It’s one thing to be a part of such a big group, but then to really understand me outside of the group, it was kind of like my rebirth as an individual. Thank you, that was a very personal look into my life outside of the Black Eyed Peas. Did your own life experiences have an impact on your decision to become involved with High School Nation and support arts programs in schools? That’s great that you’re so involved in your local community, and it seems like they’ve shown you some love back – your featured piece in LA weekly was really moving. With the Peas I was able to accomplish so much but now as an individual I get to be a part of something that is very important to the youth, and I can be active in different communities around the United States.” “I’m most excited about being able to give back. It means so much to me to be able to take that on the road and make a difference in the lives of children through a great organization like High School Nation. I’ve always identified and been involved with these types of philanthropies within my own community. I’m active in LA with programs like Little Kids Rock East Los Angeles where we donate musical instruments to inner city schools. With the Peas I was able to accomplish so much but now as an individual I get to be a part of something that is very important to the youth, and I can be active in different communities around the United States. I’m most excited about being able to give back. What excites you about being a part of the High School Nation tour this year? I’m here to help inspire the youth and to activate the youth to understand how important it is to give back and how important music and the arts are. I’m here to support all of the artists, you could say I’m the ambassador of the tour. I believe my individual project caters a little bit more to the essence of hip-hop, but I appreciate everyone’s take on music and how they want to express themselves. The last two Black Eyed Peas albums were very Dance and Electro-styled, but in our early days we were an underground hip-hop group. So we’re not too far away from one another. Trevor Jackson is R&B and he’s a soul singer and I think our music, when it first came out had influences like soul, hip-hop and R&B. On the High School Nation tour, it seems like your style of music is much different than co-performers Drake Bell and Trevor Jackson. Things have definitely changed since then, but it seems like one thing that’s remained the same is the variety of performers who come to SXSW. Now people go on Twitter and Instagram to find out about what bands are performing, how they’re doing, where they’re going to be.” We would hand out cassettes and VHS videos of our first single, Joints and Jams, and it was more about spreading things by word of mouth. “Back then, there was no Twitter, no YouTube, none of that. Now people go on Twitter and Instagram to find out about what bands are performing, how they’re doing, where they’re going to be.

Back then, there was no Twitter, no YouTube, none of that.

We would meet fans and they would buy our physical tapes, and we would sign autographs and posters. When we were there, we were playing in-store performances at Sam Goody and Virgin Megastore, record stores that don’t even exist anymore. It was kind of like going to college and seeing all these different musical artists and bands that you were inspired by coming up. We performed with The Roots back then, and it was exciting because it was the first time that we had been at any type of music conference. We played Stubbs Barbeque, and that was our first official introduction to SXSW. Yes, I did in 1999 with the Black Eyed Peas when we first came out. So have you ever performed during SXSW music week before? Hey Taboo, it’s great to talk to you today.

Deckadance 2014