Change-maker in black history: will.i.am

Born William James Adams Jr., will.i.am is a Jamaican American hip hop musician, rapper, songwriter, producer and one of the founding members of Black Eyed Peas. He helped the Peas sell over 18 million albums worldwide and win three Grammy awards before producing 4 solo albums of his own. If that's not enough for you, he also runs his own record label, the will.i.am music group. Will.i.am went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in L.A. and went on to design his own clothing line, i.am and i.am Antik.

But one of the most impressive titles he holds is political activist. Will.i.am has used the spotlight to rock the vote in the most recent election. In January 2008, he wrote a song called "yes We Can," in support of then presidential candidate Barack Obama. The song, which features excerpts from Obama's speech on January 8 2008, became a music video and was packed with fellow celebs.

A month later, will.i.am produced a second video, "We Are the Ones," with appearances by Jessica Alba, Ryan Philippe, Tyrese Gibson, George Lopez, and many others. Finally, the Black Eyed Peas' "Taboo" video features everyone chanting "O-BA-MA" at the end of it. After the election, will.i.am continued to use his music to show the world what he cares about, releasing "It's A New Day," which shows the historical events that led to the election of the first African-American President of the U.S., and shows people's reaction to the election. To celebrate Obama's inauguration, will.i.am collaborated with Bono, Seal, Mary J. Blige and Faith Hill to release "America's Song."

And at the end of the day, this hard working hip hop mogul is just grateful that he can use music as a platform to reach people, saying “It's really this incredible thing to create for a living and I'm very appreciative of that fact. I mean, how cool is that?"

Check out will.i.am’s “It’s A New Day” below