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Campbell says he begged WPOW-FM 96.5 to play Pitbull’s early tracks. Now that Pitbull has international fame, Campbell says, “It’s great to see a kid from the streets of Miami become a world icon.”

famous. Now they are good friends who can call each other anytime, and they have avoided any arguments in their friendship by staying close, even as their careers grew. Pitbull’s freestyle rap on Lil Jon’s 2002 K ings of K runk album launched him into the spotlight. Debut Album Pitbull’s single Oye appeared in the movie in the 2003 movie, 2 Fast 2 Furious . Pitbull’s first full- length recording, M.I.A.M.I. ( M oney I s a M agor I ssue ), debuted August 24, 2004. It included the lead single Cujo , produced by Lil Jon, and the album sold over 655,000 copies. It reached number fourteen on the Billboard Top 200 and number two on the U.S. Rap Chart. That Billboard chart began ranking albums in 2004. In a 2009 interview with Miami New Times , Lil Jon said, “I always believed in this guy [Pitbull] and I always knew he could make it commercially.” Pitbull’s fame and success has continued to grow from there, as he produced an album almost every year from 2005–2014. Between 2011 and 2016, many of Pitbull’s singles and albums were nominated for awards in a variety of categories. He has won accolades from Billboard Music Awards, Billboard Latin Music Awards, BMI Awards (Broadcast Music, Inc.), a Grammy, and a Latin Grammy, among others.

Diaz Brothers Management and Lil Jon: The Beginning of the Road to Fame

Pitbull’s appearance on Luther

Campbell’s single, Lollipop , brought him to the attention of the Diaz Brothers Management team. Lu and Hugo Diaz own a production company based in Miami and met Pitbull during a recording session for Luke

Watch the lead single, Cujo , from M.I.A.M.I. ( M oney I s a M ajor I ssue )

Lil Jon at the 2011 American Music Awards at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. November 20, 2011, Los Angeles, CA

Records. The Diaz brothers are well known for starting this artist on his road to fame. They are also responsible for introducing him to the famous rapper Lil Jon, who put crunk-style music into the mainstream. Lil Jon told the Miami New Times that he and Pitbull met before either one of them became

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PITBULL

PITBULL

HIP-HOP & R&B