Pitbull is the rapper coming into his own in the second decade of the 21st century. Known as Pitbull on stage, he grew up as Armando Christian Perez, born on January 15, 1981 and raised in Miami. His rise comes as Reggaeton, or the generic umbrella covering most urban Latin music, is blowing up on the radio and in the clubs. Now, Pitbull tickets sell to see this performer in concert at an alarming rate, attracting girls who like to dance and guys who want to dance with those girls.

Before Pitbull even dreamed of taking his music on the road, touring the nation he had to overcome what some might consider cliches. He dealt drugs in high school, meaning he ran with an inherently rough crowd and put his life on the line every day. Armando Perez would graduate high school though, and decided to focus on building a career as a rapper instead of peddling drugs, taking the road of his musical heroes, which include the Notorious B.I.G. And Big Pun.

Living in Miami had its advantages for a rapper heavily influenced by Miami bass, a genre of hip hop. He would have the fortune of meeting Irv Gotti, a noted R&B and hip hop producer, and Luther Campbell, a member of the legendary hip hop crew The 2 Live Crew. These Miami residents with music connections encouraged him to keep working on his studio stuff and take part in rap battles. He adopted the name Pitbull (inspired by an animal outlawed in the county and he describes as too stupid to lose) and continued to put in the hours of work and every ounce of creative talent he could muster.

The result was a chance to be featured on tracks by Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz for the album Kings of Crunk and a song on the 2 Fast 2 Furious soundtrack ("Oye"). A couple of years later the occasional single and the steady stream of featured appearances on established artists albums led to his own studio album. M.I.A.M.I. Debuted in 2004 and charted quite well. Pitbull witnessed his album hit number 14 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the U.S. Rap chart and U.S. Indie chart. It would ultimately sell enough albums to reach gold certification.