Monday Musings: Why Pitbull?

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Why is Pitbull a thing?

Why is he one of the most cockroach-like rappers out there, in the sense that he WON'T GO AWAY? Why does he have to plague pop music the way he does? Why is he popular?

Let's see if we can answer some of those questions.

Pitbull's career launched in 2001, when he was signed to Luke Records by Julian Boothe. He went on to be introduced to Robert Fernandez of Famous Artist Music & Management. Fernandez liked what he heard and worked with Pitbull to create a more radio-friendly sound. He was introduced to Lil Jon in the process, and come 2004, this is what they come up with.

This is "Culo", a crunk-reggeaton song that did decently well in 2004, climbing to #32 on the charts. Now we can assume this this is where Pitbull's career should have ended, right?

Well, this is where Pitbull's special skill comes in: latching on to the popular music trend that best suits him. Here he is doing dancey club jams in 2010. Here he is doing some EDM-like thing in 2013. That's what Pitbull does. He takes whatever's popular and gnaws at it like... a pitbull.

That explains the "why", I think, because as much as I rag on the guy, he's not the worst thing in the world. He's just kind of this boring badness that, well, people allow to get popular these days. So, why Pitbull? Because nobody else will do what Pitbull does.