REVIEW: Pitbull and Lil Jon "I'm Back" Tour
SHOTS
SHOTS
SHOT SHOT SHOT
SHOTS
SHOTS
SHOT SHOT SHOT
SHOTS
SHOTS
SHOT SHOT SHOT SHOTS
EVERYBOOOODY!
Lil Jon, his scratchy and booming voice echoing throughout the Xfinity Center, could barely be heard over the raucous and exuberant crowd. There was a ton of energy and excitement in the notorious Mansfield amphitheater on this temporally mild August night, and not without reason: two of the most synonymous names in club culture were touring together for the first time ever: Lil Jon, most famous for his loud, scratchy rapping style and his 2010 smash hit SHOTS featuring LMFAO (which peaked at #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went double platinum upon release). Lil Jon is also well-known for his seemingly infinite features on classic club anthems such as Yeah! (yes, I forgot he was on that Usher song too), and at least half of the songs in Mr. 305's discography. Performing alongside Mr. Jon was the middle-school-dance-icon, Princess-Diana-of-Miami legend Armando Christian Perez, otherwise known as Pitbull (technically, Pitbull was the main act, but it didn't really feel that way).
Perez, known to anyone who has listened to even 30 seconds of one of his songs, was born and raised in the city that destroys friendships and finances, Miami, Florida (side note: I don't consider Miami to be part of the gator-infested, weirdly-tax-free, Ron-DeSantis-plagued hellhole that is the state of Florida; Miami is an entirely separate entity if you ask me). To his own confession, Pitbull had a pretty rough childhood: he was born to two Cuban immigrants: his father was largely absent from his life and his mother struggled with addiction, and at one point even lived with a foster family in Georgia. He only learned to speak English by consistently watching Sesame Street while growing up. Despite these setbacks, Perez was encouraged by his family to take advantage of the freedom that came with living in America (his family has a history of allegedly fighting against the Castro regime in Cuba). Despite this encouraging work ethic, Perez got caught up in dealing drugs, which led to him getting kicked out of his family home at the age of 15.
Perez' talent was first noticed by one of his high school teachers, who then worked to get him an invitation to a local DMX video shoot. While Perez was on set, he got into a heated freestyle rap battle against Drag-On (a popular hardcore rapper and actor for those who are not acquainted). His freestyle talent caught the attention of Swizz Beatz (a music producer), who, alongside Irv Gotti (another music producer at the time), encouraged Perez to start writing structured songs instead of relying on freestyling. Perez then went home and recorded mixtapes, taking those recordings and walking around the streets of Miami to give out copies to anyone who will listen. The mixtape eventually found its way inside the music group Luke Records, which led to Perez meeting Robert Fernandez, a management and label company that specialized in developing new talent. Fernandez then introduced Perez to Lil Jon, which led to Lil Jon getting Perez to be featured on the song "Pitbull's Cuban Ride it Out", for Lil Jon's 2002 album Kings of Crunk. Building on this momentum, Perez (who, at that point, chose the stage name Pitbull because "pitbulls have relentless determination) signed with TVT Records and released his debut album M.I.A.M.I.
A lot of words to essentially say that Lil Jon is a major reason (not to discredit Pitbull's hard work) why Pitbull is as big as he is today.
His debut album M.I.A.M.I. peaked at #32 on the billboard hot 100 chart, significantly raising his profile. He really became mainstream, however, with his release of the song I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) in 2010. That marked the start of a hot streak for Pitbull, as the songs he released afterwards (that have since become absolute classics) were generally* as follows:
Hotel Room Service (2010 release)
Hey Baby (ft. T-Pain, released in 2011)
On the Floor (ft. Jennifer Lopez, released in 2011)
Feel This Moment (ft. Christina Aguilera, released in 2013)
Timber (ft. Kesha, released in 2013)
Fireball (released in 2014)
Time Of Our Lives (released in 2014)
*may not exactly be in order by release but it's close enough
Pitbull was practically inescapable during that hot streak: from Macy's department stores to middle school dances, it seemed as though you couldn't go a day without hearing at least one of Pitbull's songs between 2010 and 2014. I don't say that as a bad thing; looking back, I didn't appreciate how great we had it. Who wouldn't want to hear an absolute club banger like On The Floor while shopping for a new pair of jeans?! (I'm being genuine too, I promise). For me personally, all of these songs came out between 8th and 12th grade, which made attending this concert feel like a nostalgia trip in the best possible way. Knowing Pitbull's background and his deep connection to Lil Jon, it makes this pairing so much sweeter and more impressive. Let's get into the reviews shall we?
