimmer's strings, and adopts some ever-trendy, electronically manipulated vocal effects, whereas "Big and Chunky" is a more kid-friendly "My Humps." Another holdover from the first film, "Best Friends," is given an embellished arrangement, as well as lyrics and vocals, courtesy of the Peas' frontman. The reworked song will likely bring to mind some of Randy Newman's "Toy Story" work, as it's a sweet, upbeat number driven by acoustic instrumentation and some folksy whistling.

And "Madagascar 2" may not be the last time Zimmer and will.i.am collaborate. When the conversation turns to the Peas' forthcoming album, which will.i.am has stated stands for "the energy never dies," Zimmer interjects: "Will you let me do a remix?"

But when it comes to putting the finishing touches on the album, it seems that will.i.am already has designs on some of Zimmer's retro equipment, which is housed in the composer's Santa Monica studio -- in particular his vocoder. The device is often responsible for the digitally altered vocal effect that permeates pop, hip-hop and R&B today, from T-Pain to Kanye West, and Zimmer says his vintage Sennheiser machine is more fit for Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock than Lil Wayne.

"I've been wanting to call you," will.i.am says to Zimmer. "I've been using this vocoder, and it's the same vocoder that everybody has."

But with or without Zimmer's vocoder, just when is that Peas album due? Will.i.am won't nail down a release date, but says the release date is virtually irrelevant, anyway.

Live: Ultra Music Festival in Miami

Ultra Music Festival brings out raucous revelers as well as electronica’s elite as DJs share the limelight.

"The DJ is the most important thing in music right now," will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas said in Miami on Saturday as the throb of the Ultra Music Festival vibrated the press tent around him. "In Europe, Australia, Brazil, Los Angeles and New York, electronic dance music really has this new inspirational energy. It reminds me of what hip-hop was in the 1980s."

The Peas chose Ultra, the massive, two-day flagship finale of the annual Winter Music Conference, to play "Boom Boom Pow," their new beat-driven single, being released digitally today.

In terms of A-list talent in Miami, they weren't alone: Although DJs and dance-music mavens have been flocking to the WMC for decades now, this year hip-hop was in the house.

Black Eyed Peas ringleader will.i.am says he's about "about a week away" from putting the finishing touches on the Peas' forthcoming album, "The E.N.D." But if takes a little longer, perhaps the blame goes to Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

Will.i.am and Zimmer were speaking via phone last week to promote their collaboration on upcoming Paramount/DreamWorks feature, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which is due in theaters Nov. 7. Together, the pair worked on four songs for the film, as well as a remix of "I Like to Move It," a holdover from the first film.

The high-profile pairing -- Zimmer won an Oscar for his work on "Rain Man" and "The Lion King," among others, and co-wrote the industrial-tinged score of this summer's "The Dark Knight with James Newton Howard -- should generate a fair amount of lobbying for Oscar song consideration. Will.i.am, who also voices one of the characters in the film (a hippo named Moto Moto), helped turned Zimmer's orchestrations into peppy, danceable showtunes.

Of the pair's work, "The Traveling Song" puts some hand-clap beats around Zimmer's strings, and adopts some ever-trendy, electronically manipulated vocal effects, whereas "Big and Chunky" is a more kid-friendly "My Humps." Another holdover from the first film, "Best Friends," is given an embellished arrangement, as well as lyrics and vocals, courtesy of the Peas' frontman. The reworked song will likely bring to mind some of Randy Newman's "Toy Story" work, as it's a sweet, upbeat number driven by acoustic instrumentation and some folksy whistling.

And "Madagascar 2" may not be the last time Zimmer and will.i.am collaborate. When the conversation turns to the Peas' forthcoming album, which will.i.am has stated stands for "the energy never dies," Zimmer interjects: "Will you let me do a remix?"

But when it comes to putting the finishing touches on the album, it seems that will.i.am already has designs on some of Zimmer's retro equipment, which is housed in the composer's Santa Monica studio -- in particular his vocoder. The device is often responsible for the digitally altered vocal effect that permeates pop, hip-hop and R&B today, from T-Pain to Kanye West, and Zimmer says his vintage Sennheiser machine is more fit for Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock than Lil Wayne.

"I've been wanting to call you," will.i.am says to Zimmer. "I've been using this vocoder, and it's the same vocoder that everybody has."

But with or without Zimmer's vocoder, just when is that Peas album due? Will.i.am won't nail down a release date, but says the release date is virtually irrelevant, anyway.

will.i.am, Hans Zimmer talk 'Madagascar,' new Black Eyed Peas

Black Eyed Peas ringleader will.i.am says he's about "about a week away" from putting the finishing touches on the Peas' forthcoming album, "The E.N.D." But if takes a little longer, perhaps the blame goes to Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

Will.i.am and Zimmer were speaking via phone last week to promote their collaboration on upcoming Paramount/DreamWorks feature, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which is due in theaters Nov. 7. Together, the pair worked on four songs for the film, as well as a remix of "I Like to Move It," a holdover from the first film.

The high-profile pairing -- Zimmer won an Oscar for his work on "Rain Man" and "The Lion King," among others, and co-wrote the industrial-tinged score of this summer's "The Dark Knight with James Newton Howard -- should generate a fair amount of lobbying for Oscar song consideration. Will.i.am, who also voices one of the characters in the film (a hippo named Moto Moto), helped turned Zimmer's orchestrations into peppy, danceable showtunes.

Of the pair's work, "The Traveling Song" puts some hand-clap beats around Zimmer's strings, and adopts some ever-trendy, electronically manipulated vocal effects, whereas "Big and Chunky" is a more kid-friendly "My Humps." Another holdover from the first film, "Best Friends," is given an embellished arrangement, as well as lyrics and vocals, courtesy of the Peas' frontman. The reworked song will likely bring to mind some of Randy Newman's "Toy Story" work, as it's a sweet, upbeat number driven by acoustic instrumentation and some folksy whistling.

And "Madagascar 2" may not be the last time Zimmer and will.i.am collaborate. When the conversation turns to the Peas' forthcoming album, which will.i.am has stated stands for "the energy never dies," Zimmer interjects: "Will you let me do a remix?"

But when it comes to putting the finishing touches on the album, it seems that will.i.am already has designs on some of Zimmer's retro equipment, which is housed in the composer's Santa Monica studio -- in particular his vocoder. The device is often responsible for the digitally altered vocal effect that permeates pop, hip-hop and R&B today, from T-Pain to Kanye West, and Zimmer says his vintage Sennheiser machine is more fit for Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock than Lil Wayne.

"I've been wanting to call you," will.i.am says to Zimmer. "I've been using this vocoder, and it's the same vocoder that everybody has."

But with or without Zimmer's vocoder, just when is that Peas album due? Will.i.am won't nail down a release date, but says the release date is virtually irrelevant, anyway.