If Flo Rida's 2010 hit from the "Step Up 3D" (2010) soundtrack, "Club Can't Handle Me," is in any way autobiographical, he is, according to the definitions and classifications found in the DSM-IV-TR, the bearer of many, many mental health scars. The lyrics read like the diary of a psych ward inhabitant: delusions, grandiose thoughts, paranoid ramblings — it's all there, each line more incriminating and worrisome than the one before it.
The DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision) is the handbook published by the American Psychiatric Association, which lists all recognized mental health disorders. It's a hypochondriac's (hypochondriasis, listed as 300.7 in the DSM) worst nightmare (or wet dream, depending). Flip to any page and you'll quickly be self-diagnosed with a little bit of everything, from caffeine-induced sleep disorder (292.89) to cyclothymia (301.13) to hypersomnia (307.44).
But Flo Rida probably wouldn't self diagnose. Starting with the name of the song, extending the whole way through, Flo Rida sees himself as perfect: "The Club Can't Handle Me," he claims, convinced that he is too much — too alive, too great, too famous, too good at dancing and drinking and being cool — for a nightclub.
This is a textbook delusion: a bizarre, strongly held, often-repeated belief in something improbable, unlikely or out of line. The phrase, "The club can't even handle me right now" — a direct statement of the delusion — is repeated a dozen times during the four-minute song, or once every twenty seconds. This is either the manifestation of a symptom of the delusion (expressing and verbalizing the delusion with unusual persistence and conviction), or the symptoms of some unspecified phonological disorder that causes this unusual, reccurring speech pattern.
Further concrete evidence of a phonological disorder can be seen in the repetition of virtually every line over and over during the course of the song, specifically "put your hands up," which, just like "The club can't even handle me right now," is repeated with alarming frequency.
Oh yes, another disorder. Again, the lyrics point to a whole myriad of mental health afflictions, not just the aforementioned delusions and phonological damage.
The rapper — whose name is a fun homage to his home state of Florida — also appears to suffer from paranoid personality disorder (301.0), which is shown through displays of general paranoia. Statements like "They watching, I know this," and "watching you watching me," make it fairly clear that Flo Rida believes that he is under surveillance. What's more, however, is that a narrative reveals itself in the song, highlighting the fact that Flo Rida believes that renowned DJ and producer (as well as the song's featured guest and producer) David Guetta is watching him.
"I see you D. Guetta!" Flo Rida cackles at the beginning of the song. From here we can understand that every remark in the second person is directed towards Guetta, but, since Guetta is not clearly present in the world of the song, it is not a stretch to infer that David Guetta could very well be an alter-ego or dissociated personality for Flo Rida.
This crystallizes when the rapper carries out a conversation with himself: "Who ready?/ I'm ready!/ You ready!/ Let's get it!" It's unclear what "it" is in this conversation — most likely just some other ridiculous part of Flo Rida's delusion — but this quest for "it" most likely does not end well for the rapper.
"You know I know how/ To make them stop and stare as I zone out," he claims. This is the only believable part of the song. It is fully possible that Flo Rida does, in fact, know how to "make them stop and stare" while he does outlandish things while acting out his disorders.
That is, if the song is at all autobiographical, of course.
