Top 10 facts about Pitbull

A photo of Pitbull by Eva Rinaldi – Wikimedia commons

Top 10 Facts about Pitbull

Armando Christian Pérez was born on 15 January 1981. He is known professionally by his stage name Pitbull and he is an American rapper and businessman. He began his career in the early 2000s, recording reggaeton, Latin hip-hop, and crunk music under many labels.

In 2004, he released his debut album M.I.A.M.I. under TVT Records and was the executive producer of Lil Jon. Pitbull later released his second album, El Mariel, in 2006 and his third, The Boatlift, in 2007. In the article are the top ten facts about Pitbull.

1. Signed to Luther Campbell’s Luke Records

In 2001 Pitbull was signed to Luther Campbell’s Luke Records by Jullian Boothe. Luther Campell is an American rapper, promoter, record executive, actor, and former leader of the rap group 2 Live Crew. He also starred in a short-lived show on VH1, Luke’s Parental Advisory.

In that year Pitbull was also introduced to Robert Fernandez of Famous Artist Music and management, an independent label and management company specializing in developing artists, by the Diaz Brothers, a producer duo signed by the company.

2. His first album was M.I.A.M.I.

In 2004, Pitbull released his debut album M.I.A.M.I., with the lead single being “Culo” produced by Lil Jn and the Diaz Brothers. It was ranked No.32 on the Billboard Hot 1p00 chart and No.11 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart.

TVT Records, Pitbull’s label at the time, and slip-n-Slide Records disputed over the release of Welcome to the 305, an unreleased album by slip-n-Slide that Pitbull recorded in 2001.

3. Released El Mariel and The Boatlift albums within one year

In January 2006, Pitbull guest-starred in UPN’s South Beach. Pitbull recorded “Nuestro Himno” in collaboration with Wyclef Jean, a Haitian rapper, musician and actor. Carlos ponce; who is a Puerto Rican actor, musician, model and television personality and finally Olga Tanon who is a Puerto Rican recording artist.

In El Mariel, Pitbull included politically themed tracks. The album was released on October 31st in the year 2006 and included singles “Bojangles”, “Ay Chico”, “Fuego” and a duet with Puerto Rican singer Ken-Y, “Dime”.El Mariel topped the Billboard independent albums chart and ranked at No.17 on the Billboard 200 and No.2 on the rap chart.

Pitbull’s third album The Boatlift had a more gangsta rap edge than his earlier albums. Subsequent singles included “Go Girl” featuring Trina; an American rapper and “The Anthem” featuring and produced Lil Jon, that song sampling the hook from the song El Africano”.

4. He took part in the “So Kodak” campaign

In 2010, Pitbull took part in the So Kodak campaign for the Kodak brand. He was with Drake; a Canadian rapper, singer and actor, Rihanna; a Barbadian singer, actress and businesswoman; and Trey Songz, an American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer and actor.

Pitbull also launched a partnership with the soft drink giant Dr Pepper as part of the campaign “Vida 23” for which he recorded a song featured on his album Armando. Pitbull also announced that he had become the spokesperson for Voli Vodka.

5. He launched a radio channel

On May 19th in the year 2015, Pitbull launched a radio channel on Sirius XM Radio, called Pitbull’s Globalization Radio which is centred around Rhythmic, Dance/EDM, and R&B/Hip-Hop products from artists from around the world.

The artist celebrated the channel’s debut with a private concert at New York city’s Apollo Theatre. In addition to launching his customized radio station, Pitbull also plans to launch a pair of projects with Endemol for digital television.

6. Joined Boost Mobile in 2019

In 2019 Pitbull joined Boost Mobile to create a series of advertisements to expand Boost Mobile to Spanish communities.

The promotional single “Winning” featuring Yomil El Dany from Pitbull’s 2019 album “Libertad 548” was used in the Boost mobile “Dale Mas” advertising campaign that has been actively rolling out advertisements starring Pitbull and his backup dance group The Most Bad Ones.

The song “Get Ready ” by Pitbull featuring Blake Shelton, an American country music singer and television personality, was later added to the advertising campaign for the Pitbull album Libertad 548.

7. Featured in Super Bowl

In the year 2020 on the 2nd of February, Pitbull was featured in a Super Bowl commercial for Super Bowl LIV, alongside Jennifer Lopez, DJ Khaled, Alex Rodriguez, and Steven Van Zandt.

The commercial was produced to promote Hard Rock and its affiliations; the commercial premiered during the 2nd quarter of Super Bowl LIV. The commercial showcases the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, where the music video for “Get Ready” by Pitbull featuring Blake Shelton was filmed.

8. Involved in an advertising campaign with Walmart

In 2012 Pitbull was involved in an advertising campaign with Walmart, in which the Walmart store received the most Facebook “likes” from 18th June to July 15th 2012, would have Pitbull visited and put on a show there.

An orchestrated campaign entitled “#exilepitbull” started by The Boston Phoenix reporter David Thorpe and SomethingAwful.com writer Jon Hendren urged people to vote for remote locations namely Kodiak and Alaska.

In an email to the associated press, Walmart confirmed that Kodiak was the winning location. Pitbull visited Kodiak on 30th July where he received a key to the city from Mayor Patricia Branson and performed. David Thorpe, who had started the “#exilepitbull” campaign was invited to attend and showed up.

9. Launched partnership with LiveXLive

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, LiveXLive launched a partnership with Pitbull, Which could grant the platform exclusive rights to concerts, behind-the-scenes, videos and more from Pitbull to be streamed to LiveXlive’s premium subscribers.

On August 14th 2020, Pitbull released a new single titled “Te Quiero Baby” with Latin pop singer Chesca and American singer Frankie Valli. The single serves as a Latin interpolation of the original Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons’ 1967 smash-it single  Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.

10. Is Pitbull a sexist?

Pitbull has been criticized for the way women are depicted in some of his music. For example, song lyrics such as “She say she won’t, but I bet she will,” and “I like that when you fight back” have attracted discussion about whether or not they could be contributing to the “legitimization” of rape.

The campaign described him as an artist “whose lyrics are routinely labelled sexist” Complex similarly noted that “many view Pitbull as sexist.