A 'peas-keeper'

Jaime "Taboo" Gomez has a metaphor to explain why Black Eyed Peas is a different kind of hip-hop hybrid.

"If hip-hop was a movie, people come in expecting 'The Terminator' and 'Wild Wild West,' " says Gomez. "But Black Eyed Peas is 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.'

We're not about explosions, hardcore, shock value, thugs shooting people on the block, or pimpin' bitches. That's what the hip-hop stereotype is. We're crazy martial arts. We're still tough, but we won't shoot you down, we'll kick you down."

When he was 12, Gomez came into contact with the skill that would help pay the bills later in life. "A friend's father asked me to learn Jeet Kune Do," recalls Gomez. "But he told me, 'I don't want you to fight, I want you to incorporate it into your dancing."'

He did, and since joining forces with will.i.am and apl.de.ap in the mid-1990s, Jeet Kune Do has figured prominently in Gomez's BEP work.

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