Elephunk
Elephunk is the third studio album by American group 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 group's first album with Fergie, as well as their first album where the band is credited as The Black Eyed Peas. Album cover art by Markus and Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri).
Critical reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 66, based on 15 reviews indicating generally positive reviews. John Bush from AllMusic said that Elephunk "possesses some of the most boundary-pushing productions in contemporary, uncommercial hip-hop". 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."Entertainment Weekly had more of a negative view on the record: "They try dancehall, salsa, even nu-metal, but the biggest offense for a once smart-sounding rap collective is 'Where Is the Love?', the horrifyingly trite single. It's enough to make longtime fans wonder, 'Where are the Peas?'".
Commercial response
In the United States, Elephunk reached number 14 on the Billboard Top 200 and was their first album to chart in the top 15. On the UK Album Charts it reached number 3. It has sold over 1.6 million copies in the UK and 8.5 million copies worldwide.The band was approached by EA games to feature some of their music on the 2004 game . They remixed some of the tracks on Elephunk and translated it into Simlish and created new tracks for the game. They appear in the game as playable characters.
Track listings
Personnel
;Black Eyed Peas- will.i.am - vocals on all tracks except 11; Moog synthesizers on tracks 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13; drum programming on tracks 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10; clavinet on tracks 12 and 13; drums and piano on track 2; Wurlitzer electric piano on track 4; synthesizer on track 10; executive production; production; engineering on tracks 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12 and 14; mixing on tracks 10 and 14
- apl.de.ap - vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13; drum programming and production on track 11
- Taboo - vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 13
- Fergie - vocals on all tracks except 6, 7 and 12
- Dante Santiago – backing vocals on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 10, 14, and 15; vocals on track 7
- George Pajon – guitar on tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13 and 15
- Mike Fratantuno – bass on tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 13, 14 and 15; guitarrón on track 7; double bass and acoustic guitar on track 13
- Printz Board – horns on track 2; trumpet on track 7; Moog synthesizer and clavinet on track 13
- Tim Orindgreff – horns on track 2; saxophone and flute on track 7
- J. Curtis – guitar on tracks 5, 7, 11 and 13
- Terence Yoshiaki – drums on tracks 3 and 7
- Noelle Scaggs – backing vocals on tracks 3 and 6
- Tippa Irie – vocals on track 4
- Ray Brady – guitar on tracks 5 and 9
- Terry Dexter – backing vocals on track 6
- Travis Barker - drums on track 15
- Davey Chegwidden – percussion on track 7
- Chuck Prada – percussion on tracks 7 and 14
- Debi Nova – vocals on track 7
- Sérgio Mendes – piano on track 8
- John Legend – vocals on track 10
- Jacoby Shaddix – vocals on track 12
- Tobin Esperance – bass on track 12
- Jerry Horton – guitar on track 12
- David Buckner – drums on track 12
- Justin Timberlake – vocals on track 13
- Ron Fair – executive production; production on track 13; additional vocal production on track 5; piano on track 7
- Dylan Dresdow – engineering on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13 and 15; additional vocal engineering on track 3
- Christine Sirois – engineering assistance on tracks 1, 5, 6, 7 and 13
- Tony Maserati – mixing on all tracks except 10 and 12
- Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering
- Tal Herzberg – additional engineering on tracks 5 and 13
- Jun Ishizeki – engineering on track 10
- Jason Villaroman – engineering on track 11
- Chris Lord-Alge – mixing on track 12
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
| Chart | Position |
| Australian Albums | 4 |
| Austrian Albums | 19 |
| Belgian Albums | 22 |
| Belgian Albums | 33 |
| Dutch Albums | 12 |
| French Albums | 12 |
| German Albums | 15 |
| Swedish Albums | 75 |
| Swiss Albums | 6 |
| UK Albums | 26 |
| US Billboard 200 | 35 |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums | 48 |
| Chart | Position |
| French Albums | 147 |
| UK Albums | 183 |
| US Billboard 200 | 115 |