The Boatlift

The Boatlift is the third studio album by Miami rapper Pitbull. It was released on November 27, 2007. The singles are "Go Girl", "The Anthem", "Secret Admirer", and "Sticky Icky". The song "Fuego (Remix)" was featured on the video game Madden NFL 2008.

The Boatlift
Studio album by Pitbull
Released	November 27, 2007
Recorded	2006–07
Genre	Crunk hip hop hip house
Length	58:43
Label	TVT Poe Boy Bad Boy Latino
Producer	Sean "P. Diddy" Combs (exec.) Armando "Pitbull" Pérez (exec.) Lil Jon Mr. Collipark Nitti Soundz Diaz Brothers Play-n-Skillz
Pitbull chronology
El Mariel (2006) The Boatlift (2007) Pitbull Starring in Rebelution (2009)
Singles from Pitbull
"Go Girl" Released: 2007 "The Anthem" Released: March 4, 2007 "Sticky Icky" Released: May 15, 2007 "Secret Admirer" Released: November 27, 2007

The album debuted at number 50 on the Billboard 200, with sales of 32,084 copies in its first two weeks.[1]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	69/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
DJBooth	[4]
Okayplayer	[5]
RapReviews	(7.5/10)[6]
Slant Magazine	[7]

The Boatlift garnered a positive reception from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 69, based on 5 reviews.[2]

Patrick Taylor of RapReviews praised the album's versatile production for going beyond crunk music and showing depth in club anthems, concluding that "Pitbull continues to prove himself as an MC who is able to bridge Latin hip hop and Southern hip hop, creating a sound that should appeal to fans from both camps. He may not be the deepest lyricist on earth, and his attempts at bedroom music may fall flat, but he makes a mean soundtrack for a night out."[6] DJBooth's Nathan Slavik praised Pitbull for exploring vastly different genres to create party tracks with a worldview appeal and doing them with a talented cast of featured artists and producers, saying that "The Boatlift isn’t going to expand your intellectual or spiritual horizons, but it is without question a go-to album for all your booty-shakin needs."[4] Jose Davila of Vibe also praised the album's genre-hopping production mixing well with Pitbull's bilingual, charismatic flow, saying that it "solidifies Pitbull's position as one of the most diverse party MCs around. And little else."[8]

Wilson McBee of Slant Magazine said that, "For better or worse, the story of Boatlift concerns more the production and song structures than Pitbull’s own rapping. It’s clear he’d rather be a chorus-shouter than a verse-spitter, or at least he believes that will help him sell more records."[7] AllMusic's David Jeffries commended the production and lyrical hooks for being catchy but felt that it lacked a sense of personality and talent compared to El Mariel, saying to consider The Boatlift "a fun floor-filler, but just not up to Pitbull's usual standards."[3] A writer for Music for America felt that Pitbull was wasting his talent throughout the record rhyming typical club tracks and party jams and would like to see him collaborate with artists like Little Brother, 2Mex, Deep Thinkers and Roots Manuva.[9]

