(This Time for Africa)", Shakira soon began work on her ninth studio album Sale el Sol. She decided to experiment with merengue music on the album, saying "I grew up listening to merengue—that was a big part of my life, and I was missing it." Merengue is recognized as the national music of the Dominican Republic and the singer travelled to the country to work with Dominican songwriter and record producer El Cata, resulting in songs like "Loca" and "Rabiosa". Shakira said that the recording of the two songs took place in "this tiny studio in the middle of nowhere", and that "it wasn't planned, I was just following my instincts. So this album is very genuine, and very personal as well". Other collaborators on the album include American rapper and songwriter Armando Pérez, better known by his stage name Pitbull, Shakira's friend and frequent collaborator Luis Fernando Ochoa, René Pérez Joglar, better known by his stage name "Residente Calle 13", John Hill, Lester Mendez, Albert Menéndez, Tim Mitchell and Jorge Drexler. Shakira co-wrote and co-produced every track on the album, with the exception of "Islands". The recording of the album took place at locations such as The Bahamas, London, Barcelona and the Dominican Republic, and was engineered by Andros Rodriguez. Armando Pérez, who co-wrote the tracks "Loca" and "Rabiosa", talked about Shakira's previous album She Wolf, saying "on the last album they tried to Americanize Shakira by giving her the big producers. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, but it’s just not her". Talking about his collaboration with Shakira, El Cata revealed that she told him "You have something that makes me move". Cata responded by telling Shakira that "it was the percussion" and "Those sounds that you want, I have them in my studio.", which led to a recording session between the two. He appears as a featured artist on the Spanish version of "Loca". René Pérez Joglar, who performs as the lead singer of Puerto Rican alternative hip hop band under the name of Residente, appears as a featured artist on the track "Gordita". He explained the conception of the song, in which he raps about the fact that "he liked Shakira better when – early in her career: she was chubbier, had dark hair and was a rock chick", by saying that "I told her (Shakira) it was a good idea to make fun