Will.i.am’s bizarre MTV Video Music Award get-up

Will.i.am Auto-Tune-soundtracked descent into madness with the singer and producer's bizarre blackface revival at this year's MTV Video Music Awards.

By Emmet Purcell

Anyone else recall when Will.i.am used to look like this? Just a couple of years ago, the Black Eyed Peas mastermind and producer was synonymous with his dreadlocked hair, subtle shades and trilby hats. Fast-forward to present day and the beats extraordinaire is fast becoming just as recognisable for his Auto-Tune-heavy collaborations with Cheryl Cole and Usher than for his phenomenally successful four-piece group.

As Will.i.am's stature has grown, the artist has seemingly concluded that he must complement his futuristic sounds with the most 'fashion-forward' outlandish fashion pieces possible. At the recent MTV Video Music Awards, the singer teamed up with curvaceous female rapper Nicki Minaj for their 'Check It Out' single. Despite Minaj's form-fitting PVC outfit, the only get-up people were checking out was ultimately Will.i.am's incomprehensible ensemble, pictured below.

Umm.........?

Where do we start? Skin painted black, not unlike the abhorrent 'blackface' makeup of the 19th and early 20th century, tinted red shades and a black leather overcoat, all topped off with a shiny plastic Astro Boy-style haircut. Just what the hell is going on?

Fashion circles weren't the only critics rounding on the singer - many critics on Twitter felt that his use of 'blackface' makeup could be construed as unintentionally racist, with one fan stating that he felt the performance put 'black artists back 100 years. Will.i.am was quick to respond:

“1st. just because I where (sic) all black including head mask as expression and emphasize my outfit, it shouldn’t be looked at as racial… Let go of the past. There are far more important things 2 bark about. (Jobs, health, education) not a black man wearing all black everything.”

Which is all well and good, yet it still neglects to answer the one overriding question when judging Will.i.am's outfit - just what exactly was he trying to express in the first place?