By Delinda Lombardo on
The Black Eyed Peas held their fourth annual charity concert at the Avalon in Hollywood last week, with a plethora of celebrity friends turning up to raise money for charity.
And even before the concert started, front woman Fergie was eager to spread the love.
“Travelling around the world and seeing disease and poverty, for me it’s about giving back,” she said.
The Peas’ concert was to benefit their Peapod Foundation, which provides aid to underprivileged children while also introducing them to new musical and technological programs.
“We’ve been doing this since 1999, and it started with a toy drive for kids in Pasadena,” said B.E.P member Taboo. “But now we have all these artists coming to support us, and it’s good because we give back to the community and now to all different countries.”
Supporting the not-to-be-missed concert, and picking up the microphone at times, were The Roots, Natasha Bedingfield, M.C. Hammer, Snoop Dogg, Slash, and Ludacris. During the show, Snoop attempted to get Hammer to bust a move, and later, Fergie was joined by Slash during her solo set – for which she received a standing ovation from the audience.
“My kids love Slash, they be playing ‘Guitar Hero’,” Snoop said.
Earlier this year, the Peas kicked it up a notch when they opened the Peapod Music and Arts Academy at the Watts/Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club in Los Angeles. In an interview with The Associated Press, Peas frontman will.i.am said one of the organization’s main goals is to teach children how to become music moguls.
“I would like to have these workshops all around the world, these music schools, that teach people technology, so that way they can bring back money into communities,” he said. “We gave them green-screens, ProTools equipment, high-definition digital cameras – everything they’d need to make music and cut films. Peapod gives them the same tools we have and a platform to showcase it.”
Even though the Watts center is a pilot program, that isn’t going to stop the Peas.
“We’re going to East Los Angeles next, and hopefully all over the country,” said will.i.am. “Afterwards, we hope to hit South Africa, the Philippines, Brazil and others. We want to continue to build these hubs all over the world to give inner-city kids tools to do these things.”
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
