This September marks both the release of Fergie’s sophomore album, Double Dutchess, and the eleven-year anniversary of its titular forebearer, 2006’s The Dutchess. In the decade-plus gap that bridges the two, the performer has gotten married, released two more albums with the Black Eyed Peas, had a child, and, as of this year, gotten divorced. For the typical pop star, this is a large amount of life to experience between albums; celebrity and musicianship have been haphazardly propagated as dual heads of the same monster, and accordingly, the pop discography is often viewed as some kind of makeshift autobiography.
But the truth is that Stacy Ferguson has never been the typical pop star. Double Dutchess wears this knowledge proudly, forging aggressively in the direction of previous singles “Fergalicious” and “London Bridge” rather than indulging in the crossover opportunities hinted at by “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” This is because a large portion of Fergie’s appeal is her absurdity, and she knows it; she’s a 42-year-old white woman who seems to draw most of her artistic inspiration from the ladies of hip hop’s golden age. With the possible exception of Nicki Minaj, it’s hard to conjure up a single other artist that could have pulled off the left-field ridiculousness of single “M.I.L.F. $,” and highlights like “Like It Ain’t Nuttin’” and “You Already Know,” the latter of which features Minaj, are carried in large by Fergie’s razor-sharp MC persona.
Though her skills have been honed dramatically in the years since, Ferguson’s rap aspirations made their first high profile appearance in one of this century’s biggest hate-it-or-love-it feats: “My Humps,” the third single from The Black Eyed Peas’ commercial smash, Monkey Business. She had been a member since 2003’s Elephunk, but Fergie was left belting on the bench until “Humps” raced its way up the charts worldwide. Panned incessantly by critics upon release, the single was written off as a dive into the shallowest end of pop culture’s obsession with sex. In retrospect, this criticism seems prudish and slightly sexist; in fact, what may have made critics most uncomfortable about “My Humps” was Fergie’s perceived use of her own sexuality in the pursuit of glitz and glamour. Honestly, what has always been much more disturbing to me is will.i.am’s use of the phrase “all that breast."
Amidst all of the condemnation, there is a musical excellence to “My Humps” that is often overlooked. In fact, will.i.am’s immense talents as a producer have been largely overshadowed by his failings as a lyricist. One of his most impressive skill sets is his copy-paste arsenal of Eighties hip hop tricks. “Humps,” in particular, picks from Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing,” Sexual Harrassment’s “I Need A Freak,” and Egyptian Lover’s “And My Beat Goes Boom,” and is guided spiritually by the works of Salt-N-Pepa. Fergie proved the perfect vessel for this very specific aesthetic, and will.i.am would duplicate it to a general degree of success multiple times on her debut. “Fergalicious," the second single and opening track from The Dutchess, is the most obvious relative of “My Humps,” culling its backbone from J.J. Fad’s 1988 smash “Supersonic.” It also, however, references 2 Live Crew, Miami bass group Afro-Rican, and James Brown over the course of its five minutes. will.i.am’s collage-like set-up is appropriately reverent, and it gives Fergie free reign to indulge in her retro-rap leanings.
Although fifth single “Clumsy” and album cut “Here I Come” bear definite stylistic similarities to “Fergalicious,” it would be a shortsighted to call The Dutchess formulaic. Its biggest success, in fact, is its sonic diversity. The album dips rather successfully into reggae territory with the strung-out “Voodoo Doll” and the charmingly whimsical “Mary Jane Shoes,” the latter of which features Rita Marley and the I-Threes. It also touches on glossy, R&B-indebted pop (“All That I Got (The Make-Up Song)," “Glamorous”), quiet storm (“Velvet”), and heart-wrenching balladry (“Big Girls Don’t Cry (Personal)” and closer “Finally”). Throughout it all, Fergie remains in complete control. Vocally excellent and lyrically sharp, The Dutchess is a remarkably well-rounded debut that balances the admittedly vacuous but undeniably alluring wallop of songs like “London Bridge” with the introspective bent of those like penultimate track “Losing My Ground.”
Eleven years later, it’s easy to forget just how big Fergie was; five of the album’s singles were top ten hits in the United States, and “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” which remains her most commercially successful solo single to date, was inescapable for about a year (spending forty-eight weeks on the Billboard Hot 100). Today, she’s settled into the pillowy recesses of B-list pop stardom with contemporaries like Gwen Stefani and Christina Aguilera. This is by no means a criticism; one of Double Dutchess’s biggest strengths is its steadfast vision, a true-to-form determination to sound like nobody else but Fergie. Her ballads are just as distinguishable as her hip hop records, delivered with an intensity that can register as hokey if you’re not paying attention. But that’s what has always made her so engaging. Only time will tell where she will be in eleven more years, but one thing is for sure: she'll always be the Dutchess.