Lil Jon
Strengths
Lil Jon was up first during the concert, and he really brought the energy to the stage! Although Lil Jon was technically the warm-up act, he seemingly was able to utilize the entire stage area, a rarity for opening acts. And let me tell you, I felt PERFECTLY warmed up after his set. His set felt like an entirely separate concert. Lil Jon started off strong by playing a handful of covers, including We Will Rock You (yes, the Queen song), Let's Go (which Lil Jon is featured on but is originally a Trick Daddy song), and FE!N (the 12 year olds in the crowd loved that one). Most of Lil Jon's discography are just features and covers, so I liked how he incorporated songs that he's not featured on into his setlist. He covered Lose Yourself (Eminem) and Crank That (Soulja Boy) before pivoting to the songs that he IS featured on, including Get Low, Outta Your Mind, and Yeah!. I thought it was an interesting selection of songs for his setlist. As an artist who, again, really only has features in his discography (kind of like Bebe Rexha before 2018), I liked how he kept things a little spicy and interesting by doing songs that one would not really consider to be in his repertoire of music, such as Sweet Caroline (I'm not sure if he only played that specifically because he was near Boston, but whatever, it was cool). Naturally, he ended his setlist with arguably his most famous song, SHOTS, which I thought was a perfect way to cap off an exhilarating, loud, and frenetic performance.
Speaking of frenetic, Lil Jon never once let up on the energy he brought to the stage. He did take a few beats to address the recent passing of his son (more on that later), but overall, he was moving around the amphitheater like a child with undiagnosed ADHD (I say that as a compliment). He was jumping, bouncing, rapping**, and shouting, seemingly all at once at some points during his performance. I also thought the visuals that he projected onto the 3 large screens were somewhat interesting, and mostly matched the vibe of the song he was performing. To my shock and awe, he included clips from American Dad during his closeout performance of SHOTS, which admittedly bumped his entire rating up a whole star. I LOVE American Dad.
**I'm going to contradict this point later, but I don't care, it's my review after all.
He worked the crowd well too: at multiple points he got the entire crowd to join in on doing dances that accompanied the songs he was performing, including the chicken dance (yes, we did do the chicken dance... at least I'm fairly certain we did). I think the reason he was so successful at getting the crowd to join in on his antics was because of his infectious energy.
One last strength I want to outline (I'm keeping this portion of the review a little shorter since Lil Jon was, technically, the opener) is that the effects he brought on stage perfectly matched the vibe his songs emanate. Everything from the lighting, smoke effects, stage effects, visuals, and instrumental backings was loud and chaotic, perfectly matching with Lil Jon's discography and general party club vibe. It really felt like I was in the middle of Club Space at Miami at times, for better and for worse.
Weaknesses
There were two pretty significant weaknesses that I caught on to during his performance. Outside of these two things that I am going to bring up, I want to reiterate that Lil Jon executed a solid show.
The first pretty glaring weakness was that Lil Jon relied on the backtracking WAY too much. I realize I'm going to sound contradictory since I mentioned earlier how great of a job he was doing keeping the energy up by rapping, jumping around, and getting the crowd involved all at once but frankly, he was barely rapping to begin with. The man has at most 1.5 verses in all of the songs he is featured on, so you would think that it would be easy for someone to perform their short verses in full. I would have a little more sympathy if he was rapping songs that were his own, but that was not the case here. A large majority of his setlist contained songs he was only featured on, so it was a bit disappointing to see him barely rap along with his own music. As I have said before, I don't mind when artists rely on backing vocals, especially if they are on stage dancing and moving around a lot, but Lil Jon's use seemed a bit egregious.
The second item I want to bring up is a bit of a sensitive topic. It feels insulting to even call it a weakness because it was such a personal and vulnerable moment for Lil Jon (so I won't be calling it a weakness at all, but rather a misplaced moment of passion), but it feels unfair to not mention it because it strongly impacted the audience mood for the remainder of his set. In February of this year, Lil Jon's son Nathan Smith (professionally known as DJ Young Slade) passed away due to a drowning accident. Nobody should ever have to experience the grief of losing a child, let alone their own child. At the beginning of his set after he performed a few songs, Lil Jon took a moment to address this with the crowd. I could tell it was a difficult thing for him to talk about, and why wouldn't it be? I can't imagine the pain of losing your only son to a drowning accident. Lil Jon started off his tribute to his son by saying (and I am paraphrasing here)
"I been knocked down so many times this year but you just gotta remember to pick yourself back up. I love my son and I will always love my son, and I am so grateful to be here today to perform with y'all".
