WILL I AM OF THE BLACK EYED PEAS HAS INTERNET HIT WITH BARACK OBAMA VIDEO

Will.i.am, mastermind lead singer and producer behind The Black Eyed Peas recently released his latest music video ‘Yes We Can’ and the video was inspired by Senator Barack Obama and the speech he gave after the New Hampshire primary. The song, which was directed by filmmaker Jesse Dylan, who is also Bob’s son, has been an overnight sensation on the internet, capturing an astonshing 4 million views in the first week alone and over 13 million views to date. The black and white music video for ‘Yes We Can’ includes excerpts from the Obama speech and cameo appearances from a range of actors, musicians, athletes and celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Nick Cannon.

We caught up with Will.i.am to get his thoughts on how this project all came about.

“I put it together for inspiration. I wanted to inspire people the way Barack Obama’s speech inspired me. I didn’t make it particularly for Obama. It wasn’t like, what would be the obvious, they call me and say ‘Hey do a song for us.’ That wasn’t the case. It was ‘Wow, I’m inspired by the speech.” I made a song and showed other people to support Obama and they came and loaned their talents and time and passion and inspiration to be a part of it. And it got up on the net and now it’s the fastest moving thing on the internet in the history of the internet.”

Will.i.am also talked about the unbelievable amount of success the song has achieved in just a short amount of time, from a project that was basically put together in a few days.

“So, I think that’s pretty awesome. It shows you what the music industry should be like, right. I’m signed to a major label, I’m in one of the biggest groups on the planet, but the way we put this out is the opposite of how we’d put The Black Eyed Peas out. It was made in the studio Wednesday, finished it on Thursday and put out on Friday and that’s it.”

After the metoric success of ‘Yes We Can’ Will.i.am is already in a L.A. studio working on his follow up track. Will.i.am recently told MTV News “Right now, since we’re in the early stages, I think the song is gonna be called ‘We Are the Ones.’ It’s inspired by a line in Obama’s speech after Super Tuesday, when he was in Chicago.’ As of press time reports are comedians George Lopez and John Leguizamo have recorded spoken parts for the track, and rumor has it that Beyoncé might lend her talents to the project, depending on her busy schedule. It was also recently reported the Will.i.am has signed on to act in the next installment of the X-Men series along side Hugh Jackman where he’ll play a mutant with powers to teleport.