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"Imma Be" is a song by the American group
the Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo (rapper), Taboo. Fergie (singer), Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and ...
from their fifth studio album '' The E.N.D.'' (2009), released by
Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...
on December 15, 2009 as the fourth single from their fifth studio album, '' The E.N.D.'' (2009). Initially released as a
promotional single A promotional recording, promo, or plug copy is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as mu ...
, the song titularly refers to the informal contraction ''imma''. "Imma Be" received generally mixed reviews from
critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...
, who praised the group's confidence and second part of the song, but expressed ambivalence towards its first half. The accompanying
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
for the song was filmed back-to-back as a ten-minute video, titled "Imma Be Rocking That Body", with "
Rock That Body "Rock That Body" is a song by the Black Eyed Peas from their fifth studio album ''The E.N.D'' (2009). The song serves as the fifth international single from the album, and was released in Australia on January 29, 2010, in the United Kingdom on ...
". The song was part of the soundtrack of the film ''
The Other Guys ''The Other Guys'' is a 2010 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Adam McKay, who co-wrote it with Chris Henchy. It stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg with Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Ray Stevenson, Samu ...
'' (2010) and was used in the bar scene, and appeared in the film ''
The Hangover Part II ''The Hangover Part II'' is a 2011 American comedy film produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The sequel to the 2009 film ''The Hangover'' and the second installment in ''The Hangover'' trilogy, the film wa ...
'' (2011).


Critical reception

Critical response to the song was generally mixed. Eric Henderson from ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
'' stated that in the song, "halfway through, the pulse gets an upgrade, the tempo hustles up to a strut, the rudimentary synth hits explode into a chunky-funky rush, and before you know it,
will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "will I am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas, which he ...
has transformed a deliberately lazy self-parody into a heated club-floor burner. He added: "The dialectic without conversation within "Imma Be" is replayed ad nauseam throughout the album's entire bloated running time". ''
PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...
'' gave the song a positive review: "Highlights of the album include 'Imma be', which despite the repetition of the title no less than 105 times...takes a really interesting path from hip-hop attitude to club hit to jazz romp that holds up well to repeated listens". ''Vibe Magazine'' said that "Imma Be is the 2008 version of '
My Humps "My Humps" is a song by American hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas, released on September 20, 2005 by A&M Records and Interscope Records. It was originally written by will.i.am for the American girl group the Pussycat Dolls, but was ultimately ...
'". ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' said "The group sounds as unabashedly confident as ever here.....A brazen horn section and smooth keyboards cruise along until the song's sudden transition, when the beat switches from a snap music-meets- Neptunes stomp to a funk-house glide, meshing with a seemingly endless vocal loop of 'Imma be' to form a pounding, assertive club thumper. Given the success of its predecessors, 'Imma Be', while inherently
gimmick A gimmick is a novel device or idea designed primarily to attract attention or increase appeal, often with little intrinsic value. When applied to retail marketing, it is a unique or quirky feature designed to make a product or service "stand out ...
y, should be sticking around for a long time".


Chart performance

Prior to ''The E.N.D.''s release, "Imma Be" was released as a worldwide promotional single and peaked at number 50 in the United States, based on downloads alone. It was later released as the fourth single from the album in the U.S. and became the group's third number one hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for the week ending March 6, 2010 and halted the nine-week run of
Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. Her first major success came in 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round". Kesha's music and ima ...
's " Tik Tok". It was the group's third number one from ''The E.N.D.'', following their first two number ones, "
Boom Boom Pow "Boom Boom Pow" is a song recorded by American group the Black Eyed Peas for their fifth studio album '' The E.N.D.'' (2009). It was written by group members will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo and Fergie, being produced by will.i.am. The song featur ...
" and "
I Gotta Feeling "I Gotta Feeling" is a song by American group the Black Eyed Peas from their fifth studio album '' The E.N.D.'' (2009). It was written by the group members with the song's producers David Guetta and Frédéric Riesterer. The song was released a ...
", as well as their fourth consecutive top ten from the album. With the single reaching number one, the Black Eyed Peas became the first group or duo to place three number ones on the Hot 100 from one album since the
Wilson Phillips Wilson Phillips is an American pop vocal group formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The group consists of sisters Carnie and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, and Chynna Phillips, the daughter of John and Michelle Phi ...
's debut album, ''
Wilson Phillips Wilson Phillips is an American pop vocal group formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The group consists of sisters Carnie and Wendy Wilson, the daughters of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, and Chynna Phillips, the daughter of John and Michelle Phi ...
'', in 1990–1991. This placed the Black Eyed Peas adjoined with Usher's 2004 ''Confessions'' album to have their singles from the same album spend the most weeks on top of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, at 28 weeks, only beaten by
Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...
's ''Scorpion'', (2018) whose singles spent 29 collective weeks at number one. "Imma Be" reached the top ten on the Canadian Hot 100 due to a significant increase in digital downloads following a performance of "Imma Be" at the
52nd Grammy Awards The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards took place on January 31, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009. Neil Young was honored as the 2010 MusiCares P ...
.


