My Life as a Peabody. ( 8 years)

Written by adriph on January 6, 2010

The Beginning

It was an afternoon of 2003 when I saw The Black Eyed Peas for the first time on MTV, with their music Video "SHUT UP". Literally, I fall in love with BEP; their music was completely new for me, because I didn’t heard english music at that moment, I just loved Latin Music, I thought they were cool, and they seem to be an interesting Band. Those moments were hard because Internet wasn’t popular in my country as it is right now or maybe my family wasn’t able to pay it. So, I couldn’t look for information about the Band... there wasn’t Internet access for me...I read BEP Information every time it appeared on national newspapers, but it wasn’t enough. When their singles HEY MAMA, and Lets Get Started came out, l started loving the Peas More and More... At that moment I just had around 2 pictures and 2 articles about them, I wasn’t able to get more, however I felt their No.1 Fan... ;)

Years passed, it was until 2005 when my Mom was able to buy me Black Eyed Peas CDs, I got all of them (Behind The Front, Bridging The Gap, Elephunk and Monkey Business). Bridging The Gap and Monkey Business became my favorite albums ever! What I love about BEP music is their energy, they are different from others bands, they have what other artists don’t have... It doesn’t matter that sometimes I can’t understand what they say in their songs, especially when they rap! haha... I need to look for the lyrics songs to understand, but...their music is like magic. When I’m sad, stressed, I listen to BEP, and life becomes much better. I started collecting Pictures about them, right now i have around 4GB in my PC just of BEP Pictures, I love how they look together, I memorize their outfits, etc... They are my Fashion Icons, especially Fergie. One of my favorite BEP collections, is their Live Performances and Music Videos, I burn my own DVDs! I Love them!

My First website related to BEP was "FergieFansInternational"(2006), it was a MSN Group, I remember, it was popular for the downloads: Live Songs & Remixes, I still see some of that material in fan websites. Unfortunately, MSN Groups closed their services.

Concert

In August 2006, a day after VMAs, I was watching the NEWS with my brother, and a "Mas Que Nada" shoot was on the screen, so I realized they were going to talk about BEP, but I didn’t expected they were going to announce their concert in Costa Rica on NOV.21. I was shocked...my brother said my eyes were with tears... haha. Of course I wanted my VIP TICKET, I wanted to be in front of the stage... We didn’t know the tickets prices until October, But We knew before they probably will be expensive, and I didn’t want my parents to be worried about the money. So, I started to summarize 3 big books that we used at school, and I was going to sell them to my partners, so it will be easier for them to study for our Goverment Tests, before our 9th grade graduation. And I Did It, during one month I was selling summaries, everywhere including to people from other schools. And that’s how I got the money; even my cousin went with me to the concert. It feels good that I paid my tickets for my favorite Band Concert. The Show was Great!!!!! I Won’t never forget that Night. I gave a teddy Bear to Apl.de.Ap :) I remember that people look at me weird :/ , because was like crazy, especially when Apl came to stage, haha :) Also, I memorized their dialogues of the show, I knew the set list, and I knew the moments they were going to jump, etc. Their dances for each song, and i was doing all of that while they were performing, so people laughed :P

My inspiration

In 2007, I started to read more information about each Black Eyed Peas Member, and I was really impressed with one story. I had had difficult moments, depression was part of me, I almost die... So, when I read that story, I realized there isn’t any reason for being depressed, that some other people have been in more difficult situations than me, and they never give up. I’m talking about Allan Pineda Lindo, yes He’s My IDOL! My Role Model! I couldn’t imagine myself with a blind problem, moving to another country without my fam, without any language knowledge, I admire his fortitude, I wish I would have it too. That’s Why I admire him, I like his humanitarian work, also what he says in his songs, all those good messages, his advice that I take into my own life. He is really amazing. He is a talented artist and a good break-dancer as well. It took me months to read everything about Apl, all the aspects behind his life as a Pea.

Fan Club Experience

In The same year ALLBEP FANS TOGETHER AROUND THE WORLD came out. It was something amazing that I won’t ever forget, and I hope the majority of the peabodies remember it too. Talking about ABFTATW deserves another journal entry haha ;) Basically, It started like this: FAN CLUBS are very popular here in latinamerica, I always wanted to be part of a Fan Club, so i decided to brought that experience into Black Eyed Peas Fans, I didn’t expect it was going to be successful, I remembered the day I started with this... there were around 25 people, and we ended with more than 600 members of all the world... it was really funny... I learned about other cultures, countries, more english... One of my goals was to spread to the world, the latest News, Pictures of BEP, and i Did it for more than 2 years, I emailed "Newsletters" To all the fan club members, sometimes it was tired.. haha.. but I enjoyed it. Also, we did "peabodies meetings" , they were awesome!, today people continue doing them... I´m glad of it... and there are a lot of anecdotes we shared together.. **LoVe U mY ABFTATW pEaBoDiEs***/ Check this blog to read more about this lovely adventure: http://dipdive.com/member/adriph/blog/7303

3008 Era

BEP came out with a New Album in 2009. It was hard for me to accept this new BEP, their new style, etc... The First Time, Boom Boom Pow came out on dipdive, I thought it was a remix of the single.... I couldn’t imagine that will be BEP New Sound... and I hate it. So, it took me a while to accept all this new concept. I still love their music and I’m proud of them! >>>SIX MONTHS NO.1= THE NEW KINGS>>>> :) :) :)

If someone asks me if I prefer the old bep or the new bep, I definitely would say the old one, because that’s how I met them and the way I started to like their music. I love the new bep too, and it makes me feel proud of being a Peabody, because their biggest moments had happened with this new concept. I confess, I miss the old Will.i.am, he is a genius, his ideas are crazy!!, but there is something that I can’t explain well, that isn’t the same anymore, probably old fans will understand what I mean.

Talking about my collections stuff, I can’t buy a lot of singles or any stuff of their store because nothing is available in my country, but fortunately in the past 2 years I have bought singles, vinyl´s, calendars, I hope in a few more years I will have all their complete singles collection ( too many are missing LOL) And now, I have two treasures!! My Apl´s autograph and Taboo´s book autographed as well…yeah! Great Gifts!

I have been a Peabody for 8 years now, BEP has been part of different cycles of my life, from the day I became a teenager to the days I started my professional life, and I think that I have been part of their evolution too, if I see videos from 2002-2003 and 2011… wow! That’s a big evolution, I remember their small shows without screens, dancers, effects… and now it’s a different and an amazing thing.

I consider myself a good fan, even though I’m not that active as I used to be, my life has changed and the free time isn’t the same…. even though ABFTATW doesn’t exist anymore… I´m still here, supporting the BEP. I´m focus now on Apldeap websites and promotion about his record label and humanitarian work, this is something that I really like, I love to write and give people information, that’s why I´m a journalist and I like to support people that inspire me such as Apl and BEP, so it´s like a combination of two of my passions.

There is something I haven´t achieved yet, I haven´t meet any of them, it’s depressing, many fans have seen them live at least 2 times, and that’s not my case. They haven´t come back to Costa Rica and everything it’s too expensive, I can’t travel as much as I want to, I have participated of 8 contests to go to a BEP Show in South America and I lost all of them =( So, this is not my time… I´m sure one day it will happen, it’s taking a while… but I´ll meet them one day, I´ll love to interview BEP or at least to have one picture with any BEP; as a fan I have done everything, but something its missing!