A million and a half years ago, BJ introduced me to this goes-great-with-grass number from the then unknown Black Eyed Peas called “The Elephunk Theme”. I took an immediate liking to it and it has since been a regular on my highlist.
The Song, The Elephunk Theme
This song was a bonus track on their breakout album Elephunk, released in 2003, which included a Grammy award winning song. The Elephunk Theme sampled the music of Ilayaraja from the soundtrack (Unakkum Enakkum) to a 1985 Rajinikant starrer Tamil movie (Sri Raghavendra) and remixed it. The female vocal track by S.Janaki was retained.
The hip-hop/ rap remix is surprisingly good. The song kicks ass.
| Black Eyed Peas – … |
A Partial Translation of the Tamil lyrics ( Courtesy Minorscale )
(Verily Verily I say unto you, Blah Blah Bleh Blook)
Unakkum Enakkum Aanandham Dham, Vidiya Vidiya Sondham
(You & I will find hap-hap-happiness by dawn)
Padukkai Araiyil Aarambam-bam, Pudhiya Pudhiya Inbam
(In the bedroom beg-begins, newfound pleasures)
The Group, The Black Eyed Peas
“Black Eyed Peas are food for the soul”, hence the name.
The Black Eyed Peas is a hip-hop group from the United States. The group originated in 1988 with the creatively named will.i.am and apl.de.ap and currently have Taboo and the hot Fergie as the other members.
Elephunk is their best known album, besides Monkey Business. Their popular songs include “Where is the Love?”, “Let’s Get it Started” (“Let’s Get Retarded”) , “Don’t Phunk with my Heart” and “My Humps”. And oh, the last three have won Grammies for ‘Best Rap Performance’
Most of their songs are pretty neat and are a good listen.
The Good News
The good news now is that The Black Eyed Peas are scheduled to visit India as part of their Black, Blue and You world tour. They’ll play at the Palace Grounds, Bangalore (Where else?) on the 16th of October. If you like hip-hop, you know where to head and when.
