Essay: I went to Planet Pit and all I got was this lousy bottle of Vodka

I have just finished reading the new GQ interview with rapper-turned-pop singer Pitbull, and I find myself in a predicament.

I want to hate the guy because I detest his music, but I can’t hate him, because I respect his entrepreneurial endeavor.

‘Pitbull is a brand, man’, he espouses (in the third person), which immediately sets me against him, but he goes on.  He talks about adapting to prevailing trends and makes pains to point out that artists that don’t try and keep up are the ones that fall behind.

It’s a capitalist dream, the one that 50 Cent was talking about in ‘I Get Money’.  I guess the line I drew is that I like the 50 Cent track, but I don’t like anything Pitbull has done (Sorry Pitbull fans).

Thinking about it, I guess I don’t have a problem with career-driven ‘artists’ like Pitbull, except when their artistic decisions and career decision completely overlap.

We are (and have been for a while) in the era where you can drop a ‘Burger King’ line in a song, or flash that bottle of ‘Absolut’ in your video’s and no-one bats an eyelid, because we all realise that the music video is a transaction now, and that product placement is something that we need to get used to enjoy our favourite tracks.  Except that we don’t.

I don’t disparage Pitbull for ‘getting that money’; the capitalist in me supports that notion fully.  I just can’t enjoy it.

Much in the same way I can’t stand Facebook when it pummels me with ads about bodybuilding and low interest rates, I can’t enjoy music videos and songs that sell part of themselves to promote. 

Yes, Run-DMC started it all way back when by writing songs about their sneakers (MyAdidas), but it would be remiss to not mention that the promotion started with Run-DMC and not Adidas.  Let’s not also forget the fact that the group’s standard Adidas outfits became old very quickly as well.  Had they have formed in our current nano-fad society; I suspect Run-DMC’s reign would’ve been over a lot quicker.

I don’t know what these guys get paid for their video clips, or for the products drops in the songs, but it must be worth it, otherwise they wouldn’t do it.

Personally, am I’m aware how hypocritical this sounds, I prefer something like Jay-Z andKanye’s ‘Otis’.  Whilst I could tell you Planet Pits products from the video (those logo’s!), the rappers are a little more subtle.

I could probably have guessed the vehicle they stripped and modified was a Maybach, but they stripped and modified it!  It makes you wonder whether it was even sanctioned by Maybach (it was eventually auctioned for charity). 

Jay-Z where’s a Balmain V-Neck shirt, but I had to look that up (as well as his Hublotwatch). 

My point is, if you have to, there are ways of combining art and commerce that are interesting and/or subtle.  Pitbulls does not seem to care, which is likely dictated by his record company and choice of video directors.

The line between art and commerce is razor thin, but in the two examples I’ve mentioned, each artist is clearly toeing it a little better than the other.

Pitbull, time to step up your game, son.