It was a moving and beautiful moment, but it brought the mood down for a good chunk of his set; it was obvious that the crowd was pretty upset and sad after that moment. It took about 4 or 5 songs for the mood to come back up. However, I refuse to refer to this moment as a weakness of the show - it would be unfair and gross to call it that since it was such a personal and intimate moment during his set, but I think it would have been better if he had put this moment after he was done performing. It would have been such a powerful way to end his show and walk off the stage - leave behind a message of appreciating what you have and living life to the fullest each day. That's all I will say on that.
Final Thoughts
Lil Jon was so much fun to see perform. I don't think I would necessarily seek him out if he was performing individually, but I am very glad I got to see him live. He has incredible energy and a strong stage presence, I think he just needs to work on his pacing on stage and fully rapping his portions of the songs he is on. While his energy and stage setup was solid, the overreliance on the backing vocals and mildly failing the difficult challenge of bringing the mood back up after taking a moment to get serious, I think a 3.5 out of 5 is well-suited.
Pitbull
Strengths
I've started to admire Pitbull more than I did when busting a move on the middle school dance floor ever since his infamous Alaska concert. For those who are unaware: in 2012, Walmart held a contest on Facebook as part of a promotion in which people could vote on a Walmart store location to send Pitbull to visit (literally just to visit, not to perform). As a joke, David Thorpe, a writer for the Boston Phoenix, recommended sending Pitbull to the most remote Walmart in the United States, which is located in Kodiak Alaska. The #ExilePitbull campaign began to trend and go viral as a result of this off-handed joke; lo and behold, Pitbull was sent to Kodiak Alaska. He embraced this silly prank on him with gusto, traveling all the way to the remote village and meeting with the Coast Guard and approximately 250 Kodiak residents. Everyone in attendance of the event had nothing but nice things to say about Pitbull; he spent time taking photos with the attendees, received keys to the city, and was even gifted a survival kit from the Kodiak Walmart staff that contained Bear repellant. His embrace of the prank, positive and upbeat demeanor, and gratitude of being able to meet fans in a remote part of the country made me admire him more than I already did.
This concert had the same effect on my opinion of Pitbull as the 2012 Kodiak stunt did. I left the amphitheater admiring him more than I did going in.
Pitbull has never taken himself too seriously, despite what his many photoshoots containing stoic facial expressions and beautiful models would suggest. He not only embraces the bald cap trends at his concerts, but absolutely loves it too. He carried this energy all throughout his concert as well: fun, joyous, infectious energy with a side of pure camp and silliness. This was the strongest part of the show. His attitude of positivity carried the entire show, even during lulls or interludes. I never once didn't have a big smile on my face during his entire set. Pitbull fully leaned into his over-the-top playboy image, but in a way that was clear he was in on the joke too. Pitbull knows how ridiculous his image and persona are, but what makes his projection of this kind of vibe successful is his acknowledgement that he knows it's silly, as well as constantly emphasizing how all of the money, models, and expensive tastes came to him because of hard work and a passion for education. It is consistently admirable how Pitbull can be both playful about how goofy he looks and serious about his image and the importance of educating young listeners how everything he has wasn't handed to him. He even incorporates these teachings into his lyrics: just take a moment to read the lyrics to his absolutely ridiculous song Work (which will be featured on his upcoming album Pitcoin, out October 9th).
Sorry, I think I got a bit off track from actually reviewing his show, I just wanted my 5 readers to know how highly I think of Pitbull. Anyway, back to ACTUALLY reviewing the show...
Another major strong point of the show were his lovely backup dancers! Although I do have a few critiques about them (more on that in the next section), all of the dancers looked like they were having the time of their lives. I especially appreciated how Pitbull gave each dancer a solo moment on stage, allowing them to show off their most impressive moves. Putting a tour production together takes an army, so it's always nice to see people on stage who are not the headliner have their moment in the spotlight. There was one particular dancer who performed a modern belly dance-style number to the song Satalanaaa. It was an incredibly fun and nice deviation from the concert performance norm - I really liked seeing the dancers flex their entire talents and abilities for the audience.