Music video

The video was filmed on January 13, 2010. The clip features Fergie wearing Louboutin designer footwear and a black metallic leotard and riding a
BMW S1000RR BMW S1000RR is a race orientated sport bike initially made by BMW Motorrad to compete in the 2009 Superbike World Championship, that is now in commercial production. It was introduced in Munich in April 2008, and is powered by a Inline-four engi ...
motorcycle. Extras were dressed as
robots" \n\n\n\n\n\n\nrobots.txt is the filename used for implementing the Robots Exclusion Protocol, a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the website they are allowed to visit.\n\nThe sta ...
and nomads (like apl.de.ap in "Meet Me Halfway"). It was shot on a desert road in Lancaster, California. Filming was interrupted by a sudden
sandstorm A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transported b ...
; however, as the storm passed, filming resumed. The music video, directed by
Rich Lee Richard "Rich" Lee is an American music video and commercial director. He has directed music videos for Eminem, Lana Del Rey, Maroon 5, The Black Eyed Peas, Norah Jones, Michael Bublé and The All-American Rejects. Rich Lee started his professi ...
, was shot back to back with the video for "
Rock That Body "Rock That Body" is a song by the Black Eyed Peas from their fifth studio album ''The E.N.D'' (2009). The song serves as the fifth international single from the album, and was released in Australia on January 29, 2010, in the United Kingdom on ...
", the second song on ''The E.N.D.'' The two songs were mashed up into a medley, which is titled "Imma Be Rocking That Body". The medley length is 8:15 and the music video in total is 10:21. It premiered on
Vevo Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...
and Dipdive on February 16, 2010.Double video premiere on Dipdive
The videos were separated for music channels with the introduction and conclusion removed.


Synopsis

The "Imma Be Rocking That Body" video begins with the Black Eyed Peas in the studio when will.i.am demonstrates a machine that recreates vocal recordings of singers and rappers from a set of typed lyrics and a series of vocal samples. After the other members protest against the device's use, Fergie walks out of the studio in frustration and rides off in a motorcycle only to get hit by a car. The "Imma Be" video then begins with Fergie, following her accident, waking up on a road in a desert where she notices everything stuck on a loop. She gets up and sings the first verse, trailed by an evil black giant robot. She arrives at a bar and finds will.i.am who is stuck on a loop of pouring his drink. She mutes his Beats which makes him stop. He notices that the robot who looped him is following them and they both hide. As the robot looks for them, they both escape in a
hovercar A hover car is a personal vehicle that flies at a constant altitude of up to one yard (three feet) above the ground and used for personal transportation in the same way a modern automobile is employed. The concept usually appears in science fict ...
. The robot chases them but it runs out of energy. They arrive at a scrapyard where they find apl.de.ap who is also stuck on a loop. will.i.am taps him and makes him stop. apl.de.ap brings a good white robot to life as they dig through the scrap and find Taboo whose bottom half of his body is missing. will.i.am and apl.de.ap carry him as they find a pair of legs walking around the scrapyard and they quickly fix him. As apl.de.ap raps his verse, the robots dance in the background and they disappear, leaving the evil robot confused.


Track listing

; Digital Download E.P. ; UK & German CD Single


Charts


Weekly charts


Monthly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Release history


See also

* List of ''Billboard'' Hot 100 number ones of 2010 * List of ''Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Songs number ones of 2010


References

{{authority control 2010 singles Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Song recordings produced by will.i.am Songs written by will.i.am Black Eyed Peas songs Interscope Records singles Songs written by Keith Harris (record producer) Song recordings produced by Keith Harris (record producer) 2009 songs Music videos directed by Rich Lee