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A Filipino-food feast is spread across a chunky wooden table. There is shrimp adobo, a whole milkfish cooked in a banana leaf and stuffed with tomatoes, onions and garlic, and a hearty beef caldereta – a rich stew – along with plates of grilled vegetables: aubergine, bitter melon and okra. “You have to try the fermented rice wrapped in a mustard leaf – it is so tasty,” Allan Pineda Lindo says as he pulls up a chair. Pineda is Apl.de.ap, a founding member of Black Eyed Peas, the American hip-hop outfit formed in 1995 with will.i.am and Taboo. On November 19, they will return to Hong Kong after 19 years for a show at the West Kowloon Cultural District. Hong Kong-based singer Gin Lee will open for them. The Grammy Award-winning group, which J. Rey Soul joined after Fergie’s departure in 2018, are known for hits such as “Pump It”, “Boom Boom Pow”, “I Gotta Feeling” and “Where Is The Love?” They have played to huge crowds, including a million people on Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on New Year’s Eve 2006. But today, Apl is far removed from the crowds as he wanders the rice fields and fruit trees – mango, papaya, calamansi – on his farm in Pampanga, in the Philippines, where he was born. No screaming fans here, just a soundtrack of dogs barking and pigs grunting to a chorus of clucking chickens. It is his happy place, and he is wearing an extra-large smile: he is about to tuck into a home-cooked lunch prepared by his mother, Cristina Pineda. “I remember when I first had an idea to buy rice fields,” Apl says. “It was 2007 and I was in a hotel room somewhere in Europe after a Black Eyed Peas after-party, and I was thinking, ‘I’m always gonna need rice, so I’m gonna ask Mom to look for rice fields’. “So I rang mum and said: ‘I’m gonna send some money, and I need you to buy some rice fields.’ She was like, ‘Allan, are you drunk?’” His mother fulfilled his request, and most of the food at the impressive lunch, including the rice, is sourced from the farm, which also supplies produce for the surrounding community. Giving back is important to Apl. While he found fame in the music industry – Black Eyed Peas are one of the bestselling musical acts of all time, having sold 80 million records – the singer/rapper has avoided the trappings of success. He has invested in impoverished communities in his home country, with much of his philanthropic work carried out through The Apl.de.Ap Foundation, a non-profit organisation that empowers youth and communities through education, technology and the arts. Last month, Apl was back in the Philippines to support those he calls the country’s real rockstars: coconut farmers, estimated to number between 3 million and 3.5 million. Known as the “Tree of Life” for providing food, shelter and livelihoods, the coconut is an important symbol of national pride, representing resilience, abundance and the country’s rich agricultural heritage. But while the Philippines is the second-largest coconut producer after Indonesia, its farmers are some of the poorest, their struggle compounded by low and volatile prices, ageing trees, limited access to capital and vulnerability to natural disasters such as typhoons. To boost the industry, Apl put his celebrity weight behind the “Integrated Rural Enterprise and Regenerative Agroforestry Programme” initiative by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and climate venture studio Omtse Ventures. Launched last month, it involves planting so-called food forests, developing industrial hubs for processing coconut products and empowering small farmers to access global markets. The project aims to create a regenerative agroforestry system that also produces valuable carbon credits and promotes the use of previously discarded coconut husks to create biochar – a charcoal-like material made from biomass – for soil enrichment. “But to create the healthy soil needed for a project of this size, the ground simply cannot be monocropped by planting millions of coconut trees,” Apl says. “Fields and fields of the same plant create a graveyard where the grower only cares about the end product, and where nature’s crucial biodiversity is not protected. “My team and Omtse are planting food forests, coconut trees intercropped with native malunggay [moringa], coffee and cacao species,” he says, adding they are working hard with the government, small and large stakeholder farmers, indigenous communities – “anyone who will lend us their support to ensure a revitalisation of the country’s agriculture industry”. Apl adds: “It is all about ensuring a healthy soil that can withstand generations and continue feeding our future.” It is not surprising that he is lending farmers a hand; it is in his blood. The eldest of seven children, Apl’s biological father, an American serviceman, left the family before he was born. Cristina became an overseas foreign worker and, in 1992, moved to Hong Kong, where she spent 20 years working as a domestic helper. “While mum was in Hong Kong, I was raised by my grandparents and was taught a lot about farming from my grandfather,” Apl says, adding he would look after buffalo and grow crops such as corn and sweet potato. “My grandfather had a small hut in the middle of a field on the farm, and he would cook everything there, and we’d eat off a banana leaf that he would put through a fire so it became soft, instead of cracking,” he says. Cristina is proud of her son and for good reason: he has many feathers in his cap, from rapper and record producer to entrepreneur and philanthropist. He harnesses his celebrity power to fuel collaborations and create change. The next day, Apl heads to Esmeris Farm in Laguna province, the pilot site for the ambitious food forest project. The farm is owned by Victor Esmeris, who worked as an architect in Saudi Arabia for more than 30 years before returning to his native Philippines. Today, Esmeris is getting advice from Uynghiem Ngo, who created Earth Sama, the technology that the food forest project uses to count and track the trees. Apl has long been a champion of building up the Philippines. He was sent to the United States as a child through a sponsorship programme to receive treatment for nystagmus, a condition that causes involuntary movement of the eyes and which left him legally blind. His sponsor, Joe Ben Hudgens, later adopted him. In the US, he found out that his condition would have been preventable had it been treated in time. It got him thinking about the need for better healthcare in the Philippines and inspired him to set up Apl of My Eye, an initiative to prevent blindness in children, especially in babies born prematurely who are at risk of suffering from retinal conditions. It is impossible not to be impressed by Apl’s achievements – and it all came about after a chance meeting with will.i.am soon after arriving in the US. “I was in his [will.i.am’s] house in East Los Angeles, in the ghetto, and he was like, ‘Do you know how to do the running man?’” he says, referring to a street dance that creates the illusion of running. Apl knew it well. He first saw the running man performed on a soft drink advert as a child in the Philippines and spent countless hours practising the shuffling and sliding steps on a basketball court. “After that, you know, we started dancing together, and then one day, he’s like, ‘Yo, you should rap with me.’ The rest is history.” Today, Apl still tours but feels the strong pull of his homeland. At his base in LA, he has a huge calamansi tree as a reminder of his rural childhood. His music also speaks volumes about his Filipino roots. The 2003 Black Eyed Peas album Elephunk features “The Apl Song”, which pays tribute to his childhood and includes a chorus in Tagalog by a Filipino folk band. Like land for farming, river for fishing / Everyone helping each other whenever they can / We making it happen, from nothing to something / That’s how we be surviving back in my homeland. The lyrics even reference his mum’s cooking. I was fourteen when I first left Philippines / I’ve been away half my life, but it felt like a day / To be next to my mom with her home-cooked meal. For Black Eyed Peas’ 2005 album Monkey Business, Apl sang one track, “Bebot”, in Tagalog. “In America, I’ve been making Filipino food from scratch,” he says, adding that sinigang, a tamarind-based sour and savoury soup, is one of his favourites. As for the future, Apl wants to build a wellness resort close to the family farm in the Philippines. “I want to offer yoga, meditation, callisthenics, hiking and biking,” he says. Most of all, he wants guests to have a transformative experience. “I want people to follow the retreat’s holistic programme for a week and hopefully see results like lower levels of cholesterol and blood sugar,” he says, adding that plant-based dishes will be on the menu using food grown on site. “Of course, there will be a lot of coconut influences.” Black Eyed Peas, AXA Wonderland, West Kowloon Cultural District, Tsim Sha Tsui, November 19. For tickets, visit here.
