When the Southern-flavored party rap called crunk took over urban radio in 2004, Miami rapper
decided it was time to seek stardom. The way
saw it, "crunk ain't nothin' but bass music slowed down." Miami bass music, that is, the kind
grew up on. His parents were first-generation Cuban immigrants who didn't let their son forget about his culture. They required him to memorize the works of Cuban poet
understood the power of words right away. Southern acts like
were early influences, but as he grew, the young rapper got turned on to the G-funk sound of the West Coast and the New York City point of view
brought to the game.
Pitbull got involved in the game himself when he started appearing on Miami mixtapes. A meeting with
Irv Gotti resulted in nothing, but soon
Luther Campbell called on the rapper to appear on his "Lollipop" single. It brought
Pitbull to the attention of the
Diaz Brothers management team, who introduced the rapper to the king of crunk,
Lil Jon. A
Pitbull freestyle landed on
Lil Jon's platinum-selling
Kings of Crunk album in 2002, and the rapper's "Oye" track appeared on the
2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack in 2003. Ready to take it all the way to the top,
Pitbull unleashed his debut full-length,
M.I.A.M.I., in 2004 on the TVT label, with the
Lil Jon-produced single "Culo" leading the way.
Soon
Pitbull was making guest appearances on tracks by everyone from
the Ying Yang Twins to
Elephant Man. The 2005 compilation
Money Is Still a Major Issue collected the best of these collaborations along with some remixes and unreleased tracks. In 2006, the single "Bojangles" prepared fans for his next album,
El Mariel. As the album landed on the shelves it was announced that his next effort would be entirely in Spanish and titled
The Boatlift. When the end product arrived in 2007, it was an album mostly in English, introduced by the single "Go Girl."
Two years later he released
Rebelution, an album filled with slick club cuts including the hits "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" and "Hotel Room Service." Featuring the hit single "Bon Bon," his all-Spanish-language album Armando followed in 2010. In 2011, his Planet Pit album arrived, featuring the singles "Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor)" and "Give Me Everything." Both the singles collection Original Hits and I Am Armando -- a "reloaded" version of Armando -- arrived in 2012 along with his seventh studio effort, Global Warming.
–
David Jeffries, Rovi