WILL.I.AM WANTS TO FUSE FASHION WITH TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE THE NEXT GENERATION OF WEARABLES.

You may know William Adams better as will.i.am, the front man from the multi platinum hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas. Or perhaps you know him from his voice-coaching role on The Voice. What you may not know is that will.i.am has found his next incarnation in the world of tech – a realm that he is determined to crack by any means possible.

So, what has inspired the change of heart? How does a successful recording artist find himself at the center of the rapidly-expanding technology industry? Usually the realm of geeks and IT professionals, being musically inclined doesn’t seem to lend itself to a heavily technical and business-oriented industry. However, Adams was named Entrepreneur of the Year last year, and Fortune magazine has made him one of its 40 under-40 business leaders. He also has a job as director of creative innovation at chipmaker Intel, and has collaborated on products with Coca-Cola and Lexus.

Adams started his life in a low-income area in East L.A. Pushed to pursue his musical career by his mother, he began playing in clubs with future Black Eyed Peas member apl.de.ap around Los Angeles while still in high school. His initial rap outfit, Atban Klann, was picked up by rapper Eazy-E in the early 90s and became the Black Eyed Peas after Eazy’s death in 1995. With a number of commercially successful albums and a founding investment in rapper-cum-entrepreneur Dr. Dre’s headphone and music streaming company Beats, Adams’ fortune is estimated by Forbes to be north of $100 million.

Adams recalls the beginning of his transition from musician to tech entrepreneur in 1999. While on tour with the Black Eyed Peas and working on a new album Bridging the Gap, he was alerted to early music sharing program Napster. Initially, Adams recalls being furious, immediately calling his producer to try and do something about it. They both quickly realized that there was not much anybody could do about it. Digital music was a fact and it was destined to change the way the music industry operated. He met with Napster founder Shawn Fanning and came to the realization that the technology industry was not only creating new means to share and distribute music, but also creating the hardware to enjoy it on as well. If musicians and recording labels were going to have a financial future, it was going to be by teaming up with innovators in the tech industry. Steve Jobs apparently held the answer – as with so many other things, it seems, his touch had the ability to turn tech ideas into gold. Adams and entrepreneur/producer Jimmy Iovine agreed to partner up with Jobs and his new creation, iTunes, which created a legal and financially successful way to sell downloadable music. The decision proved to be correct. Adams and the Black Eyed Peas appeared in the first iTunes commercial and iTunes now has over a billion users worldwide.

He may not be the first musician to enter into the tech industry, but he is certainly the most committed. Although music will undoubtedly remain a permanent part of his identity and soul – technology is clearly his future. Adams is investing all his money, time, and energy into creating the next big tech breakthrough. His company i.am+ is currently designing a new generation of wearable tech – smart watches, clothes, and accessories – that fuse fashion and technology.

His ideas are not without their detractors, though. So far, no company has managed to crack the smartwatch market. In fact, wearable tech has been talked about and promised for quite some time, but it has proved harder than initially thought to create products that are genuinely useful. Furthermore, privacy is a concern for consumers who are increasingly wary of the information-gathering habits of large tech companies. A wearable tech watch or jacket would provide an almost seamless stream of information about the user.

It is too early to say whether or not Adams will usher in the next era of wearable tech. His latest offering –the Puls, a wearable ‘cuff,’ has been criticized for being difficult to use, expensive, and impractical. Similarly, his iPhone accessory camera, the i.am+ foto.sosho, besides having a name that nobody could possibly like, was a commercial flop.

Adams seems determined though – he has hired more than 100 people in offices around the world to help develop his next creations. He has set up philanthropic endeavors to help fund science, tech, and innovation, particularly in low-income areas, such as the one he grew up in. His endeavors in the tech industry are undoubtedly for financial gain, but there seems to be a genuine sense of optimism in the good that technology can bring the world. He believes that kids growing up now should not be looking to become rock stars but programmers – even suggesting that “coders are the next rock stars.”