Following Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne is the final member of One Direction to go solo. The pop heartthrob teams with Quavo on his debut solo single “Strip That Down.”
Co-written by Ed Sheeran and Steve Mac, the sexy club banger features a hip-hop bounce. Payne addresses his departure from the British boy band (“You know I used to be in 1D (now I’m out free) / People want me for one thing (That’s not me)”), while Quavo shuts the club down with his verse.
Recently, Liam compared the song to Tyga’s “Rack City” while talking about Harry Styles’ solo work. “It’s not something I’d listen to, but I think he did a great job of doing what he wanted to do,” he told Music Choice of his fellow One Direction member’s debut single. “That’s the way I’d put it best, I think. The funny thing is, [Harry] would say the same thing about me because he doesn’t really listen to hip-hop music, whereas it’s like my song’s more ‘Rack City’ and his song is more of a different era to something I’d listen to, I guess.”
A video is set to follow, according to Quavo. “Me and my boy, Liam, from One Direction, we just shot that,” the Migos star revealed earlier this month. “Crazy visuals. Crazy team. Cool guy. Nice guy. It’s going up. I wasn’t even supposed to say that. It’s gonna be a surprise though.”
This isn’t Liam’s first foray into hip-hop. In the past, he’s also teamed up with Juicy J and Wiz Khalifa on “You” and he’s reportedly worked on even more tracks with the Juice Man.