On May 8, Cabello announced the collaboration with the rapper, and revealed the artwork on her Instagram which was a close up picture of Lil Nas X with acrylic nails and sparkling jewels embracing Cabello that was seemingly taken at the Met Gala they attended two days prior.[1] The visualizer for the song was released on the release date of the song, and the music video was released on May 22, 2024.
Writing and composition
The song contains a sample of "Give It Up 2 Me" by Ojerime.
"Initially, when Jasper and Pablo Diaz-Reixa and I were in a studio session in Miami, I was like, "I've never made something that felt housey and electronic before." So they pulled up this Ojerime sample and I wrote, "He Knows." When we were talking about who could be a fire feature on it, we immediately thought of Nas. He's close friends with Jasper. We immediately were like, "We have to get Nas on this song because that would be the most iconic video."
— Cabello on how the song and collaboration came about, Rolling Stone[2]
Forbes described it as another more mature and NSFW lyrical shift from Cabello's Fifth Harmony days.[3]Nylon described it as a "house-leaning bop" that continues the "unfiltered messy pop girl vibe" she established with her previous single "I Luv It".[4]
Music video
The video was directed by Onda and it features Lil Nas X in the video. The video is stated to be a "dancefloor battle between friends vying for the attention of a mutual love interest."[5]
Critical reception
Zachary Horvath of HotNewHipHop described it as improvement of her last single "I Luv It" and praised Lil Nas X's verse as being more fun and animated than Playboi Carti's verse on "I Luv It".[6]
