Haters, look away now. The Black Eyed Peas “My Humps” is officially a stone-cold hit.
The 2005 track this week enters YouTube’s Billion Views Club as it passes one billion streams.
Lifted from the hip-hop act’s fourth studio album Monkey Business, “My Humps” is their third music video to reach the milestone after “Where Is the Love?” and “RITMO,” their collaboration with J Balvin for the Bad Boys for Life soundtrack.
The track was written by the act’s will.i.am and samples lines from Sexual Harassment’s 1983 single, “I Need a Freak,” penned by Lynn Tolliver (real name: David Payton).
Its intended target was initially meant to be the Pussycat Dolls, but the Black Eyed Peas made it their own, with Fergie and will.i.am as the main vocalists.
“My Humps” was the group’s second single to reach the top three on the Billboard Hot 100, after “Don’t Phunk with My Heart” (both peaked at No. 3), and nabbed a Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.
Although a massive commercial success, “My Humps” was as polarizing as it was popular. Its lyrics, which include the repeated line, “my lovely lady lumps,” was the subject of countless column inches, many of them harsh. In one analysis published by Slate under the title “Notes on ‘Humps’. A song so awful it hurts the mind,” Hua Hsu writes, “This is what makes ‘My Humps’ such an inscrutable pop moment. It’s not Awesomely Bad; it’s Horrifically Bad.” Other journalist were less kind.
Whatever, “My Humps” was a winner.
Its music video, directed by Fatima Robinson and Malik Hassan Sayeed, and featuring Fergie dancing with backup dancers amongst the luxury items apparently gifted by her many suitors, went on to scoop best hip-hop video at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.
In May of this year, the Black Eyed Peas reunited publicly onstage for the first time since Fergie split in 2018, for a surprise appearance at the American Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena while accepting the best throwback song award for “Rock That Body.”
Watch the music video for The Black Eyed Peas “My Humps” below.
