Known for their skillful wordplay and their comedic double entendres,
reggaeton duo Alexis y Fido, affectionately known as "Los
Pitbulls," may be old dogs in the genre, but they have plenty
of new tricks that will make audiences sit down and beg for more.
After wooing reggaeton fans with the smash single El Tiburon,
featured on Luny Tunes' Mas Flow 2, the hardworking duo is now
set to unleash its debut album The Pitbulls, which is promising
to make the world bark to a new tune.
"I'm very cerebral; I tend to have a lot of concepts, and
Alexis has to let me know whether he thinks they can executed," 26-year-old
Joel "Fido" Martinez says of his contribution to the
duo's chemistry. "I'm much more reserved than Alexis. He's
much more animated."
His partner, 26-year-old Raul "Alexis" Ortiz, agrees. "I'm
the aggressive one, the one who gets the crowds jumping."
Born in Cidra, Puerto Rico, and raised between the towns of
Cidra and Cayey, Alexis first made his mark on the reggaeton
scene in 1994, when he appeared on DJ Stefano Vol. 2 alongside
two neighborhood friends.
Although he knew music was his calling, he found himself secluded
from the genre's pioneers by virtue of living outside of the
metropolitan area, the hub of activity at that time. Frustrated
by the hardships of gaining recognition, he decided to retire
and spent almost five years away from the studio.
Similarly, Cayey native Fido started pursuing his musical ambitions
at an early age.
"I've been singing since the music was called 'underground,'
before it was even named reggaeton," he says. "I started
when I was 11 years old. Around the time when Vico C released
La Recta Final, I was doing talent shows and performing wherever
I could."
But like Alexis, Fido was discouraged by the competitive nature
of the developing movement and decided to put his career on pause
for a few years. That is, until, he saw the streets' growing
interest in the musical form.
"I started getting back into it when people started selling
their own cassette tapes in the streets," he recalls. "We'd
record our own tapes at home, wrap them in some plastic and sell
them on the street."
In 1995, Fido scored an appearance on a DJ Stefano production,
followed by a single on DJ Nelson's Little Boys from the Underground
3.
But despite the inroads he'd made, Fido felt overwhelmed by
the difficulties before him. He once again decided to withdraw
from the scene but, this time, he envisioned a different life
for himself, enlisting in the Army and executing a four-year
stint.
"I was frustrated again - I felt like we weren't being
given the opportunities that we deserved because we weren't from
the metropolitan area," Fido says. "Back then, they
used to say that Carolina was the reggaeton Mecca."
While Fido was in the military, his good friend Yandel (of the
duo Wisin y Yandel) linked up with Wisin during an MC competition
in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Their newly established partnership
proved fruitful, and they quickly began to raise eyebrows among
the genre's frontrunners.
"I've known Yandel since I was in sixth grade," Fido
says. "I was the one who told Yandel he needed to start
performing. When I came back from the Army and he had teamed
up with Wisin, they decided to help me."
Meanwhile, Alexis made his reentry into the genre in the year
2000, appearing in La Mision III with the songs Sigan Perreando
and Otra Noche Mas, and in the production Grayskull with the
party anthem Manos Arriba. He then appeared in Wisin y Yandel's
De Otra Manera and on both Wisin and Yandel's subsequent solo
albums.
"I was friends with Wisin," Alexis says. "We
used to sing around the neighborhood together, and Fido was always
with Yande, so we were all part of the same crew. After Wisin
y Yandel got together, Fido and I spent even more time with each
other."
Still, the two continued to pursue their own separate paths.
It wasn't until the compilation album Desafio that Alexis y Fido
tested out their potential as a duo.
"There were 23 tracks recorded already so there was only
room for one more track in the production," Alexis says. "One
of us was going to be omitted so the producers suggested that
we perform together."
Their synergy was palpable and so the two continued to perform
together, displaying their skills on songs like Gata Racing off
of Blin Blin Vol. 1 and El Palo on El Band 2 Korrupto.
"El Palo was a real turning point in our careers," Alexis
says of the song that thrust them into the limelight in 2003. "That
was the song that earned us our respect." Fido agrees wholeheartedly, "El
Palo would have been as big as Gasolina, but the album wasn't
funded appropriately so it wasn't really promoted overseas, but
in Puerto Rico it was the No. 1 song for months."
After El Palo's success, the duo was in heavy demand. They recorded
such hits as Tocale Bocina on Noriega's Contra La Corriente,
El Rolo on La Mision IV and Gata Michu Michu on the top-selling
Hector El Bambino Presenta Los Anormales.
They quickly became known as "Los Pitbulls" because
of Alexis' tendency to bark on his records. He introduced the
trademark sound early on in his career at Yandel's prompting.
"One time, I went out with my son and Yandel and his son," Alexis
says. "When we were on our way home, both kids started getting
cranky, and I started making barking noises to make them laugh.
Yandel was like, 'How do you do that? You have to put that in
your records!' After that, I started using the slogan 'Alexis
el Pitbull ladrando' (Alexis the Pitbull barking). "
He says that although the "Pitbull" moniker was initially
his, Fido more than deserves to share the title. "I'm the
one who barks, but Fido is the one who bites," he jokes.
After years of performing together and amassing a huge fan in
Puerto Rico, the duo unleashed their picaresque song El Tiburon
on Luny Tunes' Latin Grammy-nominated album Mas Flow 2, which
was released earlier this year. The song established them as
international superstars.
"People really appreciate our originality," Alexis
says. "We have fun concepts and we use la lot of adult humor.
The sexual aspect of our lyrics is only evident to adults, and
we make sure that we never say anything that could be offensive
towards women."
For his part, Fido has earned a name for himself as an accomplished
beatmaker. He was responsible for the unique rhythmic patterns
Wisin y Yandel's En La Disco Bailoteo and Esta Noche Hay Pelea,
and he produced the singles Dale Caliente, El Muro and No Me
Dejes Solo on Daddy Yankee's multi-platinum-selling Barrio Fino
album.
"I made those songs from beginning to end," Fido says. "Urba
y Monserrate did the mixing on those tracks, but I came up with
the rhythms."
His production genius is evident in Los Pitbulls through such
singles as Eso Ehhh, El Cumbiaton and Tu No Sabes, which he concocted
with the help of producer Nesty.
"Sonically, this album has a bit of everything," Alexis
says. "El Cumbiaton mixes cumbia with mariachi sounds, Perro
Caliente uses beatboxing sounds, Tributo Borincano has a dancehall
flavor and Tu no Sabes is a softer ballad-style song."
The much-anticipated effort features appearances by the likes
of Terror Squad's Tony Sunshine, Hector "el Father," Zion
y Lennox, Trebol Clan and Baby Ranks and production by heavyweights
like Noriega, Nesty, Echo, and Luny Tunes.
With such a remarkable pedigree and an insatiable hunger, it's
no mystery why Alexis y Fido are known as reggaeton's only pitbulls.
