I already had three strikes against me. One, I have light skin. Two, I’m from Miami, which wasn’t getting looked at at the time. Three, I’m Cuban. But now, I’ve made everything that stacked against me into a virtue.
My motivational music is any music that helps me escape. There are certain records that take you to euphoria, when you’re partying and havin’ a good time, dancin’ with a couple people.
If you look at Cuba what’s the benefit in being in Cuba? Really? It’s almost like being in prison. You can’t think. You can’t have your own opinions. You have no opportunity. You just gotta live life the way you were born into it.
It’s the true meaning of music being a universal language, constantly fighting and going through different boundaries in order for new people to hear the music and be like, “Oh, sh*t! I mess with this Pitbull kid.”
I won’t perform in Cuba until there’s no more Castro and there’s a free Cuba. To me, Cuba’s the biggest prison in the world, and I would be very hypocritical were I to perform there.
I started doing shows in places that I couldn’t pronounce, didn’t know existed, and I’ve seen people that didn’t speak English or Spanish rapping to every lyric and singing to every hook. I said, “This is the type of music that I want to do.”
