Songoftheday 11/13/24 -Right about now we need all the ladies to hit the dance floor...

 

 

"Culo" - Pitbull featuring Lil' Jon

from the album M.I.A.M.I. (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak #32 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 2

 

Today's song comes from hip-hop artist Armando Perez, who performs under the moniker Pitbull. Raised in Miami from Cuban immigrant parents, Pitbull. He started out as a rapper in the Miami bass scene, and was briefly signed with Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew's Luke label, though that didn't go anywhere. That changed when he came under the wing on Jonathan "Lil' Jon" Smith, who brought him into the "crunk" scene centered in Atlanta. 

 

By 2004, Lil' Jon's star was rising quickly, scoring a top ten hit of his own with "Get Low" as well as being featured on huge hits from  Youngbloodz with "Damn!" and Usher with "Yeah!". Now with TVT Records, Pitbull released his debut album M.I.A.M.I. (for "money is a major issue"), which Lil' Jon produced most of the first half of. One of those, "Culo" ("Ass" in Spanish slang) was released as the lead single. Written by Pitbull and Lil' Jon (along with dancehall artist Clifford "Mr. Vegas" after he sued for cribbing his song "Pull Up"), the lyrics are far from what Pitbull would evolve into with his "Mr. Worldwide" club king persona. Rather, they're squarely in the crunk niche, where nothing matter but objectifying women and getting it on at the club, including some name-dropped with J-Lo and Trina. The production from Lil Jon and the Diaz Brothers (Lu & Hugo Diaz) uses the "coolie riddim" dancehall beat that was also heard on Nina Sky's concurrent hit "Move Your Body". The music video is low-tech and is jarring to see Pitbull with even a smidgen of hair....

"Culo" became Pitbull's first hit on his first try, reaching the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in June of 2004 while skirting under the level on their R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart at #45 and making it to #11 on the Rap Songs list. On the radio, the song climbed to #7 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. The M.I.A.M.I. album, released in August of that year, peaked at #14 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #7 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list, going on to sell over a half million copies.

 

After a second single "That's Nasty" with Lil Jon and Fat Joe stiffed, a follow-up, "Back Up" (which has his throwing out the "n" word), popped on to the R&B Singles chart at #86.

Two other tracks from his debut also made the R&B chart and "bubbled under" the Hot 100, with "Toma" with Lil Jon reaching #73 and #108 and "Dammit Man" with Piccallo hitting #58 and #119.respectively. 

Pitbull and Lil Jon will be back to the series.

(4/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Pitbull performing in concert in 2023..

Up tomorrow: Country jingoist goes for the scotch.