Monkey Business (Black Eyed Peas album)
Monkey Business is the fourth studio album by American group Black Eyed Peas. It was released on June 7, 2005, by the will.i.am Music Group and A&M Records. It was recorded in "two and three-month spurts" throughout 2004 while the group was on tour.
The album was certified three times Platinum by the RIAA in the U.S. and has sold over 9 million copies worldwide. The Canadian Recording Industry Association has certified Monkey Business 6× Platinum, with sales of over 600,000 copies. The Australian Recording Industry Association has also certified Monkey Business 6× Platinum, denoting sales of over 420,000 copies. The album's tracks earned the group four 2006 Grammy Award nominations and they also won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Don't Phunk with My Heart". According to IFPI, over 2 million copies have been sold in Europe. The band promoted the album embarking on two concert tours: the Monkey Business Tour and the Black Blue & You Tour.
Critical reception
Initial critical response to Monkey Business was mixed to negative. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 48, based on 20 reviews.was Robert Christgau's, who gave the album a 3-star honorable mention, saying: "What all pop might be—so much brighter and kinder than it is".
Singles
- "Don't Phunk with My Heart" was the lead single from the Black Eyed Peas' second album since band member Fergie joined the group. The single became the group's first top 5 single, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and their second top 10.
- "Don't Lie" was the album's second single, however it failed to duplicate the success of "Don't Phunk with My Heart", partly due to the rising success of the then-unreleased-single "My Humps". "Don't Lie" did manage to crack the top 20 in the United States, peaking at No. 14 on the Hot 100.
- "My Humps" was the third single from the album and was released in the summer of 2005. The song was released after it became an unsolicited hit on mainstream radio across the United States. The track, even with lack of promotion, surpassed the highly promoted track "Don't Lie". "My Humps" became one of the biggest songs of 2005, despite an incredible amount of criticism, with some labeling the song "tasteless".
- "Pump It" was released as the fourth and final single from the album, and was the final song from the album to chart on the Hot 100
Track listing
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- signifies an additional producer
Personnel
Black Eyed Peas
- will.i.am – conceptual design, producer , audio mixing, rap vocals, vocals sung by, bass, drum machine, drums, synthesizer, clavinet keyboard, organ, rhodes piano, additional instruments
- Fergie - rap vocals, vocals sung by
- apl.de.ap - rap vocals, vocals sung by, Clavinet keyboard, drum machine, strings played by, producer
- Taboo - rap vocals, vocals sung by
- Dante Santiago – backing vocals, additional lead vocals, A&R management coordination
- Marcella Araica - assistant recording engineer, Pro-Tools music editing
- Charlie Baccarat - electric violin
- Printz Board - Mellotron strings, Mellotron keyboards, Moog synthesizer, synthesizer, bass, drums, drum machine, trumpet, keyboards, Rhodes piano, producer
- Ray Brady - guitar
- James Brown - additional lead vocals sung by
- Venus Brown – background vocals, A&R management
- Demo Castelleon - recording engineer
- Mino Cinelu - sampled percussion
- Fred Davis – legal representation
- Dylan "3-D" Dresdow - vocal recording engineer
- Ron Fair – executive producer, additional music producer, string arrangements, strings conducted by, harmonica
- Shepard Fairey – album cover and logo designer
- Mike Fratantuono - bass
- Seth Friedman – A&R management, cover art director, manager
- Brian Gardner – mastering
- Serban Ghenea – audio mixing
- Dennis Gomez – booklet design
- Cee-Lo Green - additional rap vocals
- Keith Harris - live drums, drums, keyboards, Mellotron strings, percussion
- Tal Herzberg - recording engineer, Pro-Tools music programming
- Julie Hovsepian – product manager
- Ted Howard - recording engineer
- Tippa Irie - background vocals
- Jack Johnson - guitar played by, additional vocals sung by
- Mike Jurkovac – cover art director
- Manu Katche - sampled drums
- Kenny Kirkland - sampled keyboards
- Talib Kweli - additional rap vocals
- Sarah Larkin – business manager
- John Legend - additional vocals sung by
- Melvin "Chaos" Lewis - recording engineer, bass, drum machine
- Jimmy Limon - bass, Clavinet keyboard, organ, drum machine, percussion, guitar
- Lor-e – stylist
- Branford Marsalis - sampled soprano saxophone
- Edward Martinez – booklet art director and photographer
- Tony Maserati - audio mixing
- Michael Matthews - guitar
- Polo Molina – manager
- Osinachi Nwaneri - recording engineer
- Tim "Izo" Orindgreff - saxophone, flute
- George Pajon Jr. - guitar
- Jack Joseph Puig - audio mixing
- Q-Tip - rap vocals
- Kevin Rudolf - guitar
- Justin Siegel – A&R management coordination
- Madeleine Smith – music clearance
- David Sonenberg – manager
- Mike "Spike" Stent - audio mixing
- Sting - additional vocals sung by, sampled bass
- Robert "Mousey" Thompson - bass, Clavinet keyboard, drums, drum machine, organ
- Justin Timberlake - additional vocals sung by
- Timbaland - additional rap vocals, all other instruments
- Neil Tucker - recording engineer
- Andrew Van Meter – production manager
- Jason Villaroman - recording engineer
- Jeff Watkins - saxophone
- Albert Watson – photographer
- Ethan Willoughby - recording engineer, audio mixing
- Damon Woods - guitar
- Florencio Zavala – album cover and logo designer
- Mike Rotch – Fergie's graphic layout – director
Charts
Chart | Peak position |
Argentinian Albums Chart | 1 |
Australian Albums Chart | 1 |
Austrian Albums Chart | 2 |
Brazilian Albums Chart | – |
Danish Albums Chart | 3 |
Dutch Albums Chart | 3 |
Finnish Albums Chart | 4 |
French Albums Chart | 1 |
Germany Albums Chart | 1 |
Greek Albums Chart | 13 |
Italian Albums Chart | 10 |
Japanese Albums Chart | 3 |
Mexican Albums Chart | 1 |
New Zealand Albums Chart | 1 |
Norway Albums Chart | 15 |