Track listing

Track listing confirmed by iTunes,[10] and songwriting credits was confirmed by AllMusic[3] and the album's Liner Notes.[11]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"A Little Story (Intro)"	Armando C. Perez		1:08
2.	"Go Girl" (featuring Trina & Young Bo$$)	A. C. Pérez, David Bowen-Petterson, Kenneth Coby	Soundz	3:49
3.	"Dukey Love" (featuring Trick Daddy & Fabo)	A. C. Pérez, Michael Crooms, Lefabian Williams, Maurice Young	Mr. Collipark	3:45
4.	"I Don't See 'Em" (featuring Cubo & AIM)	A. C. Pérez, Brian Rodriguez, Esteban Trujillo, Frank Roman	Tru	3:59
5.	"Midnight" (featuring Casely)	A. C. Pérez, Gravriel Aminov	Vein	3:32
6.	"Ying & the Yang"	A. C. Pérez, LaMarquis Jefferson, Craig Love, Larry "Detroit" Nix, Jonathan Smith	Lil Jon Keke & Amy (coordinators)	3:27
7.	"The Anthem" (featuring Lil Jon)	A. C. Pérez, Calixto Ochoa, Wilfredo Martínez Matos, Rune Reilly Kölsch	Lil Jon, Albert Castillo, Rich "DJ Riddler" Pangilinan	4:05
8.	"The Truth (Interlude)"	A. C. Pérez		0:54
9.	"Candyman" (featuring Twista)	A. C. Pérez, Paul "Echo" Irizarry, Armando "Diesel" Rosario, Carl Mitchell	Brown Thugz, Diesel, Echo	3:11
10.	"Sticky Icky" (featuring Jim Jones)	A. C. Pérez, J. Smith, Joseph Jones II	Lil Jon	3:42
11.	"My Life" (featuring Jason Derulo)	A. C. Pérez, Lionel "Deadbeat" Delao, Adrian Santalla	Lionel "Deadbeat" Delao, Adrian Santalla	3:44
12.	"Secret Admirer" (featuring Lloyd)	A. C. Pérez, Carlton "Carl Mo" Mahone Jr., Rodney Terry, Juan Salinas, Oscar Salinas	Play-N-Skillz	3:18
13.	"Get Up / Levantate"	A. C. Pérez, J. Salinas, O. Salinas, Robert Ford Jr., James B. Moore III, Kurtis Walker, Larry Smith, Russell Simmons	Play-N-Skillz	3:17
14.	"Fuego (DJ Buddha Remix)" (featuring Don Omar)	A. C. Pérez, M. Crooms, William Landrón Rivera, Tony Butler	Mr. Collipark, Tom Slick	3:49
15.	"Stripper Pole (Remix)" (featuring Toby Love)	A. C. Pérez, Eddie Pérez, Rafael Martinez, Michael Pierre, Octavio Rivera	Eddie Perez	3:56
16.	"Un Poquito" (featuring Yung Berg)	A. C. Pérez, Matthew "110% Pure" Bradley, Christian Ward	110% Pure, Big Lo	3:42
17.	"Tell Me (Remix)" (featuring Frankie J & Ken-Y)	A. C. Perez, J. Smith, Francisco Bautista Jr., Kenny Vasquez	Lil Jon	4:34
18.	"Mr. 305 (Outro)"	A. C. Pérez		0:45
Total length:				58:43

Sample credits

• "Go Girl" – Contains a sample of "Big Poppa" performed by The Notorious B.I.G., and "Party Like a Rockstar" performed by Trina.[12]
• "The Anthem" – Contains a sample of "El Africano" performed by Wilfrido Vargas and "Calabria 2007"[13] performed by ENUR and Natasja.
• "Secret Admirer" – Contains a sample of "My Boo" performed by Ghost Town DJ's.
• "Fuego (DJ Buddha Remix)" – Remix of "Fuego" from Pitbull's album El Mariel.
• "Stripper Pole (Remix)" – Remix of the Toby Love song "Stripper Pole" performed with KP Da Moneymaker[14]; original version appears on Toby Love's self-titled album.
• "Tell Me (Remix)" – Remix of the Ken-Y song "Dime"; original version appears on the album Masterpiece.

Personnel

Unless otherwise noted, Information is taken from AllMusic[3] and the album's Liner Notes[11]

