The title alone was a statement: Masters of the Sun Vol. 1, a phrase borrowed from their own graphic novel and a promise of renewal. On October 26, 2018, Black Eyed Peas released their seventh studio album, their first in eight years, following The Beginning from 2010. It arrived on Interscope Records with no Fergie in the lineup, and a production team that included will.i.am, and no guarantee that fans of their radio hits would follow them back to the underground.
A reset to boom-bap roots
What made this return so sharp was the gap it closed. The group had spent the 2000s becoming a global pop machine, but Masters of the Sun Vol. 1 deliberately sounds like the trio's earliest records, Behind the Front and Bridging the Gap, full of boom-bap drums and raw verses. For the first time since Bridging the Gap, the name on the cover dropped the 'the' and became simply Black Eyed Peas. It was a reset, and the stakes were clear: could they still matter as hip-hop artists, not just hitmakers?
The album's politics were not subtle. It confronts gun violence, police brutality, race relations, and the distorting pull of social media. One track, 'Ring the Alarm', had been written back in 2014, shaped by the protests in Ferguson, Missouri. That song waited for an album that could hold its anger, waiting for an album that could hold its anger. By the time Masters of the Sun Vol. 1 appeared, the social climate in the United States had shifted, and Black Eyed Peas stepped into that tension rather than away from it.
Marvel Comics, Hans Zimmer and guests
The creative roots ran deep. The group worked with Marvel Comics on the Masters of the Sun graphic novel, and its augmented-reality adaptation featured a jazz-soul score by Hans Zimmer that seeped into the album's mood. Guests like Nas on 'Back 2 Hiphop' and a long list of producers including will.i.am, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and DJ Ammo gave the record a dense, collaborative texture. This was not a solo project with guests; it was a crew rebuilding a sound. The augmented-reality adaptation of the graphic novel featured a jazz-soul score by Hans Zimmer, and that mood carried into the album's arrangements.
The road to release was bumpy. The album was originally scheduled for October 12, 2018, then pushed back two weeks. One single, 'Big Love', directed its proceeds to March for Our Lives and Families Belong Together, tying the music to movements beyond the charts. And then there was the sampling dispute: British musician Lone and his label R&S accused Black Eyed Peas of lifting 'Airglow Fires' for the track 'Constant' without permission. R&S said neither the group nor Interscope had asked for clearance. It was an uncomfortable echo of earlier claims against will.i.am over other songs, and it threatened to overshadow the album's message.
Critical reception and tour dates
Critics mostly leaned positive. Rolling Stone gave the album three stars out of five, and the record landed at number 35 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album Sales chart. Those are not the numbers of a blockbuster, but that was never the point. Masters of the Sun Vol. 1 was built to prove that Black Eyed Peas could still rap with intent, that the pop years had not erased their foundation. The Masters of the Sun Tour took them through Europe with 14 concerts in the autumn of 2018, a return to more intimate venues. HipHopDX was even more enthusiastic, rating the album 4.1 out of 5.
Eight years is a long silence for a band that once seemed everywhere. Masters of the Sun Vol. 1 answered the obvious question — what happens when a group that once seemed everywhere tries to go home again? The answer, it turned out, was an album that argued with the present by reaching for the past.
The answer, it turned out, was an album that argued with the present by reaching for the past.
The final track list holds a telling detail: the standard edition runs 58 minutes. Black Eyed Peas did not trim themselves to fit a streaming playlist. They made room for the anger, the jazz, the guests, and the history, and dared the listener to keep up.