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)," "Give Me Everything," "Timber," "Feel This Moment," and "Time of Our Lives." In 2016, he won his first Grammy Award for his Spanish-language LP, Dale.
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. 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.
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. The latter album featured the hits "Back in Time" and "Feel This Moment," and when a deluxe reissue appeared in 2013, the single "Timber," with special guest Kesha, was added to the track list.