Photography by Elizabeth De La Piedra
Despite what the internet says, pop star Camila Cabello asserts she isn’t trying to be something she’s not. The 27-year-old has spent the last year and a half morphing into the woman she actually is and documenting that shift on her new hip-hop inspired project C,XOXO.
There’s something to be said about flight landings always feeling rockier than departures.
It’s 7 p.m. on a Thursday in June and the Blue Hour has finally arrived: The Miami sky mirrors the crystal water below it, creating the perfect shade of the primary color. Despite it sometimes being associated with sadness, blue is also a symbol of serenity, balance, and self-expression. And, as it turns out, it also inspired the visual throughline for Camila Cabello’s c,xoxo—an album where Cabello is showing up in a new, more exploratory form, as evidenced by the project’s first single, “I Luv It” with Playboi Carti.
Since its release, the inescapable hyperpop track has caused much conversation amongst fans and critics discussing Cabello’s new era of experimentation and whether or not it’s authentic to her.
“I feel like it was met with this kind of puzzlement, and people not knowing how to digest it because ‘I Luv It’ is almost like the prologue to the book that is c,xoxo,” Cabello explains. “And it can be really frustrating as an artist to be like, ‘Oh, they're judging the book based off the prologue but like… this is the intro.”
It’s exactly three weeks ahead of her fourth solo album release when we meet at Key Biscayne Dog Beach for the cover shoot, and it would initially appear that Cabello is light as ever, sporting a platinum blonde do and a sheer azurite Jean Paul Gaultier by Shayne Oliver dress with a metallic bathing suit underneath. It’s a humid 85 degrees, but the Miami native is unfazed as she climbs a bright yellow Mazda M5 draped in billowing black fabric to strike her first pose of the day.
Cabello has been through some changes. In 2016, at age 19, she departed from the group that earned her global fame and bet on herself—despite not really knowing who she was yet. The Cuban-born, Miami-raised singer gained initial recognition as a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, formed on the American version of The X Factor in 2012. Over the next four years, the group—which included members Lauren Jauregui, Ally Brooke, Dinah Jane, and Normani—released hits like "Work From Home" and "Worth It." They went through what Cabello calls a “bubbling teapot of strenuous circumstances,” but still established themselves as a prominent force in pop music. In 2016, Cabello left the group to pursue a solo career. A year later, she made her official debut as a solo artist with an R&B- and Latin-influenced pop album, named Camila, which included standout tracks like “Never Be the Same.”
Once her playful and rather approachable pop foundation was laid, Cabello followed up with her 2019 sophomore album, Romance. Reflective of the project’s name, that era was characterized by songs that explored themes of love and relationships, such as "Señorita," which featured her then partner Shawn Mendes, "Liar," and "My Oh My" featuring DaBaby. The latter song parlayed her into hip-hop-adjacent territories, where she'd previously explored on tracks like “Havana” with Young Thug, and “OMG” with Quavo in 2017.
Up until her last album, Cabello’s stylistic choices reflected who she and the majority of her OG fans were at the time: blooming, late-teen-to-early-20s girls (of all genders) who just wanted to have fun and largely acquiesce to what they knew—palatable norms. Her music choices were largely safe. The decision to now center hip-hop and more of her Miamian sonic inclinations is a riskier, more unexpected pivot, but a seemingly natural one.
“Her growing up in Miami contributed to her having very rooted references that might not sound super obvious, that she heard passively just in growing up there,” El Guincho tells me in Spanish on a call from L.A. The talented producer, originally from the Canary Islands in Spain, was mentored by Björk and is known for his range of work on experimental projects with the likes of FKA Twigs and Rosalía—and now, Cabello. In addition to producing alongside Jasper Harris, who has worked with artists like Jack Harlow and Post Malone, Guincho (born Pablo Díaz-Reixa), is also the creative director on c,xoxo. “I realized growing up in Europe that music was something you had to actively seek,” says El Guincho. “And living here I’ve realized that you hear it passively around you all the time. People have a vast knowledge of R&B and hip-hop in a way that’s very natural, just because they’re here, and so all of those textures appear on the album on a rhythmic level, including in the collaborations.”
On c,xoxo, those collabs include Carti, Drake (twice), PinkPantheress, Lil Nas X, and Yung Miami and JT, listed separately (marking their first joint feature where they aren't named as the City Girls). Beyond the relished array of collaborators, Cabello did her homework. “I’m always listening to music for pleasure and for fun. But for this album, I was listening to music as a student and going back to albums that I didn't grow up on because I come from a Latin household and we listened to a lot of Latin albums and Michael Jackson and the popular ’80s hits, and that's it.” Born in Cuba to a Mexican father and a Cuban mother, Cabello moved to Miami at age 6 and had a typical first-generation immigrant experience: “I listened to rap that I grew up with in Miami and what was popular at the time, but I didn't listen to Illmatic and I didn't listen to Dr. Dre and a lot of the classic hip-hop albums from before. I didn't listen to Pink Floyd. I didn't listen to The Beatles,” she says. She became familiar with them all while making this project, particularly spending time with Nas’ classic album and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. “I think it's important to always be studying what genres kind of influenced the genres that are informing the genres now,” she says.
That study led to what is now c,xoxo, which Bryan Samaniego, who identifies as one of her greatest stans for the last 12 years, calls “the most her” album yet. From her public introduction on The X Factorin 2012 to her solo breakthrough seven years ago, every era of Cabello’s has felt distinct—and that’s intentional. “If I do one aesthetic or intention or vibe I usually don't do the same thing again,” Cabello says. “Instinct, I feel like, usually just leads me to something different.”
“I listened to rap that I grew up with in Miami and what was popular at the time, but I didn't listen to Illmatic and I didn't listen to Dr. Dre and a lot of the classic hip-hop albums from before."
Calling this era “different” is something most spectators can agree on.
Before the virality of “I Luv It,” Cabello was widely known for two songs that made her part of the billion streams club: “Havana,” released in 2018, and “Señorita,” released in 2019. Did she ever get tired of hearing them? She says that she’s grateful for them both—but yes. “More for ‘Señorita’ than ‘Havana’ to be honest,” she says. “I think there's always a worry when a song becomes so massive that it's going to be bigger than you… I obviously love that they were so massive and successful. But it does get people attached to you in a certain light.” Reflecting on the latter single alongside Mendes, her ex, she says: “I was in a really public relationship and as a woman you're like, I don't want this couple thing to be my new identity.” When it comes to the Young Thug collaboration from 2017, she says: “Using a certain aesthetic palette being the Latin girl in American pop music and using that kind of [sound] whether it's like a basic Cuban chord progression, or a bossa nova chord progression… I was like, ‘Well, I hope people aren't just expecting that from me every time because I'm just not built like that.”
Written by Ecleen Luzmila Caraballo
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