Black Eyed Peas’ Retro Single Gets A Video Treatment That’s Slick Like That (Video)

With the release of the Black Eyed Peas’ cyclically-minded “Yesterday,” the video follows quickly. Half of the group’s formal lineup: will.i.am and apl.de.ap make the song, while Taboo appears in the video (and drops a few Public Enemy-minded bars). Like the single’s heavy-handed production theme of interpolating, sampling, and alluding to an array of ’80s and ’90s Rap classics (Pete Rock & CL Smooth, N.W.A., Digable Planets, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and A Tribe Called Quest, etc.), the video goes even further. With every reference in the lyrics and music, the visual morphs B.E.P. into the album covers of the records they miss. This clearly took a lot of time and special editing.

Is this a winning concept from a group who truly is contemporaries of many of the artists they salute in the single?

Related: Ever See the Time will.i.am Went Back to the Underground in an Epic Battle of the Beats? (Video)