Music Review: Pitbull & Shakira "Get It Started"
"I lit up their Decemeber night like the fourth of July, vanilla sky"
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Pitbull & Shakira
Get It Started
Album: Global Warming (Deluxe Edition)
Year: 2012
Pitbull congratulates himself for becoming famous in the brittle “Get It Started.”
Reserved synths open the single, setting a buisnesslike tone. In the intro, Pitbull says he’s outlasted his competition. He has done every right career move so far. Now, he’s at the point he can do whatever he wants. (“To these rappers I apologize, I know it ain't fair/Only ball I drop, New Year's Times Square/The world is mine, sixth sense, I see the seventh sense/Now baby, let's get started for life.”)
In the chorus, Shakira is enamoured by Pitbull. His charisma attracts her to him. He’s her new rock star crush. (“Every time I look into your eyes/I feel like I could stare in them for a lifetime/We can get started for life (tonight)/For life (tonight) for life (tonight)/We can get started for life (tonight)/For life (tonight) for life (tonight)/We can get started.”)
The palpitating beat pumps, turning red from overexertion,. It stops to take a breath, letting Pitbull add “you know it feels right” and returns to papitate for about thirty seconds or so.
Wherever he goes, it’s news. It’s reported on Entertainment Tonight and in the pages of Us Weekly. He’s mentioned among stars as well such as Tom Cruise. He works in a reference to one of Cruise’s movies, Vanilla Sky. He heads to another country and gets the same response. He is well-loved everywhere. (“Big news, Pitbull, Tom Cruise, Mumbai/I lit up their December night like the fourth of July, vanilla sky/Thriller in Manila, knocking them out like Pacquiao/No Ali, no Frasier, but for now it's off to Malaysia.”)
In the pre-chorus, his fame has led to plenty of travel, an unrefutable fact.. (“Two passports, three cities, two countries, one day/Now that's worldwide, if you think it's a game, let's play, dale.”)
The chorus is sung again.
The palpitating beat returns again.
Back home, he heard he was talentless and wouldn’t make it as far as his living room. It was something he really wanted and he put in a lot of hard work. He grew up living paycheck to paycheck, waiting for the food stamps to arrive in the mail to help pay for groceries. Now, he has been to almost every country and is treated to best the world has to offer. (“I am what they thought I'd never become/I believed and became it/Now I'm here to claim it/I hustle anything you name it, name it/I went from eviction to food stamps/To bagging work, wet & damp/To a passport flooded with stamps/Now it's Volì everywhere I land.”)
The pre-chorus is sung again.
In the bridge, Shakira is trying to get his attention. She thinks they will make a great couple. She’s the only guy she wants. (“Cause if it feels right (you know it feels right)/We shouldn't waste anymore time/Let's get it started (let's get it started)/Don't think about it (let's get it started)/You know I'm gonna make it alright, alright (let's go)/Cause if it feels right (you know it feels right)/You know I made up my mind/Let's get it started (let's get it started)/Don't think about it (let's get it started)/I know that we can make it alright, alright.”)
The chorus is sung again.
At the end of the chorus, he adds “don’t start what you can’t finish.”
The palipating beat returns. At every ten seconds it stops. During those stops, Pitbull says you know it feels right, let’s go and you know it feels right to close the single.
Shakira’s vibrant, glowing vocals are blinding, turning Pitbull invisible in his own song. She feeds into the beat’s energy, giving the single its life. By the bridge, she’s taken over.
Pitbull’s stately, averse vocals are out to prove a point. He’s made it and he wants to everyone to know. At the end, he’s shoehorned in, negating his bravado.
The self-conscious “Get It Started” cares too much about the response it will receive.