Don't hate. Since entering the game in 2004, Miami hit maker Pitbull has flooded airwaves across the country with a fresh brand of upbeat Latin percussions mixed with the epic soundscapes that permanently placed his region on the map. On the verge of unleashing his third LP, The Boatlift, KING-Mag.com sits down with Mr. 305 about the making of his album, his defected label deal with Diddy, and his latest venture involving a homosexual hitman armed with scissors and a poodle (Easy, fellas he's talking about a cartoon.) among other things.

KING-MAG.com: Talk about your new album, The Boatlift
Pitbull: Well my album is sort of like a part 2 to El Mariel. The only thing was that people thought El Mariel was a Spanish album. It was more bilingual. On The Boatlift, It's a straight English album. I got a single with Jim Jones called "Sticky Icky” I got another record with this cat from New Jersey named Young Boss and Trina called "Go Girl.” I got another record that's going to be serious with Fabo and Trick Daddy called "Dookie Love” The album is a little more urban based. It's like a Pitbull mixtape but with big name producers.

Such as?
I got Mr. Collipark, I got Jim Jonsin, Lil' Jon, the Diaz Brothers, and this cat named Sounds, one of Usher's up and coming producers that's hot right now.

That's what's up. What's the difference working on this album as opposed to the others?
See, the thing about my projects, it ain't no "working on the album” it's just getting it in while you can to be honest with you. It's not like a label telling me "you have 3 months to make your album.” I'm constantly recording. I'm recording as we speak. So as far as that, I'm always working on an album. My next album I'll probably work on as soon as I finish The Boatlift. It's a constant grind.

I know you're aware of the flack hip-hop's garnered lately from the media, centering their criticisms towards the misogynistic lyrics of rappers such as yourself and –
I think it's a scapegoat. Hip-hop is not here to raise your kids. It's a source of entertainment. So as far as the Oprah thing, maybe parents should do a better job of raising their kids and let them know what to listen to and what not to listen to. And when they are listening to it, maybe they should let their kids know what it is and what it's not. It's easy to look at the negatives. But look at the positives. Look at how many people hip-hop has employed, and how much money in turn hip-hop makes for this country. So think about the people in hip-hop that's employed unemployed. Then you would have a problem. A lot of people in hip-hop only know the music or the street. I happen to be one of them.

You recently got down with Jose Cuervo for a talent search. How did that come together?
Right now I'm on a tour called Cuervoton and Jose Cuervo jumped behind us and what happens is we have a talent search featuring contestants from every major city (New York, LA, Chicago, Houston, & Phoenix)  and what it does is give the youth a chance to break into the music industry.

How is it going so far?
Our first show was last night and we had a great turnout. I didn't get to see the talent because I came late but it seems like it's going to be a phenomenal run.

A lot of avenues are opening up for the Latino community as far as music in general is concerned. From MTV's new Latin channel (Tres) to magazines among other media outlets. What do you feel is the key to the continuity?
As far as that happening, it just goes to show how we might be growing not only in popularity [laughs] but in population. Therefore they have to find ways to market to us being that we are one of the biggest spenders but with that said, its great. It's a great opportunity for not just spenders but for everybody. It gives urban artist a chance to crossover to markets that never heard of them before. For me, it's especially great. I have a show coming out on Mun2 airing May 9 called "La Esquina” which means the corner. It basically shows everybody about the corner I hangout at in Miami and all the characters there as well. We also involve it around major topics and major issues such as immigration, homosexuality, street smarts vs. book smarts, races.  With those topics, we attach humor to it but it's a message at the end of the show.

It was said that you were slated to run a Bad Boy Latino imprint with in conjunction with Diddy but the deal fell through soon after. What happened?
Well basically what happened was with Diddy – who I have a tremendous respect for in the music industry as well as just being an entrepreneur, he wanted to go a different route. I had an artist that was set up and ready to go but he didn't want to go that route. I told him that I didn't want to stray into that lane. Basically he wanted to go that pop route and I wanted to essentially keep it street. But you know, everyone is still cool. They went that pop route with a new artist called Christian Daniel and they just secured a $4 Million marketing deal through Sprint so we'll see what happens.

There are a lot of artists complaining about their record label's lack of support including your label mate Lil' Jon. What's that dynamic of your relationship with TVT?
I mean creatively, you get to do what you want. You may run into some dead ends as with any label. But at least with this label, you could get the President on the phone and thank him or tell him you are having problems with this, that, and the third. But its all the same. It's like I say, you could have major label nightmares or TVT bad dreams. [laughs] With anything else, you are going to have your problems but some how it always work out. Before my problem with TVT was that they had a problem with Lil Jon. If you got a problem with Jon, then you got a problem with me.

But you never had a problem with them per se?
Nah, not yet [laughs]

With all of the beef that's saturating blogs and airwaves lately, you seem to stray away from all of that and move in the other direction. What's your take on all the squabbling?

In our community, there's a lot of stupid shit going on and it has to do with 3 things: Jealousy, insecurity, and propaganda. A lot of people want to promote their shit by beefing with somebody. That goes for the American and Latin market. Why I say jealously? Because a lot of people feel like someone is going to take their shine and that ties in with insecurity as well. You shouldn't have a problem with someone jumping on stage with you but they do. If someone is playing another artist's record [that they have beef with]  in the club they go a beat up the DJ  - stupid shit like that. That's the only in for people to try and fuck Hip Hop up.

Talk about your cartoon in the works.
It's called Rock Paper Scissors. Its like A-Team/Charlie's Angels. Rock is being dumb as a rock, strong as a rock. Paper is being Scarface and my Father's character and scissors is a homosexual hitman. He runs around with his scissors and his little poodle. It's a comedy. Think of it as South Park mixed with The Simpsons and Family Guy. We are putting that together right now and we are going to shop that to networks hopefully next year.

New York was one of the last markets to embrace your music. It's also one of the regions  struggling right now.
The thing about New York, I think they got a little too hard. They stopped having fun. They would go to the club and wouldn't dance no more. It's different vibes. That's what separates New York from a Houston, or a Miami, or an Atlanta. I could see that they are getting a little looser lately. But down here, we always love to dance and get loose. All the hit records get cut in Miami. If it ain't in The Hit Factory, it's the circle house, or audiovison. People go down to these clubs and see what people are dancing to and flip it and make their own music. If you look at Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, what they're doing with Danjahandz, they were hanging out in the Miami clubs and they flipped it. It's almost like its house Hip Hop. At the end of the day its about making people dance and have a good time, that's what Hip-hop is about.

Listen to "Sticky Icky" with Pitbull featuring Jim Jones (Produced by Lil' Jon)

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