The Black Eyed Peas made their bold return on Friday (May 18) with another socially conscious song and coinciding powerful visual taking aim at the ills of society. “Ring the Alarm pt.1, pt.2, pt.3,” which is co-produced by DJ Motiv8 and will.i.am, follows “Street Livin,” the group’s first single in nearly seven years that dropped at the top of 2018.
The hard-hitting progressive video is broken down into three parts, with will.i.am, Apl.De.Ap, and Taboo each taking on an extended verse throughout the militant-themed six-minute track. There’s also a tuneful cameo on the track’s bridge and chorus from an anonymous woman whose face is entirely covered, with the exception of her mouth and braids peering out of the back of a ski mask.
Will.i.am opens the song with some bold statements directed at those in power in America. “Whoever controls the data got the answers/They the ones that got the code to the launcher/And they be having dinner with the Pope and the mobsters/They know the cure for cancer/Cure for the AIDS and they probably killed the Panthers,” he fearlessly rhymes.
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Will detailed the inspiration behind “Ring the Alarm” to Complex. “So ‘Ring the Alarm,’ we wrote in 2014, ‘13? It was after all the police shootings and Ferguson and then, you know, figuring out the rhyme and reason to why that happened, so every time there’s a police shooting, it just so happens to be around an area where the funding of education is low. You didn’t see a police shooting of an unarmed black man in Brentwood,” the Los Angeles native explained.
In addition to the release of “Ring the Alarm,” the trio announced an interactive website, Sweet, that will allow fans to register and rack up currency in the form of “sugar” to put toward rewards such as VIP tickets, merchandise, exclusive content, meet and greets, and much more.
Check out the “Ring the Alarm pt.1, pt.2, pt.3” video below.