Apl.de.ap is a rapper and record producer. Legally named, Allan Pineda Lindo, Jr., he is perhaps most well known for his membership in the popular singing group, The Black Eyed Peas. Apl.de.ap wasn’t always a rapper. He and fellow band mate, Will.i.am, started Tribal Nation, a break dancing crew, long before they became The Black Eye Peas. The crew was fairly popular locally, performing at various events and parties throughout Southern California. Tribal Nation would become ATBAN before they eventually disbanded.
Apl.de.ap is of Philippine descent. He was born in the Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines and raised, along with his six siblings, by a single mother. Two of his brothers would meet untimely deaths, one to suicide which he addressed in The Black Eyed Pea’s The Apl Song, and the other to murder.
A man by the name of Joe Ben Hudgens would play a huge role in Apl.de.ap’s life and would be instrumental in his eventual relocation to the United States. Hudgens (an adult), and Apl.de.ap were connected via the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, an organization that worked with Amerasian children who were either abandoned or orphaned. Apl.de.ap’s father, an American soldier, left the family soon after he was born. Apl.de.ap would initially come to the United States to receive treatment for nystagmus, an eye condition (today Apl.de.ap is legally blind). After doing so and expressing an interest in moving to the United States permanently, Hudgens would go on to adopt Apl.de.ap.
Apl.de.ap, once in the United States, lived in Los Angeles. He would meet one of his eventual The Black Eye Peas band mates, Will.i.am (William Adams) at John Marshall High School.
Apl.de.ap was influenced by a number of musical genres growing up. He enjoyed a wide range of groups, including The Eagles, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Asin (a Filipino folk/rock group) and A Tribe Called Quest, amongst others.
Though Apl.de.ap is most well known for his American pop musical style, he also loves the Filipino culture, music and instrumentation. In The Black Eyed Peas song, The Apl Song, the group sampled the chorus from ‘Balita,’ a song performed by the popular Phillipine group, Asin. Apl.de.ap asked two Filipino-Amercians, Chad Hugo and Dante Basco, to make a cameo in the video. The song was a hit in his native country, the Philippines.
Apl.de.ap is currently working on recording and getting his own project released. He will be working with, amongst others, two Filipino American musicians, Illmind (G-Unit) and Chad Hugo (The Neptunes).
