Did Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am Forget Lyrics Onstage

What do you do if  you are a famous recording artist and in the middle of performing before thousands of fans, you forget the lyrics to a song that you have performed hundreds of times? Well, if you are Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am, you open up your cell phone and read them.

Fast-forward this Black Eyed Peas performance with Belgian MC Stromae to the one-minute mark to see Will.i.am checking out (check it out, check it out) his cellphone for what appears to be a little help with the lyrics. As the Hollywood Reporter points out, the Peas were doing a mashup of their own "Don't Stop the Party" with the rapper's "Alors on Dance," but Will seems to need to bone up a bit before launching into his own part -- you know, the one he wrote. (Though it sure looks like it, we can't say for sure that he's reading the lyrics -- Will has been known to pull out his phone during a performance to send a Tweet or two.)

For the record, lyrics to "Don't Stop the Party" include "Now baby don't you stop it, stop it... Don't stop the party!" But the part Will was probably having trouble remembering is the verbose rap: "You can't hack my digital/Future Aboriginal/Get up off my genitals/I stay on that pinnacle/Kill you with my lyricals/Call me verbal criminal" etc.

The performance aired on French TV show Taratata, which is clearly in need of some Teleprompters. Will probably wouldn't have forgotten the words to "My Humps," but the BEPs don't perform that bit of classic American literature live anymore.