Pitbull was left homeless as a teenager after his mother kicked him out of her house for dabbling in drugs.

The rapper was told to pack his belongings and leave home by his angry mother after she discovered her son was running with the wrong crowd in their Miami, Florida neighborhood - and Pitbull insists she had every right to ask him to go.

He tells Access Hollywood Live, "She said, 'Grab what you can in 20 minutes and get out!' I respect my mom, my mom is my father and my mother and she's the one that has made me a man.

"She spoke very clearly with me and I broke the deal... She goes, 'I understand that you're gonna be out here, due to the neighborhood that we live in and you're gonna be dibbling and dabbling, whatever, but there's one thing that I don't want you to do and that's be involved with this type of substance or product,' and I did.

"I respected the fact that she said, 'I understand what's going on out there... I understand that you might get in trouble.'"

The rap star and his mother now agree to disagree, but they still fall out occasionally.

He adds, "I guess you could say that she raised me so well that sometimes we bump heads."