This podcast is a bit of a departure for the normal fare here at Mashable Conversations. Typically, we speak to movers and shakers in the Web 2.0 scene in the form of CEOs and company founders. Today, though I had an opportunity to speak to Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas, particularly well noted recently for writing, recording and producing the viral video chart hit "Yes We Can." The video features Barack Obama's speech after winning the South Carolina Primary, a speech so moving that it literally inspired Will to song.
In a blog post, Will spoke a bit about what that inspiration was like:
That speech made me think of Martin Luther King...
Kennedy...
and Lincoln...
and all the others that have fought for what we have today...
what America is "supposed" to be...
freedom...
equality...
and truth...
Will and I explored a bit of that, as well as some of his political motivations and what he thought it was exactly that Obama could do to fix the country and bring us together. We also delved into a bit of the making of the video, and the height of success it's achieved, and why it is he thinks it's done that. That lead to an interesting conversation about the emerging business models in the New Media, which he termed as "freakin' dope", for artists to succeed without the labels using sites like MySpace.
He recognizes the advent of user generated content as a significant source of competition for mainstream artists, and as the media landscape being more of a meritocracy how it's incumbent upon the artists to pursue their own promotion instead of relying on the dying ways of the big record companies. That meritocracy, he says, relies on the increasing media savvy of the public.
All in all, it was a meandering conversation, but one that covered a lot of ground, and is above all else interesting.
The embed is available below, or you can download the MP3 file directly here.
You can check out Will.I.Am's Blog here.