To get kicked out of the hip-hop club only to become pop superstars is the triumph of the Black Eyed Peas.

The first line of their bio makes it clear: "They've transcended their vigilant hip-hop roots and have become a global phenomenon."

Plenty of bragging blah blah after that. But the facts speak for themselves. Since hiring the "chick singer" Fergie (Stacy Ferguson) - whose beauty and multiple talents are so abundant you wonder if scientists built the perfect entertainer in a lab somewhere - the Los Angeles group has stormed the world with the kind of fun, feel-good party music that hasn't been so huge since the height of the disco era.

They are like the modern Sly and the Family Stone, whose silly hits will be remembered long after present fans are physically unable to dance to them. Dance to the Music? Yes indeed.

Touring behind the aptly titled Monkey Business, the Black Eyed Peas play tonight at Rexall Place.

It's interesting that this band now proudly declares its freedom from its roots. It's as if the club was a launching pad no longer needed now that they're in high orbit.

It's a sharp contrast to what group member Will I. Am said in 1998: "We're a mirror of what hip-hop culture has become. If today's hip-hop had a face, it'd be the Black Eyed Peas."

Don't see much of a resemblance anymore. During a promo stop in Toronto last week, Will told reporters, "Hip-hop is the only music that's disposable. That's a sad thing. Jimi Hendrix and the Doors - that's not disposable. That'll be around forever.

"But songs I was listening to in 1989, are those disposable songs? I hope not. Was Heavy D disposable? I wish it ain't. But there's nobody holding that dear to them the way they hold a Frank Sinatra song."

FUN IS THE NEW MESSAGE

Canada's rap star K-Os, among other critics who are presumably still part of the club, say things like, "I don't consider the Black Eyed Peas to be hip-hop at all," and disses the group for having put its socially conscious lyrics of old in the background in favour of good, dumb fun.

He's got a point.

The Peas' first post-Fergie album, Elephunk, contained a duet with Justin Timberlake - of all the people with zero "cred" they could've worked with - in Where Is the Love? Its social consciousness - "We still got terrorists living here in the USA: the big CIA, the Bloods and the Crips and the KKK" - seems like a fluke when put next to zany lyrics like this: "If it smells like funk, it must be us, 'cause no one's as funky as us. We keep it stinkin'."

James Brown would be proud. And consider that the original song Let's Get Retarded was changed to Let's Get It Started because we don't call retarded people retarded anymore. We'd whine over a band compromising its artistic principles if the song actually had any substance.

There simply isn't much difference between getting "retarded" in the partying sense and getting "it" started. Suitably sanitized but largely intact for mass consumption, the song became a huge, huge hit and Elephunk sold more than eight million copies.

Some old fans began to suspect that the Peas were "selling out." Justin Timberlake?! Sacrilege! A secret meeting was called and the Peas were drummed out of the club.

So what? Success continued to happen. Monkey Business is even more fun, more silly, more diverse, more commercial, more removed from vigilant hip-hop roots. It is the musical equivalent of junk food. It might not be good for you, but it sure is good.

Guests here include our old friend Justin, along with Jack Johnson, Sting and James Brown, king of funky fun long before these guys were born.

Sounds absorbed into the Peas party this time include Bollywood, Pulp Fiction retro camp, jazz, rock and the bossa nova. You name it.

HUMPS AND LUMPS

Songs include Don't Phunk With My Heart - "baby have some trustin' when I come with lustin' " - and My Humps. That one deserves a longer out-of-context quote, as Fergie sings, "The boys they wanna sex me, they always standing next to me, always dancing next to me, trying to feel my hump hump, looking at my lump lump ... my hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely little lumps."

You just have to laugh. At the end of the day, what's wrong with music that makes you laugh? Generally speaking, most of the Peas' memorable music consists of dance songs about dancing, music with little to say beyond "Let's dance." Translation: Let's have sex.

If there's a more worthy message than that, bring it on. And for those who diss this amazing group and use words like "diss" while they do it, there is but one thing to add - and you knew this was coming - give Peas a chance.