Pitbull “Fuego” (2006)
[audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/09-fuego.mp3]
from El Mariel, in stores now.
When it comes to old school Miami music, I could talk for days.
I grew up off of freestyle music: Stevie B, Debbie Deb, Lisa Lisa, TKA. Then you had the whole 2 Live Crew movement, the Poison Clan movement. That’s what I was really listening to when I was younger.
People don’t even look at it like hip-hop, but Luke was the reason why we get to rap about what we rap about, due to him going to the Supreme Court and fighting for the first amendment. There’s a lot of things that people may not know about the whole Miami scene that influenced hip-hop as a whole.
What 2 Live Crew and Luther Campbell were doing back in the day was the blueprint for what muthafuckas is doing now, if you really think about it. They had all the women in they videos, all the cars, plus they were really the only ones selling their music independently. They were the blueprint for what’s going on in the whole game right now, as far as everybody trying to get independent money.
I think the reason that it may not get respect nationwide is that it wasn’t maybe marketed right. But there’s a lot of music from different regions that don’t get the respect it deserves. A lot of these cats might feel like independent is the only way there is to go because no one really respects the music outside of their region. People from Miami, we had Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, maybe some South Carolina and Mississippi listening, and then that’s about it. But now that the music’s getting marketed to a wider audience and they looking at us in a different way. Now you got Rick Ross, you got myself, you got Trick. And I think out of all of us, I’m the one that really sticks to his roots the most, in terms of the music that we grew up off. I know they gonna come back around and do it, ’cause it’s in they blood to do that type of music. And it’s happening now, if you look at a lot of hip-hop—it’s more up-tempo, it’s more records for the clubs.
I was signed to Luke for a year in ’99-2000. I had created a name for myself in the street with battling. I ain’t really know much about the music game at the time, so I had left this verse for Luke. I spit three quarters of the verse in English and the last six bars in Spanish. When he heard that shit, he was like, “Whoa, you’re Cuban and from Miami? You’re gonna be the Mayor of the city.” And that’s basically how it all started for me. He put me on his 2001 project called Somethin’ Nasty, and then I went on tour with him. That was the first project I was involved in. It was my crash course in the music industry. I just felt like if I was gonna be anybody in Miami, I had to go through the King first.
Pitbull’s Top 5 Classic Miami Joints:
2 Live Crew “Throw The D” (1986)
[audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/2-live-crew-throw-that-dick-2.mp3]
2 Live Crew “Move Somethin’” (1987)
[audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/move-something-1.mp3]
Stevie B. “Spring Love” (1988)
[audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/06-spring-love-1.mp3]
Poison Clan “Dance All Night” (1990)
[audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/poison-clan-dance-all-night-1.mp3]
Uncle Luke feat. Trick Daddy “Scarred” (1996)
[audio:http://www.xxlmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/scarred.mp3]
