Pitbull

Armando Christian Pérez (born January 15, 1981), known professionally as Pitbull, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, businessman, and actor.

Armando Christian Pérez was born on January 15, 1981, in Miami, Florida, to Cuban immigrant parents.

While growing up, he was strongly encouraged by his family to "take advantage" of the privilege of living in America, and the opportunities it came with.

His family has a history of fighting against the Castro regime in Cuba.

When he was three, he could recite the works of Cuban national hero and poet José Martí in Spanish.

He learned English by watching Sesame Street as a child.

His father was largely absent from his childhood; his parents separated when he was young, and he was raised mostly by his mother, later stating: "my mom is my father and my mother."

He briefly stayed with a foster family in Roswell, Georgia.

His parents struggled with substance abuse; as a teenager, he was also involved with drug use and dealing, which eventually led to him getting kicked out of the family house.

He attended South Miami Senior High School and Miami Coral Park High School.

While growing up, he was influenced by the Miami bass genre of pop music and has cited Celia Cruz and Willy Chirino as sources of inspiration, in addition to rappers such as Nas, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg.

He stated that Miami's melting pot characteristics exposed him to various cultures which influenced his artistry and himself as a person.

"It's a melting pot. You know, it's a melting pot. You get a chance to grow up around so many different - you know, I've grown up in good neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, worse neighborhoods. But growing up around so many cultures, it's always allowed me to think out of the box and try new sounds and try new things. You learn something new from every culture, just like I learn something new from every record."

He said he chose his stage name of Pitbull because the dogs "bite to lock. The dog is too stupid to lose. And they're outlawed in Dade County. They're basically everything that I am. It's been a constant fight".

He began his career in the early 2000s and recorded reggaeton, Latin hip hop, and crunk music under a multitude of labels.

Pitbull also worked with Uncle Luke during his early career, being featured on Luke's 2001 album Somethin' Nasty, including the single "Lollipop" along with Lil' Zane.

In 2001, Pitbull was signed to Luther Campbell's Luke Records by Jullian Boothe, then the label's vice-president of A&R.

In 2001, Pitbull was introduced to Robert Fernandez of Famous Artist Music & Management, an independent label and management company specializing in developing artists, by the Diaz Brothers, a producer duo signed to the company.

Fernandez "saw the eagerness and hunger he had" and, with the Luke Records deal ending, began working to develop Pitbull.

Together they focused on creating a more radio-friendly sound.

Fernandez later told HitQuarters: "At that time his music had a lot of verses and took a long time to get into the hook, and so we took time in getting the songs catchier and less on the rap side."

After meeting Lil Jon in Miami, Pitbull was featured on Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz' album Kings of Crunk in 2002.

Pitbull's song "Oye" was featured on the soundtrack to the film 2 Fast 2 Furious the following year.

In addition, Pitbull released several mixtapes, composed of freestyles and remixes of popular rap music.

He signed with TVT Records to release his debut studio album, M.I.A.M.I. (2004), which was executive produced by Lil Jon.

It moderately entered the Billboard 200, along with his second and third albums, El Mariel (2006) and The Boatlift (2007).

His fourth album, Pitbull Starring in Rebelution (2009) was supported by the singles "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" and "Hotel Room Service", both of which yielded his mainstream breakthrough and peaked at numbers two and eight on the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively.

He was ranked by Billboard as the 45th Top Artist of the 2010s and the 24th Top Latin Artist of the 2010s.

Pitbull's other ventures include brand ambassadorship and for various entities, activism and philanthropy in Latino American communities, a radio station—Pitbull's Globalization—on Sirius XM Radio, and ownership of the Trackhouse Racing NASCAR team.

After rebranding himself as a pop artist, Pitbull's sixth and seventh albums, Planet Pit (2011) and Global Warming (2012) achieved further commercial success; the former spawned his first Billboard Hot 100-number one single "Give Me Everything" (featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer), while the latter spawned the top ten hit "Feel This Moment" (featuring Christina Aguilera).

His 2013 single, "Timber" (featuring Kesha) became his second song to peak the chart, and did so in 18 other countries.

His 2014 single, "Time of Our Lives" (with Ne-Yo) peaked within the chart's top ten and led his eighth album, Globalization (2014).

That same year, he performed the song "We Are One (Ole Ola)" (with Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte), which served as the official theme of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Meanwhile, Pitbull made numerous guest appearances on a number of hit songs, including the Billboard Hot 100-top four singles "I Like It" by Enrique Iglesias, "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" by Usher, and "On the Floor" by Jennifer Lopez.

His subsequent albums, Dale (2015) and Climate Change (2017) trailed commercially.

His eleventh album and first independent release, Libertad 548 (2019) focused on Latin hip hop and was led by the singles "No Lo Trates" (with Daddy Yankee and Natti Natasha) and "Me Quedaré Contigo" (featuring Ne-Yo).

His twelfth album, Trackhouse (2023) delved further into Latin influences.

Pitbull has sold over 25 million studio albums and over 100 million singles worldwide.

As of May 2019, Pitbull has won 35 Billboard Latin Music Awards.

He has over 15 billion views on YouTube as of May 2020.