Elephunk

''Elephunk'' is the third studio album by the American musical group Black Eyed Peas. It was released on June 24, 2003, by the will.i.am Music Group and A&M Records. The album charted at number 14 on the American ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and has gone on to sell more than 9 million copies worldwide, with 3.2 million in the United States alone. It was the group's first album with Fergie, as well as its first album where the group is credited as ''The'' Black Eyed Peas. The album cover art was designed by Markus and Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri.

Critical reception

At ''Metacritic'', which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 66, based on 15 reviews indicating generally positive reviews. John Bush from ''AllMusic'' wrote that ''Elephunk'' "possesses some of the most boundary-pushing productions in contemporary, (mostly) uncommercial hip-hop". Chris Nettleton from ''Drowned in Sound'' complimented the album, writing, "This record is full of first rate rapping, first rate tunes, first rate instrumentation. Look on the surface, and you've got an album full of memorable songs, hooks that lodge in your mind... but look in depth, and it's quality from the top down." In his consumer guide for ''The Village Voice'', Robert Christgau commented that the group "remain unbelievable, but in pop that's just one more aesthetic nuance", and added, "In which the unbelievably dull El Lay alt-rappers fabricate the brightest actual rap album of 2003."

''Entertainment Weekly'' had a less favorable view of the record. "They try dancehall (' Hey Mama'), salsa ('Latin Girls'), even nu-metal ('Anxiety' with Papa Roach), but the biggest offense for a once smart-sounding rap collective is ' Where Is the Love?', the horrifyingly trite single. It's enough to make longtime fans wonder, 'Where are the Peas?'".

Commercial performance

In the United States, ''Elephunk'' reached number 14 on the ''Billboard Top 200'' and was the band's first album to chart in the top 15. On the UK Album Charts, it reached number 3. It has sold over 1.6 million copies in the UK and 8.5 million copies worldwide.

EA Games approached the band to use some of its music on the 2004 game '' The Urbz: Sims in the City''. Some of the tracks on ''Elephunk'' were re-recorded in Simlish and new tracks were created for the game, also appearing in the game as playable characters.

Track listings

;Notes
*In 2022, all digital and streaming versions of the album replaced the original track "Let's Get Retarded" to "Let's Get It Started" as the third track in the album from those platforms and added two additional tracks "Rock My Shit" and "What's Goin' Down" internationally from the UK bonus tracks of the album as well.

Personnel

;Black Eyed Peas
* will.i.am – vocals on all tracks except 11; Moog synthesizers on tracks 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13; drum programming on tracks 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10; clavinet on tracks 12 and 13; drums and piano on track 2; Wurlitzer electric piano on track 4; synthesizer on track 10; executive production; production; engineering on tracks 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12 and 14; mixing on tracks 10 and 14
*apl.de.ap – vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13; drum programming and production on track 11
*Taboo – vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 13
* Fergie – vocals on all tracks except 6, 7 and 12
*Dante Santiago – backing vocals on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 10, 14, and 15; vocals on track 7

;Black Eyed Peas Musicians
*George Pajon – guitar on tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13 and 15
*Mike Fratantuno – bass guitar on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 13, 14 and 15; guitarrón on track 7; double bass and acoustic guitar on track 13
*Printz Board – horns on track 2; trumpet on track 7; Moog synthesizer and clavinet on track 13
*Tim Orindgreff – horns on track 2; saxophone and flute on track 7
* Keith Harris – drums, percussion, keys, producer
*Terence Yoshiaki – drums, percussion, producer
;Other contributors

*J. Curtis – guitar on tracks 5, 7, 11 and 13
*Terence Yoshiaki – drums on tracks 3 and 7
* Noelle Scaggs – backing vocals on tracks 3 and 6
* Tippa Irie – vocals on track 4
*Ray Brady – guitar on tracks 5 and 9

*Terry Dexter – backing vocals on track 6
*Travis Barker – drums on track 15
*Davey Chegwidden – percussion on track 7
*Chuck Prada – percussion on tracks 7 and 14
*Debi Nova – vocals on track 7
*Sérgio Mendes – piano on track 8

*John Legend – vocals on track 10
*Jacoby Shaddix – vocals on track 12
*Tobin Esperance – bass guitar on track 12
*Jerry Horton – guitar on track 12
* David Buckner – drums on track 12
*Justin Timberlake – vocals on track 13

;Main production personnel
*Ron Fair – executive production; production on track 13; additional vocal production on track 5; piano on track 7
*Dylan Dresdow – engineering on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13 and 15; additional vocal engineering on track 3
*Christine Sirois – engineering assistance on tracks 1, 5, 6, 7 and 13
*Tony Maserati – mixing on all tracks except 10 and 12
*Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering

;Additional production personnel
*Tal Herzberg – additional engineering on tracks 5 and 13
*Jun Ishizeki – engineering on track 10
*Jason Villaroman – engineering on track 11
*Chris Lord-Alge – mixing on track 12

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control

2003 albums
Black Eyed Peas albums
Albums produced by Ron Fair
Albums produced by will.i.am
Interscope Geffen A&M Records albums