Pitbull on Chris Brown: There's Rihanna's Story, His Story & the Truth

Fresh off performing with Chris Brown at the Billboard Music Awards Sunday night, Pitbull joined Howard Stern Tuesday morning to promote his new Sirius XM channel, Globalization. When asked by Stern “Did you get crap for working with Chris Brown because of his Rihanna situation?” Pitbull said, “Nah,” before going on to voice his support for Brown.

First, Pitbull shared his take on the context of Brown’s situation: that he grew up around domestic abuse as a child.

No. Chris Brown, I don’t think he really got a situation, because growing up around the neighborhoods we grew up in, everybody had that kind of situation. So to me it’s normal. But I don’t think… I think Chris is phenomenally talented. He’s one of those guys that’s just too talented.

Then he said he’s taken Chris aside and given him advice before—advice that he says has been well-received.

I told him, I said, Chris, man, you’ve got such an amazing opportunity in front of you, and no matter what you do, one way or another, people just accept you. But could you imagine if you would channel your energy — I wouldn’t say in a positive direction, I’m sure he really tries, but just watch what you’re doing and just try to give him some advice. And to be honest with you, I can’t wait until he really makes that tweak. Because that’s all it is, it’s a tweak, that’s what it is.

He said, thank you so much, really appreciate, that means a whole lot. He’s a good kid, you can tell he’s got a good heart, it’s just certain situations…

But when Stern pushed him further about whether anyone told Pitbull it might be a bad idea to work with Brown (sidenote: Has anyone refrained from working with him? The dude has spent the past few years collaborating with everyone under the sun and is as successful as he’s ever been), Pitbull said no one did, and even if they had, he only listens to himself.

At the end of the day, Chris to me is an amazing talent, and I would work with him over and over and over again. And any time we’re at awards shows together, it’s always a pleasure. And he, I’m telling you, he’s a good kid, good heart. Sometimes, such as myself, never been a troublemaker, just always was around some trouble.

But what about him hitting a woman, asked Stern.

He’s definitely moved in the right direction, and like I said, to any story, there’s her story, his story, and then the truth. So we really don’t know what came about.

“Good thing is, the performance is fine, he’s great and like I said, I’m looking forward to making a whole lot more records with him,” he concluded. Cheers to the future.