What if being Mr. 305 was a state of mind?
As much as the news media serves to inform the public, we’re also here to give you something to talk about. Learning about the world around us provides the connective tissue for spirited interactions and growing deeper bonds with each other.
What are you going to bring up at the dinner table to get the conversation flowing? Did you read that article everybody has been talking about, too?
Who is it? *Cue “The Twilight Zone” theme music* Imagine, if you will, a room full of people, all wearing bald caps and fake goatees, thrashing joyfully to some of the biggest hits of the past 20 years with a cacophony of catchphrases like “MR. WORLDWIDE” and “DALE!” echoing throughout the room.
Well dear reader, you don’t need to imagine. Because the age of peak Pitbull mimicry, is apparently here.
What’s going on? Pitbullmania, for lack of a better word.
Fans attending the Cuban-American rapper’s Party After Dark European tour have been paying tribute to his signature look by donning bald caps and fake goatees in throngs. It’s part costume party and part homage.
What are people saying? Here’s what Pitbull had to say to the crowd in a viral TikTok from February:
“I wanna say a special thank you to everybody that came out with bald caps here tonight. I appreciate y’all. It is amazing to see, it’s amazing to feel, and I hope when y’all put on those bald caps, you feel just like I do. Having a good motherf****** time every day of my LIFE!”
Bald cap concert attendees in another video from the BBC shared that for them, the environment of the show felt safe and welcoming. Others said that bald cap even made them feel “sexy.”
There’s also something to be said for the rapper’s relentless positivity and inspirational messages. Wouldn’t seeing this live make you feel better about yourself?
So, what now? Dozens of videos portraying the joyful trend have gone viral on TikTok, with the tour continuing its planned dates in Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia.
And the singer himself has gone beyond just embracing the movement; he’s dubbed this new legion of fans the “Bald-ies” because they “soar like bald eagles.”
DALE!!!!!!
Transcript:
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The internet often serves up a main character, someone or something that people online are obsessed with in a given week. And even if it’s not on my radar, I know it’s on Mia’s. Mia Venkat is a producer here at ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, and she spends so much of her time online that I trust she’ll keep me up to date. So Mia, who’s the main character this week?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PITBULL: (Rapping) Mr. Worldwide.
MIA VENKAT, BYLINE: Mr. Worldwide, Pitbull (laughter).
SHAPIRO: Oh, you mean Pitbull – like, the rapper, singer, hip-hop star?
VENKAT: Yeah, that’s right.
SHAPIRO: That guy?
VENKAT: Pitbull is the main character this week because he’s been on tour in Europe. And it’s not just him that’s the main character. It’s him and his fan base. And so, Ari, I have a question for you. When you think…
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
VENKAT: …Of Pitbull and what his fan base would be, what do you think these concerts look like? Who’s making up the crowd?
SHAPIRO: Like a typical hip-hop crowd – I’m going to say, like, kind of, like, dudes 25 to 35, like, multicultural, kind of like – am I anywhere near?
VENKAT: (Imitating buzzer sound) Wrong.
SHAPIRO: What?
(LAUGHTER)
VENKAT: So if you look at, like, an aerial shot of, like, the pit at Pitbull’s concerts, it is a sea of young women, fully dressed as Pitbull in bald caps, drawn-on goatees and, like, black suits. And they’re just…
SHAPIRO: Why?
VENKAT: …Dancing (laughter).
SHAPIRO: What’s going on?
VENKAT: I think that something about Pitbull as an artist – like, people just find him very endearing. He seems like this, like, sweet guy. His music is all about, like, partying and having the time of your life.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TIME OF OUR LIVES”)
PITBULL: (Rapping) This for everybody going through tough times. Believe me – been there, done that. But every day above ground is a great day. Remember that.
VENKAT: But also, like, you know, the dressing up in uniform as the artist or whatever is not new for concerts, right? Like…
SHAPIRO: Yeah. Cowboy hats for “Cowboy Carter” Beyonce shows. We – yeah.
