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As the C,XOXO rollout keeps on truckin’, Camila Cabello continues to pull out the stops (one can’t necessarily say “all the stops”) by offering up yet another single with a feature on it. This time, Lil Nas X subs in where Playboi Carti was on “I Luv It.” The potentially ominous-sounding single, “He Knows,” is accordingly much more flirtatious and tongue-in-cheek. After all, this is “Montero” we’re talking about, the man who performs nude choreo in a prison setting, co-designs Satan shoes and gives lap dances to the devil. Of course things are going to be, shall we say, mischievous when he’s involved. And the video for “He Knows” proves no exception to the Lil Nas X rule.
With an opening that samples from Ojerime’s 2020 song, “Give It Up 2 Me” (which itself sounds like a sample of The Bucketheads’ ‘The Bomb! [These Sounds Fall Into My Mind]”), the playful tone of “He Knows” is made immediately apparent. Yet, more than just playful (and often taunting), the song radiates a sweltering quality that’s ripe for the dance floor. As such, it’s no surprise that Cabello takes us to that very location, trading out the “chillin’ at home” and occasional outdoor setting in “I Luv It” for a club one in “He Knows.” Not just any club either, but one that looks as though it was plucked straight out of the 00s (Lindsay Lohan’s “Rumors” video comes to mind). As Cabello descends a staircase and casually saunters into the fray with her crew in tow, she sizes up the clientele, eventually casting her discerning glance on one “boo” in particular as she takes a shot with her friends.
Director Onda then immediately cuts to the two of them writhing against each other on the dance floor as the lyrics, “She’s a provocateur/Dance floor connoisseur/Shit week, so Friday for sure/Tell the girls we’re takin’ a detour/Give him hell, yeah/Give these boys hell, yeah/Shе does it well, ah-yeah/I do it mysеlf, ah-yeah” punctuate the hyper-sexual scene. In the next moment, Cabello finds herself on the center of the floor as several backup dancers behind her join in to match the choreo she serves for the verse, “Cigarette, candy necklace on my hips/Butterfly that’s on my wrist/Put your hands on me like this.”
If those lyrics sound filled with Lana Del Rey-inspired keywords and imagery, it’s probably no coincidence that Cabello shoved her way onto the Coachella main stage to join LDR in a rendition of “I Luv It” during the latter’s headlining performance in April. Indeed, it’s a shame “He Knows” wasn’t out at the time, as it’s a single that’s far more within Del Rey’s wheelhouse, complete with the chorus: “I think he knows (make me lose my mind)/When I play with him like that/When I say it to him like that/Have my way with him like that/I think he knows (make me lose my mind)…/That he’s comin’ right back.” Dripping with such “daddy” vibes, it would have made for a much less awkward onstage collaboration.
In any case, Lil Nas X is also well-suited to the sentiments as he appears on the scene with vampiric blue eyes aglow in the darkness of the club. Using those eyes to zero in on Cabello dancing with the man she thinks she has “wrapped around [her] pinky finger,” Lil Nas X interrupts their sexual grinding to, er, insert himself. He then delivers the lascivious lyrics, “He drippin’ down on my bustier like ice cream/While Ashanti playin’ in the AMG/Let it rain on me/He fuckin’ up my headboard, so I’m on my knees like, ‘Dear Lord, please pray for me’/Save the grace for me.” Around the same time, a very deliberate shot of a mannequin dressed exactly like the man both CC and LNX are pursuing is revealed, perched in an industrial-looking space. One in which Cabello and Lil Nas X appear in individually before ending up there together.
Before that moment, however, Cabello, after being bested by LNX, turns on her heel and stalks off in angered disbelief. Not just over the fact that Lil Nas X could pussy block her so rudely, but that she didn’t account for the potential bisexuality of this “little snack.” (Or Lil Nas X is just that alluring to all genders, regardless of their usual sexual preferences.) Back in the “secret part” of the club where the mannequin is, Cabello and LNX get into a catfight that ends up knocking over the “model” and dislodging one of its arms. Cabello turns her head toward it and shouts, “Oh my god, he’s—” Lil Nas X cuts in, “He’s bald?” Cabello sighs exasperatedly and corrects, “He’s plastic.” (To be fair, so are most people in Miami.) Lil Nas is still hung up on the bald thing, replying, “But he’s also bald.” Realizing the man they were fighting for wasn’t actually that “fire,” the two then join forces on the floor and in the weird alternate dimension room. The dance scenes get trippier and blurrier before we finally see them outside together at the valet stand.
As they wait, Lil Nas X declares, “Let’s promise to never fight over a boy again.” “Pinky promise?” Cabello asks. “Pinky promise,” LNX assures. But you can’t trust no twink not to pussy block again and again, nor, for that matter, someone as “ho is life” as Cabello’s “alter ego,” “C.” This much is confirmed when the same guy (as emphasized by his signature jacket) they were fighting over appears next to them to wait for his own car. The two both flash flirty lookie-loos at him as they bite down on the very pinkies they promised not to betray each other with to the point where blood is pouring out of their mouths. So much for friendship solidarity. And yes, it would seem Cabello is making a larger statement about how much harder it is for women “these days” to lock down a man (Cabello’s supposedly straight ex, Shawn Mendes, comes to mind), what with sexual fluidity being increasingly and endlessly chic.
Or, as Lil Nas X, warns, “On the real, I’ma take his soul (all that)/I’ma take him from his hoes (okay)/On the real, I think he knows.” Thus, Cabello’s intended “I’m in control,” empowered statement for “He Knows” is totally undermined by what LNX contributes to it sonically and visually.
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Genna Rivieccio
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