By Ben J. Brown Jr.

Will.I.Am, frontman for the international hit group The Black Eyed Peas is like the Raphel Saadiq of hip hop for me. Funky, soulful, and willing to push the boundaries of his own sound, Will never lets me down when it comes to doing music that you can easily sing and dance to. So when word of his third solo album was out, I was more than willing to snag Songs About Girls. As frontman and producer for the world famous Black Eyed Peas, Will.I.Am has made a career for dropping light hearted pop-styled hip hop that has had him produce and collaborate with the likes of Talib Kweli, Michael Jackson, Sergio Mendes, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey, and so many more.

Set as a personal score to his own personal romance story, Will takes his sound to various funky and diverse realms that he wasn’t quite able to pull of within The Peas. Just like his work with the Black Eyed Peas, though, this is far from your ordinary hip hop album. Will still manages to blend rhythms and styles in a way that will keep your heart and soul on the dance floor.

Newcomers to Will’s solo sound will find that he is a mix of what hip hop did when it first hit the scene which is rock a party and have fun. Will’s comical and somewhat simplistic lyricism blends perfectly with his eclectic taste in music. In a way, he stretches the sound of hip hop much like K-Os (Canadian emcee) does by crafting albums that display his production skill and reflect his creative identity. As he drops his lyricism, he also flexes his vocals often enough to make you forget that this is hip hop. Rather your feet and move in appreciation of Will’s amazing ear for music that makes you move. One thing is for sure, Will is a long way from his days when he hit the music scene under Easy-E’s Ruthless Records in the late eighties.

Even though he pushes the typical ‘sound’ for hip hop in general (sampling), this album is not too far from the stylings and lyricism that he usually displays with his various collaborations and The Black Eyed Peas. These similarities can be found on tracks like “I Got It From My Mama” and “Make It Funky”. Undeniably dance tracks, both songs are blends of “My Humps” without the hypnotizing chorus. Then Will takes a page from his work with Sergio Mendes and drops an upbeat electro-Carribean jam in “One More Chance”.

Meanwhile, Will takes it closer to the electronica-Jamiroquai side of things with tracks like “Get Your Money” and “Impatient”. Both have more of an acid jazz feel and will keep you moving.

This is not to say that Will doesn’t smooth it out to woo the ladies though. Tracks like “Ain’t It Pretty” blends his comical flow with cooled out, silky smooth rhythm that blends harmonies and guitar riffs that will have you singing the “woman adoring” lyrics and swaying to the beat.

Still, the theme throughout this album is truly a dedication to love lost. As you progress through his adventurous effort, you’ll notice that Will spends a lot of time adoring and wooing that special someone. He sorts through a number of situations where he speaks honestly about the raw lust and attraction mixed with that moment of appreciating good love after it is lost. As if he wanted to summarize the entire relationship and aim of this sonic story, Wil blended elements of The Police and Prince to explain things in “Invisible”.

So clear your living room floor, turn your bed into a dance floor, and tape that picture of that ex-girlfriend that you wish you hadn’t lost on the door or wall. Then bust out your best ‘I’m singin to you gurl’ moves as you groove with Will.I.Am and a few “Songs About Girls”!

Buy Will.I.Am’s “Songs About Girls” from Amazon
Buy Will.I.Am’s “Songs About Girls” from iTunes

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm and is filed under New Music, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Or, if you wish, you can find all the posts Honey