Kirstin Stokes Smith Writes: Help! I'm obsessed with Mr. Worldwide

I'm admitting very publicly that I have a growing obsession with Pitbull, aka Mr. Worldwide, given the name Armando Christian Peres at birth (January 15, 1981 by the way).

So what gives?

I don't find him attractive and I don't have a schoolgirl crush on him either. My 'interest' in Pitbull is more accurately described as a fascination with the celebrity, and how celebrity status snowballs within degrees of proximity to other celebrity. It seems that every time I turn on a Top 40 radio station, there's Pitbull in another musical collaboration with somebody who's been more famous than he's been.

Kind of like Rita & Friends
http://bit.ly/7aDfpG apologies to any Rita MacNeil fans (my parents ....). Except no, Pitbull is nothing like Rita ...

....and therein lies the allure for me.

When the Pitbull collaborations first started tumbling through the airwaves I wondered what a seemingly clean cut boy like Usher and straight shooter like Jennifer Lopez were doing with the likes of Mr. Worldwide. It's not that he has nothing to bring to the table, it just that Pitbull reminds me of that lip licking greaseball you see at dancebars. You know the guy, the one who's trawling the place for the most inebriated lady to put his loving charms on. He's on the make and he's unabashed about it. Pitbull's growling and hypersexualized singing style at times makes me feel violated.

And that's not the allure for me ... but it's compelling stuff.

For the past 2 days I've been under the thrall of his latest collaboration with Ne-Yo and Nayer, "Give Me Everything".

Why? Why?

Aside from the snappy pop beats and Ne-Yo's sentimental yet direct approach to the pickup ("grab somebody sexy and tell them Hey! 'give me everything tonight'"), it's Pitbull. His claims in his groany-throaty growl that he'll "make you feel right baby .. can't promise tomorrow, but I promise tonight, dar-lin." Listening to him is like watching a pick up artist at a nightclub ...

What can I say? The homage to the one-night stand -- the hook in every Pitbull song is entertainment. And I could never bear it when he was doing his thing as Pitbull, but with the help of his friends he literally becomes that guy in the club who's both entertaining and obnoxious at the same time. By himself it's a grease-fest, but when he's hanging with his friends their contributions to his tirades provide a cleansing balance. And Pitbull becomes just dirty enough to be tolerable.