Houston's Weekend Planning Guide

(From All Music.com-Neil Z. Yeun) With his trademark shout of "Dale!" and reggaeton-infused party pop, bilingual rapper and producer Pitbull made a steady ascent through the Miami hip-hop scene before dominating the mainstream charts in the late 2000s and 2010s with dancefloor-filling hits, including U.S. Top Ten singles "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)," "I Like It," "Give Me Everything," "Timber," "Feel This Moment," and "Time of Our Lives." Early-2010s efforts Planet Pit, Global Warming, and Globalization were all certified platinum, while his 2015 Spanish-language LP Dale earned Pitbull his first Grammy Award. The remainder of the 2010s was spent churning out Spanish-language hits, such as the multi-platinum single "Dame Tu Cosita," as well as "No Lo Trates" and "Me Quedare Contigo" from 2019's Libertad 548.

Born Armando Christian Perez, the future "Mr. 305" was raised by first-generation Cuban immigrant parents who didn't let their son forget about his culture. They required him to memorize the works of Cuban poet José Martí, and Pitbull understood the power of words right away. Southern acts like Poison Clan and Luther Campbell 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 Nas brought to the game. When the Southern-flavored party rap called crunk took over urban radio, he decided it was time to seek stardom and began appearing on Miami mixtapes.