mixtape maestro (2.0)

Sometimes, when discussing Black Eyed Peas shameless inanity, the top-notch production and songmaking talents of head Pea will.i.am can be overlooked. His rapping chops may not be all that great, but the man does have skills when it comes to crafting good material built off a hodgepodge of various music styles.

Take a glance at his production discography, and you may be surprised to see that he had a hand in acclaimed cuts from John Legend (“Ordinary People”, “Save Room”), Talib Kweli (“Hot Thing”) and Common (“I Want You”). Plus, let’s not forget that the fizzy instrumental behind Estelle’s Grammy-winning “American Boy” first premiered as “Impatient”, an album cut from will’s 2007 solo album, Songs About Girls.

Speaking of Girls, that set may have ended up a major commercial flop, but there were some definite treasures within it’s tracklisting. One we had almost forgot about was past MM favorite “Heartbreaker”, which we just knew would blow up the album’s sales if pushed as an official single (alas, it was never released State-side).

Thanks to BBC’s Live Lounge though, we were quickly reminded of “Heartbreaker”‘s infectious appeal when the Peas hit the studio to perform a live version of it.

Catch the performance below: