How smart is will.i.am? Pretty damned smart, I'd say. He might have the trappings of a rap star with an entourage that includes a film crew, but that's only a small part of it. He's also one of the most sought-after producers in the music industry and one of its shrewdest business brains.
"Music is cool, but I'm so much more excited about technology. It's like I'm 13, 14 all over again. When I was 12, 13, 14 all I wanted to do was music. Now I'm a little older, all I think about is technology and consumer electronic products. I still make music. But it's just like breathing now."
Music has been the launch pad for will.i.am's success, but it's now just one strand of his burgeoning empire. He's become a technology evangelist, a speaker at the most prestigious gatherings of the world's elite — the Clinton Global Initiative, Google events — he's developed and launched his own range of iPhone accessories, he has his own charitable foundations paying for kids to go through college and bailing out people's mortgages.