
Will.i.am is fired up.
Itâs just past midnight and weâre hanging out in the bedroom of his sprawling hotel suite at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Charlotte, N.C. In the living room, a DJ booth has been erected and a baby-grand piano sits in the corner.
Former president Bill Clinton has just delivered a galvanizing 48-minute speech at the Democratic National Convention that laid out point-by-point why the people should reelect President Obama. It may prove to be the turning point of the 2012 election, and the cityâand its left-wing guestsâare still buzzing.
"It made me proud to be an American,â he says with excitement. âWhen I saw Bill Clintonâs speech, I didnât say, âYay, Democrats!â I said, âAmericans!â His speech was not about Republicans; it was about opportunists that donât care about peopleâs well being. Thatâs what weâre dealing with. It isnât Democrats vs. Republicans, itâs Americans vs. manipulators and corrupt business practices.â
The man formerly known as William James Adams Jr., serves as front man for the Black Eyed Peasâa socially conscious pop supergroup thatâs sold over 56 million albums. When heâs not getting the party started, he serves as director of creative innovation for Intel, and even beamed his latest song, âReach For The Stars,â from NASAâs rover Curiosity on Mars.
During the 2008 election, will.i.am campaigned on behalf of Senator Barack Obama, concocting a viral video, âYes We Can,â with lyrics composed from Obamaâs famous speech following the New Hampshire presidential primary. The video, featuring everyone from Scarlett Johansson to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, racked up over 24 million views. And on election night, he was beamed onto CNNâs set via hologram technology to have a surreal chat with Anderson Cooper, kicking off an unfortunate trend (see: hologram Tupac).
But nearest and dearest to his heart is his humanitarian work. Will.i.am recently opened a school in his hometown of East Los Angeles and has been an ardent supporter of improving education in the sciences. The artist-entrepreneur takes serious issue with the GOP and the Romney-Ryan economic plan, which slashes funding for education.
âYou can rule ignorance; you can manipulate the illiterate; you can do whatever you want when a people are uneducated, so that goes in line with corrupt business and corrupt politics,â he says. âAnd theyâre so transparent about it! Theyâre telling you right to your face that theyâre cutting education because they want you to stay stupid. They donât want you to know whatâs good for your body, mind, or community, and they donât want you to have a future, they just want you to consume the shit that they benefit from. They donât want you to be rich, they want you to be butt-ass poor and in debt.â He pauses. âIf thatâs the America you want to live in, cool. But thatâs not my America.â
He continues: âImagine if a dictator wanted to come up here and have their way with your family and your future? Thatâs what seems to be happening. And the reason why theyâre here is because people are so nonchalant about policies and issues. People are so engulfed by their day-to-day drama and things that are so insignificant in the larger scheme of things, so thereâs an open door for a Mitt Romney or a George W. Bush.â
Will.i.am doesnât mince words when it comes to the GOP, echoing some of the criticisms in Clintonâs reasoned speech.
âHow do we know that McCain and Palin wasnât just a ploy to take four years off, knowing they werenât going to win, to pit Obama against Hillary and divide the Democrats?â he says. âHow do we know they arenât that strategic? They went to war without anyone signing off on it. We spend trillions on defense in the name of people in caves. How strategic are these people?â
âHow do we know they werenât like: OK, weâre going to take four years off and let this dude try to do shit, block him at every turn, make people tired, and then weâre going to come in and do things the way we want again. Back to business yâall. Fuck what the people think cause they donât know better anyways. You donât know if thatâs the mentality, but when you look at it, maybe thatâs the mentality.â He pauses. âMaybe itâs that sinister. Because itâs not like theyâre fighting for the good will of the people. It isnât like they want to invest in our future, our kids. What the fuck do these people care about? Itâs fucked up if you really think about it.â
Will.i.am is back at the DNC to campaign on behalf of President Obama. He co-hosted an event with President Clinton on Tuesday evening put on by the Democratic Party of Arkansas, and was the standout on a panel entitled, âWhat Is Working: a Bipartisan Search for Solutions to the Jobs Crisis.â When it comes to the 2012 election, the musician wishes the president would take the gloves off and do a better job of exposing the GOP.
âPresident Obama should be more transparent with the people about where the blockade is, and hold people more accountable for how inhumane and uncooperative they are,â he says. âBring it out. Snitch. Let people know so they can respond. He should be doing this aggressively. Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex and the damage it could do to society. Obama needs to be warning us about whatâs happening right now.â
Will.i.am is constantly moving, which may explain how prolific heâs become. Heâs now rocking back and forth a bit in his chair and fiddling with a pair of gold spectacles. When asked about the noticeable difference in diversity between the Democratic National Convention and last weekâs Republican National Convention in Tampa, he finally stops fidgeting and takes a long pause.
âThereâs nothing wrong with white if itâs all right,â he says. âItâs not color. Whatâs wrong is the lack of morals and what theyâre standing for. Thereâs nothing wrong with white blood cells if theyâre warding off and fighting disease. Those white blood cells arenât fighting off disease, theyâre letting more in. Thatâs whatâs wrong with it.â