BLACK EYED PEAS TOUR WITH BACARDI AND BLACKBERRY

Sitting in an Athens hotel room on a humid summer day in early July, Will.i.am recalls the days when he and his fellow members of the Black Eyed Peas made a collective $150 per show -- and were ecstatic about it.

"We would jump up and down because we got paid, even though it meant we had to split it with each other and the band, meaning about $20 apiece," he says. “Then we got paid $2,000 for a show. And then I remember the first time we got paid a million bucks for an hour. I was like, ‘Wow!’ That was only four years ago.”

BLACK EYE PEAS X MICROSOFT = A GLOBAL EXPERIENCE

The Black Eyed Peas tried to make "Bing Bing" a catchphrase like "bling bling" at a private concert held for Microsoft employees Friday in Atlanta at the Microsoft Global Experience conference.

Bing is the search engine Microsoft launched last year to compete with dominant player Google. To try to replace the generic use of "Google" as a verb, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has been inserting the verb "Bing" into many of his speeches.

The pop band Black Eyed Peas are now trying, too, at least at this corporate event, which looks like more fun than the MySpace party in the movie "Funny People" with James Taylor and Adam Sandler.

At the Microsoft conference, Will.i.am calls out the audience "as my Bing Bingers." (It's also possible he said "my big Bingers.")

"This is the future of search, the Bing Bings," he says to Fergie. "So, when I say 'Bing Bing,' you know what 'Bing Bing' means? If I have a ball or a projectile, I hit it and it continues to ricochet everywhere, that’s bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing bing… Eventually it takes ‘em all out. That’s what 'Bing Bing' means." And then they start singing "I Gotta Feeling."

A heads up — this video has a few expletives in it. To catch the "bing bing" segment, fast forward to the 5:28 mark. It looks like this video was made by someone who works for Microsoft in the Netherlands.