Pirate

Pirate

Alejandro Cintron; better known by his stage name Pirate (Pirata) or Pirate Ruff Ryders, is a Puerto Rican-American, bilingual rapper of Gangsta Rap, and Reggaeton music. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Pirate was reared in the notoriously, crime-ridden Ingersoll houses of Fort Greene, where he took to the streets at a very young age. Already a felon and shot in an armed robbery, all by the age of 16, he began rapping mostly in English first, around age 13, at local-outdoor DJ parties, known as “Jams”, when he ran away from home. — He attributes his musical inclination to his parents, as his mother sung in church for many years, and his father was a rather popular-underground “Salsero”, who lead, sung and performed in several Salsa bands, that played “gigs”, all throughout Brooklyn and the Bronx, during the 1970’s and 1980’s. — In and out of prison for the better part of his teens; Pirate would eventually, relocate to the Bronx in his mid 20’s, after meeting Puerto Rican South Bronx kingpin and C&C gang “Boss” and founder — George Calderon, in an upstate N.Y. prison, in 1990 — where the 2 would make plans for Pirate to join him uptown upon release. But it wasn’t until after serving another prison term and being released in the late 1990’s, that Pirate started taking “rapping” more seriously and began to record and pursue a rap career, first in Brooklyn, under a local independent label named — Strong Arm Entertainment; then later in the Bronx with “The Spanish Mob”. (A group he created and co-founded in 2003, with his late personal assistant and close friend Gilbert “Gil Goes” Cortez a/k/a “Ghost Clemenza”, who is frequently mentioned in several of Pirate’s tracks). In 2004, a close partner of Ghost named Ben, who is a long-time friend and confidant to Ruff Ryders C.E.O. “Waah”, decided to present one of Pirate’s demos to the C.E.O. himself, which would ultimately result in Pirate getting signed, to the Double R camp. And while his professional rap career would turn out to be a rather brief one, he does hold the unique title of being the only Latino to ever get signed to the — Ruff Ryders Entertainment music label. He would appear on the Ruff Ryders compilation Volume 4, titled — The Redemption, with 2 songs, titled “Dale Poppi Dale” and “Dame Reggaeton”, which featured rap star N.O.R.E. and also Pirate’s wife Gypsy Lisette, singing the chorus. The album/cd would see it’s release in July of 2005, under Ruff Ryders Entertainment and Artemis Records.

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