Black Eyed Peas have at times been accused of sounding too Tribe for their own good, but this time out Will.i.am and crew have consciously expanded their horizons. Problem is, perhaps they've tried too hard. As the title suggests, Elephunk borrows from every single element of funk known to man and (with the exception of the one straight-out rock & roll track, "Anxiety") tries to cram them all into a semi-hip-hop format. While such willingness to experiment is admirable, in this case the attempt comes off as slightly desperate and too diffuse. Elephunk settles itself into a groove when BEP's newest member Fergie's lush girlie vocals are allowed to dominate, as they do on the discofied "The Boogie That Be." --Rebecca Levine

Includes the bonus track Something For That Us.

Includes the Bonus Track Something for that Us.

"Sellout" is a word that I don't care to use very much anymore for several reasons. It has been used ludicrously in such situations as Bob Dylan switching from acoustic to electric guitars. Or when the overwhelmingly awesome metal band Mastodon had one of their songs played on one of Tony Hawk's video games. Come to find out they received no money for their contribution, but still the "sellout" cries abounded. Often people miscall artistic maturity "selling out". It's a fact of life, many people do not like to do the same things when they were younger. And yet when I look at the BEP, it is one time when the word that I hate to use anymore is the only one that applies.

When the BEP started, they seemed like a credible hip-hop alternative to all the gangsta skullduggery cluttering the airwaves. Then something corrupted them - a little thing that was 365 days long called 1999. This was the year that vacuous bimbo pop took over with a heavily manicured iron fist. From there, it was all downhill. They hired their own uber-diva named Fergie, who by the way shares the same name as Al Bundy's favorite toilet.

Not only was the music they produced bad, it took bad music to levels that could drive Chuck Barris into commiting seppuku. For example, "Let's Get Retarded" is a double entendre that both glamorizes alcoholism and insults the mentally handicapped. Maybe it takes a certain type of mean spiritedness to combine two forms of idiocy like that. Wasn't this the sort of crap they were initially against? But they weren't done yet.

The slut anthem "My Humps" has Fergie bragging about her surgically enhanced protrusions. What is really sad is that she is NOT a sexy woman - not when it comes to her materialistic, trashy, and unoriginal persona. This song may not be on the album I am reviewing, but I am trying to make a point about how cynical and shallow the music industry is - and how they presume the music buying public is also cynical and shallow. Which maybe they are since they fail to live up to basic human decency by demanding something better.

Whether you know it or not, you do deserve something better.

Sexy, Labor Day (It's A Holiday), Where Is The Love? and Hey Mama also dominate in goodness.

Latin Girls is somewhat of a misstep but even they are few and far between.

If you like R&B, Rap and Pop get this. There is also a Rock-ish song called Anxiety that my cousin LOVED when this CD came out.

3.8 stars

Outstanding CD. Most CD's have only a couple of very strong songs and a number of medicore. Elephunk has only a couple of songs that aren't outstanding.

I dont know what those all the people who gave it one star were thinking but it rocks i just got it and lets get retarded and hands up are some of the best songs it is a must have cd

This is one of the best CD's in my collection. Espically excellent if you like to pump the bass in your car.