it's impossible to explain the early 2000s to zoomers, but just to give you a sense:
in 1995, backpack rapper will i am started a backpack rap group called Black Eyed Peas with a mexican-american and a filipino guy, released two albums, added a blonde female vocalist and moved to pop-rap.
the pop-rap album is recorded over the course of 2001, and is allegedly both interrupted and inspired by 9/11
9/11 album has three singles: let's get retarded, shut up, and a kind of 'do they even know it's christmas' consciousness-raising song called 'where is the love?' about how we just have to love each other. the album is now quadruple platinum
after this, will i am starts a tech co and acquires an israeli machine learning company. i think he also made hardware for the early iphone
this year he's teaching a course on agentic AI at ASU