2005 was Pitbull’s year with the Miami native jumping on just about every hot song to come out of the radio. As a result, his sophomore LP, ‘M.I. Still A.M.I.’ (‘Money Is Still A Major Issue’) was packed full of the remixed club bangers, including the Ying Yang Twins’ ‘Shake (Remix)’, and Elephant Man’s ‘Rah Rah’ with Daddy Yankee – meaning that instead of being the main man on the LP, Pitbull (aka Armando Perez) was just a heavily featured artist. There was no doubt the songs were hot, but with no solo material, Pit failed to show his fans just how sick his flow could be.

Come late 2006 and Pitbull is all over the radio again with new tracks from his third LP, ‘El Mariel’. Pit highlights his Cuban heritage by naming his album after the monumental Cuban boat lift in 1980, relocating thousands of Cuban nationals to Miami, Florida.

From the album’s artwork and title, you would expect Pit to move towards a more mature sound to truly depict the hardship and difficulties faced by those ex-pats in the earlier years of Fidel Castro’s rule. Yet, whilst the Cuban-American emcee makes references to the communist leader on ‘Come See Me’, (‘This is for them Cubans losing life over Fidel’s mentality’), he fails to use the reference to ‘El Mariel’ to enrich his lyrical content throughout the album, so we end up with only a glimpse into what Pitbull can do when he puts his mind to it. Instead, Pit leaves it to Will ‘Da~Real One’ in the ‘Outro’ to address the El Mariel boat lift, in a thought-provoking and inspiring piece of conscious poetry – something that would have looked better coming from the Cuban descendant himself.

Cuts like ‘Raindrops’ and ‘Blood Is Thicker Than Water’ do well to showcase what Pit can be capable of in terms of lyrical fire, as he talks about how he is still reeling from the death of his father and how he had to struggle with poverty as a youngster. ‘Raindrops’ is further enhanced by the sweet vocals of Anjuli Stars, whose appearance is truly the icing on the cake.

It is a shame Pitbull limits himself to these two tracks to show his softer side as he is clearly capable of much bigger things. However, the rest of the album, while not great in content, is surprisingly pleasing to the ears, with cuts like ‘Be Quiet’, ‘Voodoo’, ‘Que Tu Sabes D’Esco’ featuring Fat Joe and Sinful, and the Neptunes’ produced ‘Jealouso’, sure to get fans crunked – even if you have no idea what Pit is saying in his native Spanish! He also teams up with labelmates Lil’ Jon and the Ying Yang Twins for latest single ‘Bojangles (Remix)’, as well as Wyclef Jean for the chilled out ‘Jungle Fever’, which again, whilst both bring nothing new to the table lyrically, is something you can get your head nodding to.

Elsewhere, P-I-T represents Miami to the fullest on ‘Miami Sh*t’ - (they don’t call him ‘Mr 3-0-5’ for nothing!) – and delivers a warning for all wannabe gangstas on ‘Fuego’, produced by Mr. Collipark (Ying Yang Twins).

You can’t help but give it up for Pitbull – his double-time raps certainly give the hip hop game a fresh sound and the clubs something to bounce to, but whether he can progress from groupie lovin’ rapper to lyrically credible emcee remains to be seen… Nevertheless, a hot album even if it is just to get the booty shakin'.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Top Tracks:
15) Raindrops (ft. Anjuli Stars)
9) Fuego
12) Blood Is Thicker Than Water (ft. Red Eyezz)

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