The stage visuals and lighting cues perfectly matched Pitbull, his brand and image, and the tour vibe overall. For Hotel Room Service, he had projections of what looked like a GTA-Esque city backdrop. For Timber, he of course had a desert backdrop. For other songs that don't have a strong theme, he would play slow-motion videos that looked like they came from an expensive music video shoot of women dancing. If the song he was performing had a feature, he would include videos of that artist on the backdrop projections. While some may view these artistic choices as simple and shallow, I view them as perfectly suited to Pitbull's show: what you see is exactly what you get, and Pitbull (or rather, his stage persona) is a wealthy playboy who worked hard for the privilege of going out to the clubs to party hard. A lot of touring artists seem to add or insert visuals just for the sake of looking cool despite said visuals not really matching the vibe of the tour. That was not the case here. Everything aligned with what you would expect from a Pitbull concert, and I say that as a compliment!
I LOVE when headliners include their opening acts in their setlists, and Pitbull gave Lil Jon a significant amount of time on stage during the main set. The two took a moment to address the audience together to express their deepest gratitude for everyone coming out to see them and then performed some songs together. You could tell the two had a brotherly love and mutual respect for one another, which increased the energy of the audience tenfold. It was magical seeing the two not takes themselves seriously and have the time of their lives up on stage, singing ridiculous songs such as Damn I Love Miami, the lyrics of which are mostly comprised of two lines:
"Damn I love Miami, and Miami loves Me!".
Pitbull also had a DJ touring with them, DJ LAZ, who is a good friend of Pitbull and has been touring with him for years. DJ LAZ also got his moment during the main setlist, and would DJ top hits during the performance interludes. Imagine how jarring it was for me hearing Charli XCX's song 360 blare through the stage speakers. I had no idea Pitbull was a Number 1 Angel!
Weaknesses
I mean, what's a true review without noting at least a few weak points?
If it's not clear to you at this point, let me reiterate in plain english that I have a massive amount of respect for Pitbull. He is an incredibly hard worker and hustler and has more than earned his money and legendary status in the music industry. That being said, there were a few pain points during his show that kept him back from achieving a truly phenomenal performance.
The main issue that I had, and this is a big one, was that the interludes in between the show acts were WAY too long. It was annoying to see Pitbull walk backstage after performing a few songs, wait up to 15 minutes for him to reappear on stage, only for nothing on the stage nor his outfit to have changed. I wouldn't have had as much of an issue if these breaks were longer than normal because the artist was walking to a B stage, changing into a complicated and intricate outfit, or rejiggering the stage for the next part of the show, but that was not the case here. Pitbull would come out after these long breaks and absolutely nothing would have changed: the stage, his outfits, and the props generally stayed stagnant the entire show. There wouldn't even be content (like behind-the-scenes videos, interview clips, or music videos) played on the giant stage screen to keep the audience entertained. I understand that touring and performing is exhausting, but it's a bit insulting to make your audience sit around and wait for that long if you're not (seemingly) doing anything to change up the show setup. Dare I say, it's borderline disrespectful! I paid a good chunk of change to watch you perform, and having to stare at a DJ while he mashes up random pop hits gets old quickly.
The rest of the weaknesses I want to outline are nitpick-y and didn't really affect the show to the degree that the long interlude breaks did. My first small weakness is that the backup dancers needed to be synced up more. Each dancer individually was absolutely lovely and talented, but it's distracting when a group of dancers are not synced up. It makes the performance look a little sloppy. I would have much rather seen simple dances that were synced flawlessly than complicated dance moves from each dancer that were done at their own beat. Having backup dancers synced up makes the stage presence of the main act appear much bigger and stronger.
The lighting effects, while very fun, were missing just a little bit of "OOMPH" to them. While Pitbull did a great job giving his show a club-type-vibe, I would expect the light effects to be just as crazy as club lighting: overwhelming, disorienting, and colorful, just like this club in Miami (the video doesn't really do it justice, but I have heard from friends it can be quite disorienting to be in there).
Final Thoughts
I am so unbelievably glad that I got to finally see Pitbull live, and seeing Lil Jon was such a terrific bonus as well. Pitbull is a hard worker who clearly does not take himself too seriously, which makes me love him even more. He embraces the bald cap trend, loves his fans, and constantly reminds the world of the importance of education, respecting women, and that he only has what he has today because of hard work, grit, and determination. The long breaks in between tour acts, asynchronized dancing, and almost-but-not-quite-perfect lighting are the small things that were holding this show back. I'm feeling a 4.25 out of 5
