Camila Cabello Paid Gas Station Attendant to Stay Open for Playboi Carti to Shoot ‘I Luv It’ Video Scene
Getting Camila Cabello’s latest music video for “I Luv It” across the finish line was a task that required some improvising and bribing. The Nicolás Méndez-directed video visual for the single captures the singer navigating car accidents, dog chases, wrestling matches, and more — but the song’s featured guest, Playboi Carti, shows up in a scene far less chaotic, rapping his verse in a gas station. In a recent interview with Los Angeles’ Power 106, Cabello detailed the real-life, off-screen chaos that complicated the shoot.
“Something happened with his plane; it was this insane chaos with the video,” she explained. When Carti arrived, the video crew had already wrapped filming. “We had to find a place to film his part. We ended up paying the guy who worked at the gas station to let it stay open for us,” Cabello added. “He got there, and my mom had the iPad video screen and was low key directing it, we had to beg the crew to stay. But Playboi was so sweet. My mom was in love with him.”
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It all came together in the end. Cabello released “I Luv It” last week as her first official single since 2022. “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,” she explained in a press release about the song. “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.”
Carti has been ramping up for a musical return of his own. The rapper’s most recent album Whole Lotta Red arrived in December 2020. In the time since, he’s delayed the release of its follow up but has made guest appearances with Travis Scott, Kanye West, Future, and Metro Boomin, among others.
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