Fast cars were a clear point of fascination for the teenaged will.i.am. The daily bus ride to school took him from Boyle Heights across town to affluent West Los Angeles. He and his brother Carl loved to spend the journey pointing out all the supercars they wanted to own when they grew up.

The supercar dreams have come true for William Adams, aka will.i.am (46), who has become one of the most successful pop musicians of his time.

His passion for hip-hop first set him on this path. He began his career in 1988 with his very first performances in a rap group that he founded with a friend at the age of 13. A mere few years later, his band, Black Eyed Peas, was climbing to the top of the charts with their albums and singles. will.i.am had become an enormously successful producer and songwriter.

Seven Grammys are just one indication of his success. Justin Bieber, U2 and Lady Gaga are just some of the stellar names on his list of collaborators, which reads like a who’s who of the most successful music stars of the last two decades. Some credit will.i.am for their greatest hits.

There is one thing that very few people know about him: he is always looking for new challenges – even ones away from the musical arena. “I keep asking myself: What can I do to be useful? How can I do things even better than before? Music is all about making sense and finding harmony in sounds.”

Hip-hop was will.i.am’s first creative home. However, technology and cars have long since become a close second. He affectionately calls the first car that he designed himself “The Monster”. It is one of will.i.am’s first visions – outside the recording studio, that is – to come true. The supercar, only vaguely identifiable as the classic car inspired by its original designers, was entirely his own creation. Long before car manufacturers started to put large displays in the middle of cockpits, will.i.am customised his car by building his iPad into it.