Elephunk
| Elephunk | ||||
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| Studio album by The Black Eyed Peas | ||||
| Released | June 24, 2003 | |||
| Recorded | December 26, 2001 – March 3, 2003 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 59:29 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | ||||
| The Black Eyed Peas chronology | ||||
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| Asian special edition | ||||
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| Singles from Elephunk | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (66/100) |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Alternative Press | |
| The A.V. Club | (positive) |
| Blender | |
| Drowned in Sound | (9/10) |
| Entertainment Weekly | C |
| Mojo | |
| PopMatters |   |
| Robert Christgau | A- |
| Rolling Stone | |
Elephunk is the third studio album by American group The Black Eyed Peas. It was released on June 24, 2003, by the will.i.am Music Group and A&M Records. The album charted at number 14 on the American Billboard 200 albums chart and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and has gone on to sell more than 9 million copies worldwide, with 3.2 million in the United States alone. This is the first album with Fergie on vocals.
Development of the album began on November 2, 2002 and was released just under one year later in 2003. At the time of development, only will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo were to feature on the album. During the production of "Shut Up" (the second single released from the album), they realized that a female vocal would work well with the song. Originally, Nicole Scherzinger (lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls) was approached to make a guest appearance on the record, but was forced to decline because she already was signed to a contract with Eden's Crush. Danté Santiago then introduced Fergie to will.i.am who was impressed with her vocal talents. She immediately formed a bond with the band and became a permanent member of the Peas and her photo was printed onto the album cover.
John Bush from AllMusic said that Elephunk "possesses some of the most boundary-pushing productions in contemporary, (mostly) uncommercial hip-hop" and gave the album a 4/5 star rating. Chris Nettleton from Drowned in Sound complimented the album saying: "This record is full of first rate rapping, first rate tunes, first rate instrumentation. Look on the surface, and you've got an album full of memorable songs, hooks that lodge in your mind... but look in depth, and it's quality from the top down." In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau commented that the group "remain unbelievable, but in pop that's just one more aesthetic nuance", and stated, "In which the unbelievably dull El Lay alt-rappers fabricate the brightest actual rap album of 2003."
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