Check out this nice photo gallery of Pitbull.

Born as Armando Christian Pérez in January 15, 1981, Pitbull has never really imagined that his popularity will go this far. Growing up in Miami made him experienced a lot of ups and downs. In fact, his Cuban immigrant parents divorced when he was still a kid. He also got involved in prohibited drug dealing business at a very young age, which is the main reason why he was kicked out by his mother from the house and why he spent the rest of his life with foster family in Roswell, Georgia.

At a young age, he was influenced by the Miami bass genre of hip hop music where he got his passion for rapping. Among his inspirations are Nas, The Notorious B.I.G. and Big Pun. After he graduated from Miami Coral Park High School, he decided to focus on pursuing a career in rapping. He met with Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew, who encouraged him to join rap battle on radio.

He then began using his stage name Pitbull, which for him meant a lot about himself. In an exclusive interview, he said that the reason why he has chosen the name was because his personality closely resembles with this dog. He said that this dog are generally notorious, they bite to lock and are too stupid to lose. These qualities are basically the same for everything that he is. He added that everything for him is a constant fight, which he needs to win.

In 2002 right after meeting with Lil Jon, Pitbull was featured in Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz’ album Kings of Crunk, followed by his song Oye, which was featured on the soundtrack to the film 2 Fast 2 Furious in 2003. A year after, he released his very own album M.I.A.M.I under TVT Records, which he collaborated with Fat Joe, Trick Daddy and Lil Jon. His debut album reached number 14 on Billboard Hot 200.

Like Eminem, Pitbull also encountered problems early in his career as a rapper because he was white, blue-eyed and Cuban American. Nonetheless, these initial trials never kept him out of the zone. As a matter of fact, Pitbull became the most wanted collaborator for other Hip Hop artists. He was also signed to join Anger Management Tour, which was headlined by Eminem and 50 Cent.

Following the success of his first album, Pitbull later released three other albums under the label El Mariel in 2006, The Boatlift in 2007 and Rebelution in 2009. One of his most popular singles is I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho), which actually peaked at number two spot on the Hot 100 and peaked within the top ten spots of music charts in UK, Canada, Italy and Netherlands. In France, it reached number one spot in the European Hot 100 on the week ending August 29, 2009.

Pitbull Photo Gallery