Why Does Pitbull Dominate The Sports Arena Playlist?

You probably can’t name any of his songs. You might even think his career is a punchline. But when an arena needs to get pumped up, there’s no one better than Mr. Worldwide.

- Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

If you watch sports, you can’t escape Pitbull.

There he was during last season’s NBA playoffs, his “Bad Man” carrying viewers to nearly every TNT commercial break. All June long, Pitbull occupied the Copa América after recording the official song of the tournament, “Superstar,” this coming after he recorded “We Are One,” the official song of the 2014 World Cup. And there he was at the Final Four, doing his signature rapid-fire fist-pumping while shouting the occasional word at the crowd during the Capital One JamFest.

The world, as it is right now, is often overwhelming in the worst ways. Sports are an escape. And sometimes that escape is a bald rapper from Miami, sweating through a soft linen shirt while breathing heavily, pumping his fist and, along with it, pumping up the hopes of the crowd. It seems like an easy thing to show up sweaty, loud and overexcited to a roomful of eager fans. Yet if you or I did this, the room wouldn’t shift for us, beyond perhaps an incredulous side-eye.

There’s no debate: Pitbull is the new king of the stadium-shaking anthem despite being, for all intents and purposes, not particularly skilled as a musician. He is, in many ways, the musical equivalent of a bucket of popcorn: unsurprising and unexciting but somehow essential to an otherwise thrilling night. Because of his ability to latch on to any sporting event with 15,000 people and a budget, Pitbull comes off less as a fan of the games and more as an opportunist gaming the fans.