VENKAT: Totally.
SHAPIRO: For sure.
VENKAT: Exactly. But I feel like for this one, it’s so silly and so, like, emblematic of, like, what the culture is yearning for right now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TIMBER”)
PITBULL: (Rapping) Look up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. Nah, it’s just me. Ain’t a damn thing changed. Live in hotels, swing on planes. Blessed to say, money ain’t a thing.
SHAPIRO: You said it’s mostly women. I don’t want to get too deep into the gender politics here, but if I had to divide music artists into people with a mostly male or mostly female fan base, I would not guess that Pitbull’s crowd would be mostly female.
VENKAT: Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right about that. And it’s funny. I saw this, like – on one of the videos of these concerts, in the comments on TikTok, someone was, like – made a joke about how, oh, Pitbull must have made a wish to a genie to have all of his fan base be beautiful women, and then the genie just had a sense of humor.
(LAUGHTER)
VENKAT: But yeah. And I think the other reason it’s so compelling to me is because, like, Pitbull as an artist – I could see how an artist would be, like, I don’t know, annoyed by this, or, like, you know, you’re – this is, like – maybe thinking that it’s making fun of them or whatever, but he’s fully embraced that this is his audience and that this is what they want.
SHAPIRO: Has he talked about it?
VENKAT: Yeah, he actually this week did an interview with the BBC, and he talks about how this is an honor for him. And he calls them the Baldies (ph). And there was a TikTok posted by user Lulu (ph) from his concert in London, and he explains why.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PITBULL: Because we fly high and soar high like bald eagles.
VENKAT: The bald eagles – because bald eagles soar high.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
VENKAT: He has the spirit (ph) – maybe it’s about, like, being free. And all these concerts do seem like a totally uninhibited, free experience for these women.
SHAPIRO: You know, I’ve heard drag queens say that putting on the wig and the gown and the makeup allows them to be unfiltered. And I wonder if this is the same thing, except it’s a bald cap and a mustache, on women.
VENKAT: (Laughter) I think that’s right. I mean, this is not, like, a typical concert-going experience. And, like, if you watch these videos of these women in the audience, like…
SHAPIRO: No one’s dressing up to look good.
VENKAT: Yeah. It’s not like a feeling of, like, I got to look sexy. I got to, like, be…
SHAPIRO: They’re dressing up to look like Pitbull.
VENKAT: Yeah, exactly. They’re like, I have one thing on the plan tonight, and it’s having the time of my life, and I’m going to do that wearing a bald hat, with a goatee on, with my girl and making friends with everyone else in the audience.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DON’T STOP THE PARTY”)
PITBULL: (Rapping) I said, y’all having a good time out there?
(Singing) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Que no pare la fiesta. Don’t stop the party
SHAPIRO: Would you ever?
VENKAT: Great question, Ari. I’m so happy you asked that. I had concert tickets to see Pitbull last year…
SHAPIRO: Wait, what?
VENKAT: …And then I got asked to go to the Democratic National Convention with you, and so…
SHAPIRO: No way.
VENKAT: …I had to miss it (laughter).
SHAPIRO: When you and I were in Chicago, you could have been wearing a bald cap and a mustache at a Pitbull concert?
VENKAT: Yeah. And, like, blah, blah, blah, it was an amazing career opportunity for me, but, like, at what cost, you know?
(LAUGHTER)
SHAPIRO: At what cost?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PITBULL: (Rapping) Life is not a waste of time, and time is not a waste of life, so let’s stop wasting time, get wasted and have the time of our lives.
SHAPIRO: NPR’s Mia Venkat, who sadly missed the Pitbull show but is here to tell us about them with her main character of the week segment. Thank you, Mia.
VENKAT: You’re welcome, Ari.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FEEL THIS MOMENT”)
PITBULL: (Rapping) Reporting live from the tallest building in Tokyo. Long ways from them hard ways, filled with zoes and oyes.
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