Black Eyed Peas Original Member Kim Hill Reacts To Will.i.am’s Comments About Group Not Being Considered ‘Black’: You Didn’t Celebrate Us

Black Eyed Peas Original Member Kim Hill Reacts To Will.i.am’s Comments About Group Not Being Considered ‘Black’: You Didn’t Celebrate Us

An original member of the Black Eyed Peas has reacted to will.i.am’s comments that he’s hurt the group isn’t seen as a “black” one. 

As previously reported, will.i.am. said during a recent interview with Wyclef Jean:

“I’m a Black dude, but when you think of Black Eyed Peas, we go so big that…and it hurts, it still hurts a little bit that we’re not considered a Black group because we got that big.”

Adding,

“When you think of Black Eyed Peas…it’s no longer urban or Black culture, which is…it’s not good for the black community that Black Eyed Peas is not looked at as a Black group because we had international success.”

Kim Hill, who was the original female vocalist for the popular group, took to Instagram with her son to respond. She told will.i.am:

“I was in the Black Eyed Peas, it became the Navy Beans… It’s not my band. It’s not what I was in, and that’s totally fine. But Will, for you to make that statment as if the oneness is on the black community to celebrate you and the band when you didn’t celebrate us, it’s almost like there’s this cultural smudging.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kim Hill (@alwayskimhill)

She continued:

“[You said] you started in 2004 and was on the come up. I joined in 1995. I was a part of two critically-acclaimed albums that I co-wrote on, I performed all over the world with y’all, as did another black woman, Macy Gray. How does that get left out of the conversation? They start with 2004 and then they flash to a picture of y’all with Fergie… I’ve heard in certain spaces that when you have the opportunity to say my name you don’t, but to actually see it, to actually start 2021 off and actually see that you just would not talk about the evolution of the Black Eyed Peas.”

She went on to say:

“It feels like this cultural smudging or erasing of the imprint of a powerful black woman.”

What do you think about what Kim Hill had to say? Let us know in the comments.