Wherever you hear pop music, you hear the Black Eyed Peas. The American hip hop group doesn't seem to have much trouble getting exposure for its songs.

But one of the Black Eyed Peas has one song that you probably haven't heard. If you have, you probably didn't understand it. That's because "Bebot" is in Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines.

"Bebot" -- or more precisely, the video of "Bebot" -- has created a stir among Filipino-Americans. The World's Jori Lewis has today's Global Hit.

Bebot means in tagalog slang something like "hottie", or "hot chick."

The song was written and performed by Black Eyed Pea Allen Pineda Lindo, better known as Apl.

Apl

In the song, Apl raps about his life as a Filipino immigrant. The song is about the barrio he came from in the Philippines. It mentions one of his favorite dishes chicken adobo. But most of all Bebot is about parties and the many bebots he meets there. The song is not exactly deep. But it has a good beat and you can dance to it.

Ginelsa:"I knew it was going to be popular."

That's Filipino-American video director Patricio Ginelsa. He made two videos for Bebot.

The first one is set in the Filipino American community in Stockton, California in the 1930s. Apl works hard as a farmer by day and parties hard at night.

Ginelsa's other video is set in 2006 and it's more about partying than working. But the director says both videos paint essentially the same picture of Filipino-Americans having fun.

Ginelsa: "It's them going out to party, meeting people of the opposite sex and just celebrating. That's all (chuckle) It's a party video."

The Bebot videos are popular among young Filipino-Americans. But some in the community are not at all pleased. A group of Filipino-American scholars wrote an open letter to Apl and video director Patricio Ginelsa. It said, "We are utterly dismayed by the portrayal of hypersexualized Filipina hoochie mama dancers..." The letter goes on to accuse the director of using "three very limited stereotypes of Filipina women: the virgin, the whore...and the shrill mother."

Director Patricio Ginelsa defends the two Bebot videos. He says he wasn't out to malign Filipinas.

In fact, Ginelsa says just the presence of Apl in a Tagalog language video is a source of pride for Filipino-Americans.

Ginelsa: "Here's this superstar, part of a mega-international music group like the Black Eyed Peas. We've never had that kind of representation before."

And many Filipino-Americans are responding. Celine Parrenas Shimizu teaches courses on Asian American pop culture at the University of California Santa Barbara. Shimizu says her students like the Bebot videos, especially the contemporary one.

Shimizu: "But students have also expressed a kind of disappointment as well. They found the video had a limited vision in terms of what culture looks like. My students when talk about the video they say, this doesn't look any different than any other hip-hop video that's out there today. "

Maybe the next one will. Apl recently started a record company for Filipino Americans who write songs in English and Tagalog.

For The World, I'm Jori Lewis