“Castle Made of Sand” is not just any song on Planet Pit, It is Pitbull’s personal favorite track on the hit album. He recorded the song in honor of his mother. Pitbull said in an interview with VH1 that his mother is the reason he started rapping in the first place and dedicated the song to her.

The song was co-written by Armando Perez, Kelly Rowland, James T. Huy, Julie Frost, Justin Franks and Jacob Luttrell while production was handled by Grammy-winning producer DJ Frank E. It also marks the second collaboration between Pit and Jamie since previously collaborating on “Save Me” from Jamie’s second mixtape.

The 100-BPM R&B track features Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland and rapper Jamie Drastik who is one of Pitbull’s protégés.

The three artists recorded their vocals in seperate studios.

Pitbull recorded his vocals at Al Burna Studios in Miami, Kelly recorded her vocals at Circle House Studios which is also located in Miami, and Jamie Drastik recorded his vocals at Prospect Music Studio in New York City.

In 2010, Kelly Rowland announced in an interview that she was working on a song with Pitbull after touring with him. Next thing you know, they start recording their vocals in seperate studios in Miami. During the process of the song, Pitbull’s signee Jamie Drastik found out about the album release and called up Pit to tell him that he wants to be featured on the album. After Jamie told Pitbull that he wanted to be on the album, Pit sent the beat to one of the tracks which was produced by DJ Frank E. Pitbull sent Jamie the beat to “Castle Made of Sand” to Jamie because it was the only hip-hop track on the album since the other songs were club and dance songs. It was then Jamie went to Prospect Music Studio in New York City to write and record his verse for the album. After Jamie finished recording his verse, he sent it to Pit so it could be added to the song in order to put it on the album. Jamie recorded his verse in either late 2010 or early 2011. It was then that “Castle Made of Sand” was ready for release and landed a spot on the album as the ninth track. After the album got released, the DJ Frank E-produced cut became a memorable track to the album since it’s honoring Pitbull’s mother and plus it is the only hip-hop track on the album. The song had very good commercial performance in the United States selling 55,000 copies in its first week and sold 28,000 additional copies in the second week. It even charted #37 in New Zealand and was on the chart for one week.