PITBULL MAKES SONGS 4 THE CHICKS! BUT CAN YOU BLAME HIM WHEN HIS NEW SONG "I KNOW YOU WANT ME" HAS SOLD MORE THAN $1.6 MILLION IN DIGITAL SALES!

Latin rappers have been part of hip-hop culture from day one, going back to mid-'70s pioneers like DJ Disco Wiz and Prince Whipper Whip.
While scores of Spanish-speaking cult artists came in their wake — from Kid Frost to the Beatnuts — no Latin American emcee enjoyed a million-selling single until 1989 (Mellow Man Ace). And none managed to sell that many albums until near the end of the '90s (Big Pun).

This decade's boom in Puerto Rican reggaeton helped nudge Latin rap closer to the mainstream, but not even its biggest star, Daddy Yankee, has held onto a solid beachhead on Billboard's top album chart.

Given all this, maybe we can't blame the supertalented Cuban-American rap star Pitbull from sometimes creating music that takes more cues from the charts than from his heart.

Though the hip-hop star can create work of unusual specificity and vulnerability (such as his 2006 CD "El Mariel"), Pit didn't just make the leap to Latin rap's No. 1 star by baring his soul.

He did so by aiming straight at the crotch, in songs like his horndog anthem "I Know You Want Me" and his equally frisky "Hotel Room Service." Such ditties have been locked in a dead heat with the singles of the Black Eyed Peas for the title of "the summer song of '09." "I Know You Want Me," alone has sold more than 1.6 million digital singles since the summer began.

No wonder the full "Rebelution" CD repeats that heavy-breathing formula in almost every track. The titles alone tell the tale: "Girls," "Dope Ball" and the all-too-telling "Give Them What They Ask For."

The music Pit matched to these leer-fests aims solidly at the clubs, though it does have a rare retro quality. The dance music that Pit centered on sounds like it came from the early '90s. Imagine C&C Music Factory, but with Pit subbed for the chesty rapper Freedom Williams.

If such songs and sentiments struck you as corny then, imagine how much more so they will now. Then again, the formula seems to be clicking.

No doubt Pit felt special pressure to deliver commercially, since the new disk is the first on his own imprint. But, then, Pit is no stranger to cynicism. He recorded his first disk with producer Lil' Jon, creator of the eagerly cretinous style known as crunk. Pit significantly upped his game on his second work, 2006's "El Mariel," which addressed the famed 1980 boatlift from Cuba to Florida that changed Miami history. That CD's mix of Afro-Cuban beats, reggaeton, crunk and rock gave Pit a style to be proud of.

While he scaled back on his deceptively titled followup, "Boatlift," at least that disk freshened up its craven commerciality with innovative rhythms — not to mention with Pit's own charm.

Now all that's gone. While Pit has called the new CD a tour of modern Miami, it seems less like an honest view of his city than like some audio version of the new Bravo show "Miami Social," a vain, venal dip into the abyss.