• Pitbull - lead vocals
• AIM - guest vocals (4)
• Kori Anders - assistant audio mixing (16)
• Keith Bizz - audio mixing (5)
• Leslie Brathwaite - audio mixing (16)
• Reather Bryant - percussion (14)
• Al Burna - recording engineer (1, 5, 8-9, 14, 17-18)
• Josh Butler - recording engineer (12)
• Casely - additional vocals (5)
• Albert Castillo - recording engineer, audio mixing (7)
• Juan "Juan Ya" Chavis - background vocals (15)
• Steven Cruz - guitar (15)
• Cubo - guest vocals, recording engineer (4)
• Ryan Deaunovich - bongos
• Juan "John Q." DeJesus - background vocals (15)
• Miguel DeJesus - background vocals (15)
• DJ Buddha - remixing (14)
• DJ Ideal - recording engineer (4)
• Fabo - additional vocals (3)
• Steve Fisher - recording engineer (12)
• Jonathan "JaShell" Gelabert - background vocals (15)
• Adam Gomez - bass guitar (15)
• Danny Guira - guiro
• Eddie Hernandez - assistant audio mixing (2, 12, 14)
• LaMarquis Jefferson - bass guitar (6)
• Harold Jones - percussion (14)
• Julissa - background vocals (15)
• Dawin Lapache - guitar, bass guitar (15)
• Ari Levine - recording engineer (16)
• Lil Jon - audio mixing (6)
• Craig Love - guitar (6)
• Toby Love - vocal arrangement, background vocals (15)
• Jose "Jumanji Guira" Martinez - guiro (15)
• Rafael Martinez - background vocals (15)
• Ping "A. Fuegoski" Montana - bongos (15)
• Detroit Nix - keyboards (6)
• Steve Obas - recording engineer (2)
• Eddie "Scarlito" Perez - piano, all keyboards, vocal arrangement, recording engineer, audio mixing (15)
• Raulito - bongos
• Leroy S. Romans - piano, all keyboards, background vocals (15)
• Adrian "Drop" Santalla - recording engineer (2, 11, 13)
• Young Rico Scott - percussion (14)
• Ray Seay - audio mixing (2-3, 6, 9-12, 14, 17)
• Stephen Siravo Jr. - assistant audio mixing (15)
• Justin Trawick - assistant audio mixing (16)
• Trina - additional vocals (2)
• Yaharia Vargas - background vocals (15)
• Andrea Venezuela - additional vocals (16)
• Mark Vinten - recording engineer (6, 10, 17)

References

1. "Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 12/9/07". HipHopDX. Cheri Media Group. December 12, 2007. Retrieved December 13, 2007.
2. "Reviews for The Boatlift by Pitbull". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
3. Jeffries, David. The Boatlift at AllMusic. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
4. Slavik, Nathan (November 27, 2007). "Pitbull - The Boatlift". DJBooth. Archived from the original on August 20, 2012. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
5. O'Neal, Eavvon (January 11, 2008). "Pitbull". Okayplayer. Archived from the original on February 25, 2009. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
6. Taylor, Patrick (November 20, 2007). "Feature for November 20, 2007 - Pitbull's "The Boatlift"". RapReviews. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
7. McBee, Wilson (November 30, 2007). "Pitbull: The Boatlift". Slant Magazine. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
8. Davila, Jose (February 2008). "Pitbull 'The Boatlift'". Vibe. Vibe Media. 16 (2): 86. ISSN 1070-4701. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
9. "The Run-Off Groove #182: Underabundance Of The Bon Dance". Music for America. December 4, 2007. Archived from the original on December 8, 2007. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
10. "iTunes - Music - The Boatlift by Pitbull". iTunes Store (U.S.). Apple. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
11. Pitbull. "The Boatlift" Album Notes). TVT Records. 2007.
12. "Go Girl - Pitbull with Trina and Young Bo$$". WhoSampled.com. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
13. "The Anthem - Pitbull and Lil Jon". WhoSampled.com. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
14. "Stripper Pole (Remix) - Pitbull and Toby Love". WhoSampled.com. Retrieved 11 October 2019.

Bibliography

Baker, Geoff (2005), ""La Habana que no conoces": Cuban rap and the social construction of urban space", Ethnomusicology Forum, 15 (2), pp. 215–246.

"Pitbull: El Capitan", Giant Magazine, New York City, New York, 6 December 2007, retrieved 2008-02-06.

Kalikwest Publication Group (24 March 2005), "Pitbull On", MySpace Music, retrieved 2008-02-06.

"Who Is Pitbull: Biography", The Pitbull Official Site, 24 March 2005, retrieved 2008-02-06.