Black Eyed Peas’s ‘Pump It’ Surpasses One Billion Spotify Streams
It marks their fourth song to reach over a billion streams, joining hits like ‘I Gotta Feeling,’ ‘Where Is The Love?’ and ‘RITMO (Bad Boys For Life).’
The Black Eyed Peas’ “Pump It” has surpassed one billion streams on Spotify. It’s their fourth song to do so, joining hits like “I Gotta Feeling,” “Where Is The Love?” and “RITMO (Bad Boys For Life).”
Released in 2005, “Pump It” appeared on the group’s fourth studio album, Monkey Business. It was written by group members will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Fergie, alongside their frequent songwriting collaborator Thomas van Musser. It builds on an interpolation of Dick Dale’s 1962 surf version of “Misirlou,” well-known for featuring in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction. According to will.i.am, he encountered the sample during a trip to Brazil and, although he initially wasn’t a fan, ultimately decided it would make a great basis for a track.
“I came across this compilation [disk] and I thought it was one thing but it turned out to be something else. The Dick Dale song Miserlou [sic] was on it. At first, I was angry this isn’t what I wanted to buy,” he explained. “But then, really, that song is hot. I said, ‘We should do a song like this.’ I jump-started the computer and made some beats on the train. Then we had to fly to Tokyo and I tightened up the beat on the plane. Then I recorded vocals in this park in Tokyo, and that’s how we recorded the song ‘Pump It’.”
Upon its debut, “Pump It” became the Black Eyed Peas’ fourth consecutive top-20 single on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 18. They released a few different versions of the track, including a remix from Blink-182’s Travis Barker. In 2009, they also created a rework, “Pump It Harder,” that appeared on their album The E.N.D.
In 2011, the original Black Eyed Peas went on an indefinite hiatus, briefly reuniting in 2015 before Fergie ultimately left the group in 2018. She was replaced by the singer J. Rey Soul, a former The Voice Of The Philippines contestant. The current lineup of the Black Eyed Peas released their most recent album, Elevation, in 2022—it featured guest spots from Anitta, Anuel AA, Daddy Yankee, David Guetta, El Alfa, Marshall Jefferson, Nicky Jam, Nicole Scherzinger, Ozuna and Shakira.
