Will.i.am Speaks on his Poor Childhood & Moving Away From the Ghetto

Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am has recalled what life was like before he made it big. As a child who lived in a bad area of Los Angeles, Will used to walk to school as his family sent him to a better school and he often had to skip breakfast because of it, although it was to get a better education:

”Sometimes I would miss breakfast and when you’re on food stamps and lunch tickets, missing breakfast is not good for a kid.”

He says that the amenities available to those living in poorer areas dictates the people’s behavior and he believes living in a better location makes you think and act differently because of what your surrounded by:

”There’s a family of influences that dictate behavior. In the ghetto, there’s a liquor store, a cheque-cashing place and a motel. What that tells you psychologically is, get a cheque, cash it. Take a couple of Steps. But some liquor and get drunk, go home and get kicked out of your house. And here’s a place to sleep along the way. If you live in a good neighbourhood, you drive home and there’s a bank. There’s grocery stores and Big Houses – but no motels. What that tells you psychologically is you protect your money and buy good things for your family to eat in your nice Big House. So it’s a different system.”

Since achieving stardom, Will has moved his entire family out of his childhood home to a better area so that they are now safe – this is one of the first things he did as soon as he was able to afford to do it:

”I moved my mom, cousins, my uncles and my grandma. I moved them to the Valley to be near the rabbis. It was either the drive-bys or rabbis and I picked the rabbis.”