Camila Cabello made her long-awaited comeback and brought Playboi Carti along for a surprise guest verse.
Ahead of the song’s release on Wednesday, the 27-year-old singer told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 that her collaboration with Carti, 27, began with a DM.
“I DMed him. Well, I feel like my mentality, I feel like throughout this process has been, first of all, closed mouths don't get fed. And a lot of people are like, don't even,” Cabello said. “He's like, he's mysterious and whatever. And I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to DM him.”
“I said, ‘Hey, butterfly.’ And then he said, ‘CC,’ and then I said, ‘Carti.’ It was really cute,” she continued. “It was very genuine. And then we talked about Miami because he spends a lot of time in Miami and Atlanta, and yeah, I think we just started talking, and I think he really loved the kind of visual stuff that I was leaning into. I was just like, ‘Hey, come by. Let's hang out. Let me play you some music.’”
The Cuban-Mexican singer said she played the track for him and he agreed to record a verse. It was during the recording session, however, that the two musicians found even more common ground.
“We have similar ways of working, and for me, my writing process is just kind of freestyling, and then we work from that,” said the former Fifth Harmony singer. “He just went in the booth and we were just so excited.”
Cabello, who called Carti “a Pikachu,” added, “That's why he's so where he is because he's so meticulous and so choosy, and he's really created this world.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the pop singer, whose biggest hits include include “Havana” and “Señorita,” says that she learned so much about rap and hip-hop throughout the creation of her upcoming album.
Earlier this month, Cabello sat down with Alex Cooper for the Call Her Daddy podcast where she was asked about photos that surfaced of her and Drake riding jet skis in the Caribbean and the romance rumors that followed.
"First of all, I wouldn't say like, straight-up vacation, okay?" she told Cooper. "It was vacation plus some work. ... But I will say, you know what? I love that man. I love him. We all love him."
Whether a Drake collaboration will appear on Cabello’s upcoming new album remains to be seen.
Listen to Camila Cabello’s “I Luv It” featuring Playboi Carti up top.
