By Oscar Lopez
Pitbull has been steadily rising in the ranks of the country's music stars and he is now without a doubt one of the biggest Latinos in the world. With nine top 10 singles, including 2011's "Give Me Everything" and 2013's "Timber," which both reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and have sold 8.5 million downloads in the U.S., Pitbull is a force to be reckoned with. The Cuban-American singer is set to grace the cover of The Hollywood Reporter's April edition.
The Cuban-American sensation talks to The Hollywood Reporter about his genre-bending style. Initially classified as "too Latin for hip-hop, too hip-hop for Latin," Pitbull has proven that marrying both genres is actually a recipe for success. "I fell in love with hip-hop because to me it was therapy," he says. "I could listen to [someone] and go, 'This is happening in his neighborhood, too?' It became my way of getting things off my chest without having to do it physically."
The 47-year-old Pitbull also reveals that he sees himself as a savy and ambitious businessman. “I’ll be sitting in marketing meetings where they’re going, ‘Well, this is our multicultural budget,’ and ‘We’ll make this a multicultural campaign,’ and I say, ‘Great!’ knowing that they see me in the context of the Latin boom. ‘Oh, he’s the next Latin this or Latin that. ...’ But in my mind, I know this is the general market. I touch everybody at the end of the day.”
Pitbull's ambition stretches far and wide. “Do I think it’s realistic to be a billion-dollar company by [age] 35?" He asks. "Absolutely.” The Latino star also plans to someday return to perform in his native country. “To make history in Havana and be able to perform maybe in front of a million, 2 million people, I’m hoping for that within the next five years,” he says excitedly. “I can picture it in my mind.”
