apl.de.ap - Black Eyed Peas band member

apl.de.ap

Allan Pineda Lindo, (b. 28 November 1974) better known as apl.de.ap, is a hip hop musician and member of the The Black Eyed Peas. He was born in the Barangay (Barrio) of Sapangbato, Angeles City, Pampanga, in the Philippines, to a Filipina mother and an African-American father.

Early life

apl.de.ap is an original member of the hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas. He is the main composer of Black Eyed Peas. His father, who was a U.S. serviceman stationed at nearby Clark Air Base, abandoned the family shortly after his birth. His mother, Christina Pineda, raised him and his four brothers and two sisters on her own in their small barrio.

Music had always been part of Apl’s life, his early influences having been Stevie Wonder, The Eagles, The Beatles and the popular Filipino rock/folk group, Asin. Hip-hop soon came into the picture via the breakdancing, "I would take the jeepney all the way to Angeles City, and that's how I got introduced to break dancing," he said. "I would see kids at the corner break-dancing and I'm like, 'I wanna do that.'"

During Black Eyed Peas' concert tour in Asia in 2004, Apl.de.ap's life story was featured in a weekly Filipino TV drama special called Maalaala Mo Kaya (Will You Remember), which explained his childhood with his poor family in Pampanga, Philippines, back then when he was teased as "baluga" (a derogatory word for Negro), before parting with them to live a better life in the US at the age of 14. "The Apl Song", with the chorus written in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines, from their album Elephunk, tells the story of Apl.de.ap. The Tagalog lyrics and backing melody were based on the song "Balita", an original composition of the 1970s Filipino folk rock group Asin. The group produced an exclusive video of the song whose distribution coincided with their tour of the Philippines as part of their album promotion.

Moving to the US

At the age of 14, he was adopted by an American family, and moved to Los Angeles, California, leaving behind his birth family and country. It was a gloomy departure for the young man. "I left in the afternoon, and it was the saddest sunset ever. I didn't know where I was going. I was 14, and I'm getting on this plane by myself, and I could see the sun set…."

Getting used to his new home took some time for Allan especially as a new, biracial immigrant. "I would get chased from junior high school to my house every day," he recalled. "All these kids are like, 'Where you from?' And I was like, 'From Philippines.' There were many moments of loneliness and culture shock, going from an environment he calls "very country -- all farms and water buffaloes" to the smog-filled streets of Los Angeles.

To help the boy adapt to life in America, Allan's adoptive father asked a friend's sister to care for him while he went to work. She brought along her 13-year-old son, Will (aka will.i.am), who quickly bonded with Allan over a shared love of music and dance. "Will was the very first friend I made in Los Angeles," says Allan. Given his feelings of ostracization, he mentioned, "You know, I could have easily joined the gangs that were surrounding me. I was exposed to that. But I chose dancing instead. That led me in a good direction."

Career

The pair soon formed a break-dancing crew called Tribal Nation and were regularly performing at Southern California parties and events. As their partnership evolved, they added another performer, Dante Santiago (part of the group from 1992-1995) and the name of their crew turned into Atban Klann (ATBAN stands for "A Tribe Beyond a Nation"), and became part of L.A.'s hip-hop/break-dance circuit, eventually being signed onto Eazy-E’s label, Ruthless Records. Their debut album, "Grass Roots", was never released because Ruthless did not consider the social themes reflected in the group's music to be marketable to their audience.

After Eazy-E's AIDS-related death in 1995, Dante left ATBAN and by 1998, a Mexican/Native American rapper named Jaime "Taboo" Gomez joined the mix and the group renamed themselves the Black Eyed Peas. Unlike many hip-hop acts, they chose to perform with a live band and adopted a unique musical and clothing style that differed wildly from the "Gangsta rap" sounds of other Los Angeles-based hip-hop acts at the time.

Their first album, Behind the Front was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and was followed by Bridging the Gap in 2000 featuring a guest appearance by Macy Gray as well as members of Jurassic 5 and De La Soul. After two albums, the group brought in R&B singer Fergie, a.k.a. Stacy Ferguson, for "Elephunk".

He explains his life story in a song called "The Apl Song" found on the Peas' 2003 album Elephunk (track 11). This song has a full chorus in Tagalog (Filipino) taken from the Asin song "Balita." "Coming from the Philippines my whole goal was to support my family and have a better living situation," he said. "Trying to pursue my dream took up a lot of my time, and I got separated from my family a little bit ... I was separated from my brothers and sisters. Some good things happened to them and some bad things happened to some of them." This is in reference to the suicide of his younger brother Arnel, a heartbreaking event he recalls in the song. Its accompanying video, which reached number one in the Philippines, with its cameo appearances by fellow Fil-Ams, Dante Basco and Chad Hugo, is also a tribute to the Filipinos who fought for the U.S. in World War II.

"Bebot" is another all-Tagalog song on 2005's Monkey Business album. A music video for "Bebot" was filmed in early July 2006 and premiered online on August 4, 2006. The video was directed by Patricio Ginelsa (Kid Heroes Productions) who also directed "The Apl Song" and produced the Filipino-American coming of age movie, "The Debut". The Bebot music video was filmed in various locations in Los Angeles, CA, one location including Kenneth Hanh Park, where Dr. Dre's "Nothing But A G Thang" video was also filmed. The term "Bebot" is Filipino slang for "pretty woman", "hot chick", "hottie", "baby/babe". The video for Bebot features primarily Filipinos, Filipino-Americans and several other Asian ethnicities from the Los Angeles area (Korean-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Thai-Americans, Indonesian-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, etc.). The single was not released in the US but was in the Philippines and several other Asian countries.

Patricio Ginelsa actually produced and directed two versions of the "Bebot" music video: Generations One and Two. "Generation One"[1] is a tribute to the "Manongs," (Filipino for "respected elder brother") Filipino farm workers who first started coming to the US when the Philippines became its colony in the early 1900s. They came in search of a better life and an education, but racism and discrimination prevented these mostly young men from going to school and forced most of them to work the fields of California, the canneries of Alaska and elsewhere for very low wages. Excluded from many public places by whites until as late as the mid 1960s with signs saying things like, "Positively no Filipinos allowed," the Manongs formed vibrant communities of their own. Little Manila in Stockton, California became the largest one in the US during the 1920s right up to the 1960s.

"Generation One" is set in 1930s Stockton with apl.de.ap playing a "Manong" spending time at the historic Rizal Social Club singing and dancing after a long day of back-breaking stoop work in the fields. The Generation One music video did not see air time in the US but was released on Youtube.

He is also planning to release a solo album of his own. Some of his songs are uploaded on his MySpace.