Check out The Black Eyed Peas‘ new article on Entertainment Weekly:

NAME/AGES Fergie,34; will.i.am, 34; Taboo, 34; apl.de.ap, 34.

WHY THEM The Peas’ pop-rap has always sounded good on dance floors, but for their fifth album The E.N.D., they gave themselves a new goal: Craft a series of up-tempo electric jams that hit every bit as hard as the records spun by the hottest club DJs. “In 1992, you were sitting down, trying to write dope-ass quotable and punch-lines,” says will.i.am. “Now you’re making sets to peak the crowd, like ‘I know they’re gonna freak out when i Flip this!’”

RHYME TIME So how does Fergie compose such unforgettable couplets as “I’m so 3008/ You’re so 200-and-late,” from this summer’s smash hit “Boom Boom Pow”? “A lot of my input comes from freestyles,” she says with a laugh. “Or we’ll just be in the studio joking around.”

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW As recording sessions for The E.N.D. wound down. the Peas took a few key trips to the hair salon. Fergie emerged freshly brunet, while Will cut off his signature dreadlocks. “Will called me, like, ‘Yo Tab, you know I love you, right? We’re gonna have to do something about your long hair,’” recalls Taboo, who agreed to a trim. Adds Will: “We gotta keep ‘em f—ing guessing, and wrong all the time they guess.”

NEXT Expect The E.N.D.’s second single, the euphoric party anthem “I Gotta Feeling,” to reach full-on omnipresence any day now.

ON FERGIE’S MUST LIST Kid Cudi. “We did a ['Boom Boom Pow'] remix with him, and I can’t wait to see what else he comes up with.”

Click here to view a scan.

Thanks: Jared.