Hip-hop star will.i.am’s vision for change

The hip-hop legend has a clear vision

When Woman’s

Day meets will.i.am in his Los Angeles office, he immediately starts to talk about how much he loves New Zealand. “When the world falls apart, that’s where everyone’s going to move,” laughs the Black Eyed Peas frontman.

It was on his last visit to Aotearoa that the Grammywinning hip-hop artist donated $100,000 for new computers and iPads to a network of low-decile schools. Growing up in the ghetto in LA taught Will – whose real name is William James Adams Jr – the importance of giving back, he explains.

“It’s about seeing the divide and doing something. When there’s an earthquake or a tsunami, those are once-in-a-while things, but crime, no education, poverty ... that’s tsunamis every day in people’s lives.”

The 43-year-old vividly remembers when he was nine and the teacher tasked his class with bringing in cans of food as a homework assignment. To his surprise, the tins were later delivered to his own neighbourhood.

“I went to an all-white school and I got on the bus for two hours to get there, but I never realised I was poor,” Will recalls. “My classmates ended up pulling up to my neighbourhood with boxes of food and then I realised we were the poor kids they were

I went to an all-white school and I got on the bus for two hours to get there, but I never realised I poor’ was