Steve Stoute Interviews will.i.am On “The Tanning Effect”

In Jimmy Iovine’s interview on Steve Stoute’s “The Tanning Effect”—in partnership with Huffington Post Black Voices—the Interscope executive mentions briefly how will.i.am was the catalyst for the creation of Dr. Dre’s beats By Dre headphones. Iovine credits the Black Eyed Peas-frontman with stating that the future of the music business is in hardware. Now, during his own sit-down on “The Tanning Effect,” will.i.am expounds on that revelation, as well as details on how his Teddy Ruxpin doll landed him a record deal with Eazy-E and how Wilmer Valderrama’s party was instrumental in creating the now ubiquitous “Yes We Can” Barack Obama campaign video in 2008. Read excerpts and watch the full interview below.

will.i.am on his decision to support Barack Obama:

In 2004, I got into politics supporting [John] Kerry and met a good friend named Terry McAuliffe. In 2008, [Terry] called me up and asked me to support Hilary [Clinton]. At the time I was on the fence like a lot of Americans. I didn’t know who I was going to support. Then I saw Barack Obama’s speech in New Hampshire. He inspired me. He reminded me of people that fought for magnet programs, you know, the freedoms that we have today. That’s when I realized who I wanted to support. We haven’t seen a political figure, a youth leader, someone in politics inspire us.

will.i.am on the origins of his “Yes We Can” Obama video:

I don’t know when the last time a speech inspired a culture. I got engaged and my whole vision was to make that speech be taught in schools…I looked at it like this speech needs to be taught in schools because it defines today’s America. It defines where we need to go as a people—Black, White, Latino, Asian, Arabic. I wanted to do a song but I didn’t want to have to translate his message. Just use the message. No beat. There’s no beat. No drums. Consciously I didn’t put no drums in that song. Just a progression to bring out the emotion so people would listen. People don’t listen no more…The celebrities were down the street at a party, literally. They were at Wilmer Valderrama’s party and this girl named Sarah Pantera helped out by calling people on the phone and saying, ‘Hey, I’m at the studio. will’s at the studio doing this thing. If you’re passionate about this year’s election, come by the studio. Did you see Obama’s speech? What’s your favorite line from the speech? Here it is. What line do you want to recite? What line resonates with you? Say it with conviction. This is an important time right now.’

will.i.am on how Eazy-E signed him to a record deal:

I used to record on my little sister’s Teddy Ruxpin tapes to make Teddy Ruxpin rap. So I used to put my little demo inside his belly and press play and he used to kick my lyrics in homeroom show-and-tell. So after homeroom show-and-tell, I gave the tape to Stefan: ‘Give this to your pops.’ And he didn’t give it to his dad, so he gave it to his brother, Kerry, and then Kerry [Gordy] says, ‘You’re really talented, this is cool.’ To make a long story short, in the 10th grade I tell Stefan, ‘Tell your daddy to get you some music equipment so we can record after school. In 11th grade, Stefan goes, ‘Yo, my dad got me an Ensoniq and ADATs!’ At the time, those were like the newest stuff. If you got ADATs, it’s on. I come to school with a record deal, like ‘Yo, I got a record deal, 10 G’s!’ To a 17-year-old, ten thousand dollars—granted, it was, like, for life. Eazy-E had me signed like forever. I ghost wrote for Eazy-E. I know how to write those type of rhymes. I just don’t want to rap them.

will.i.am on how he knew that the future of the music business is in hardware:

Our whole thing was college kids. College kids, college kids, college kids, college kids, college kids—because we rocked with a band. College, college, college. Then the internet came and the college kids got our shit for free. I was like, ‘Yo, why is it that we sell less records but we sell more tickets? So, I didn’t hate the Internet. I met Shawn Fanning and started going to Silicon Valley all the time trying to figure it out. So then when we finally started touring off of free, I noticed that people started watching the shows differently. In 2002, they watched concerts [just watching the stage]. In 2003, they watched concerts [through the camera on their phones]. Only because of the camera on the phone. The introduction of the camera on your phone changed your behavior at events. You no longer record the memories in your mind. That wasn’t good enough. Now you want to record on your piece of hardware. I came home and I was like, ‘Yo, Jimmy! I just found something out. We need to get into hardware.’

Watch Steve Stoute’s full interview with will.i.am below. [Source]