Tom Jones is like igloo-cool.
— will.i.am
Disco is the first technology music. And what I mean is that 'disco' music is named after discs, because when technology grew to where they didn't need a band in the clubs, the DJ played it on a disc.
I'm like a mama's boy and stuff.
Traveling in Europe made me understand that America has an island mentality: No one exists except us. There's a whole other world out there, but most Americans - all they know is America, the marketing plan.
Music is my therapy and my straitjacket. Music keeps me sane and keeps my mind on something. It's fragile up there.
I have ADHD. I'll admit it.
When you think about the guys who started Twitter, and the Google guys, and the Facebook guys and the Napster guys, and the Microsoft guys, and the Dell guys and the Instagram guys, it's all guys. The girls, they're being left behind.
If you really want change, you really want it to be inclusive, where everyone's included, otherwise you're just going to have more of the same in the future.
Why shouldn't a child look to want to be a political figure, to change our nation, to lead us the right directions?
I don't despise people.
You know, the Super Bowl is so fresh that every single commercial is even on, you know, some next-level entertainment.
If my mind's not trying to fix something or create something, I don't know what to do. It just throws me off.
I'm a fan of X-men.
I just like seeing kids inspired.
My mom's discipline worked out perfectly. I wouldn't change a thing.
When you follow your heart, you're never supposed to do things because of what you think people might say. You do it for the opposite reasons.
I like all the families in the U.K. But what I like about the idea of the royal family is... they seem like they're well educated and there's something admirable about them. And the Queen... she reminds me of my grandma.
When the music industry started collapsing, the logical people understood that the only place to go for shelter was the underground. If the world on the surface is burning up, and you know people that have bunkers, go to the bunkers.
The music industry isn't converging toward dance music. Dance music is dance music. It's been around since disco - and way before disco. But there's different versions of dance music.
When I got into junior high school, that's when my mom let me dress how I wanted to dress. Up to that point I wore suits to school all the time.
If countries were people, England and France would be old men. Italy would be dead. Compared with them, America is in its 20s.
If you listen to the songs I write, they are the most ADHD songs ever. They have five hooks in one and it all happens in three minutes.
We need creative people working with broadcasters, making smart content to inspire people to be geniuses.
We all rely on technology to communicate, to survive, to do our banking, to shop, to get informed, but none of us knows how to read and write the code.
I've got Republican fans. Republicans like the Black Eyed Peas.
Kids today aren't listening to music audio-only. They're picking up a CD and looking at the lyric sheet and wondering why the pictures aren't moving around. Who wants to do that? It's like Bam Bam Flintstone hanging with the dinosaurs vs. Elroy Jetson who's flying around space. If I'm a kid, I wanna be kicking it with Elroy.
Romantic love is painful.
I don't want to preach to people.
As we develop and get quicker with technology in America, it's like we're downgrading if you look at the investment in education... that's the thing that worries me.
How about no one's ever going to outsell Michael Jackson at selling records because the record industry is over. Game over. There's no more record stores. With no more record stores there's no more pressing plants. With no more pressing plants, there's no more charts.
You know, I do music. If you look under the hood of the industry I'm in, it's all based on technology. From radio to phonographs to CDs, it's all technology. Microphones, reel-to-reels, cameras, editing, chips, it's all technology.
Now that Obama's president, it changes inner-city youths. They can now not just dream to be Lil Waynes and 50 Cents, but they can now dream to be Obamas.
I don't like politics.
If I didn't mould my reality then I'd still be in the ghetto where people like me are supposed to stay. You have to dream your way out of the nightmare.
Hip-hop was fast, originally. It was always fast music.
Every single song that I've listened to is in my memory forever.
America has to be not just an idea but a living, breathing thing.
I was born and raised in East Los Angeles by a single mom who had three biological kids and adopted four more. I never met my dad.
I've got all this stuff in my head at the same time as I'm doing stuff and I don't know how to stop or slow down.
I remember when I was 19, it was pretty tough.
I will not start an initiative until I've spent my own money. Because if I spend my own money, people who want to get on board afterwards know that I am serious about it.
I don't have political agendas. I have social agendas.
If Apple's a technology company in the music industry, why can't somebody in the music industry make technology?
I can procrastinate a little bit.
I have a pro tools rig that I carry in my backpack.
Black Eyed Peas is a chameleon group.
I know people in gangs; I could have went down that route.
I've been truly protected by my uncles.
Hip-hop culture is probably one of the most powerful things to come out of America in a long time - everything from the music to the art to the dance to the language.
There's no chivalry in culture any more. Sometimes you meet someone who everyone says is polite and you're like, 'Wow,' but then it's like, 'Hang on, isn't everyone supposed to be polite?'
