Camila Cabello returns today with “I LUV IT,” the lead single off her forthcoming fourth studio album, C, XOXO, and it’s probably not what casual fans were expecting. Featuring production by El Guincho—whose credits range from ROSALÍA to Björk—and Jasper Harris, who’s worked with a wide range of rappers, including Playboi Carti, who guests here, “I LUV IT” is a glitchy pop tune with shades of the PC Music aesthetic popularized by Charli XCX.
“I love Charli and I love Charli’s music, so I think [comparing us is] a huge compliment,” Cabello recently told Paper. “Charli loves me, so everybody can fuck off.”
“I LUV IT” features a sample of Gucci Mane’s 2009 track “Lemonade” and a possible interpolation of Rihanna’s 2011 song “Cockiness (Love It),” but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. This is a song about wild, combustible human attraction, and in the opening verse, Cabello gives us a loose sense of her headspace.
Supersonic (Yeah, ooh), in your orbit (Yeah, ah)
And I’m bad (Uh), diabolic (Uh)
Bottle rocket (Ooh), on the carpet (Yeah)
Threw it back and he caught it
Then comes the chorus, which sounds a bit like the aforementioned Rihanna tune.
I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it
I love it, I love it, I love it
On the post-chorus, Camilla borrows the Gucci hook about high-quality canary yellow diamonds.
Lemons on the chain with the V-cuts (Yeah, yeah, brr)
Lemons on the chain with the V-cuts (Yeah, yeah, brr)
Cabello falls deeper into infatuation in the second verse.
Super twisted, sick addicted (Addicted)
Kiss me hard, someday you’ll miss this
Meteor shower, in your power
Seein’ stars, oh my God
Carti’s verse seems to come from the POV of someone whose relationship has recently dissolved. In his opening lines, he repeats the reasons she gave for the breakup.
Oh, you on the road now?
Oh, you grown now?
Oh, you too grown now
You tryna take your time by your ’lone
Then comes a detour into drugs and fast cars. (He ends the verse by saying, “I’m out of control.”)
All this novocaine got ’em numb to the drugs now
Movin’ on Mary Jane, I feel burnt out like the sun now
Aventador, SVJ, I’m ridin’ ’round with her perm out
Aventador, SVJ, I’m ridin’ ’round with her perm out
“Certain things in our human realm do make me feel like I’m in outer space, and the very rare few times where I’ve had incredible chemistry with someone is one of them,” Cabello said of the song in a statement. “Part of that cocktail is also the emotional drama between you and that person, and the chaos and butterflies and nerves and passion. It’s unsustainable and not peaceful and exhausting, but also, I LUV IT.”
“I LUV IT” arrives with a bonkers music video in which Cabello engages in Greco-Roman wrestling, runs from stray dogs, drinks beer from a gas pump, shoots up her bed with pantomime machine-gun fingers, clings to a palm tree the police are chopping down, and goes to the ER with an arrow stuck in her chest.
You can read all the lyrics to “I LUV IT” on Genius now.
