“It was just genuine fun. It didn’t feel like work,” said Lil Nas X, who collaborated with Cabello on the 2024 single “He Knows”

Lil Nas X and Camila Cabello in May 2024. Photo:  Daniel Zuchnik/WWD via Getty

Friendship looks good on Lil Nas X and Camila Cabello.

In a new Paper cover story interview, the 25-year-old Grammy winner opened up about working with Cabello on their 2024 collaboration “He Knows” and how the experience brought his “confidence back” during a difficult personal time.

“We did a great job at uplifting each other and showing each other how we view the situation and how we view each other from outside of ourselves,” said Lil Nas X of the “I Luv It” singer, 28.

He added, “Once you made up your mind: ‘Oh, the world doesn’t see me as something great or feels like I’ve done anything amazing.‘ To hear [affirmation] from somebody who you greatly respect and you love what they’ve done, it feels great, especially because you can feel like it comes from a genuine place, and not like someone trying to get something from you.”

The “Industry Baby” artist told the outlet “hanging out” with Cabello was “fun,” and their collaboration came as he was just “getting comfortable going out to places.”

“It was just genuine fun,” said Lil Nas X, who spent time with Cabello at the 2024 Met Gala and multiple afterparties. “It didn’t feel like work.”

Lil Nas X in Beverly Hills on March 27, 2025.  Jon Kopaloff/Getty

“[Camila] made me feel so good, she made me feel so great,” he continued. “And that was the beginning of me getting my confidence back. To finally be at this place, where I’m like, ‘Okay, I know who the f— I am. I know where I’m going. I don’t care what none of these bitches say. I didn’t care at first. Why do I care now?'”

In March, Lil Nas X released his latest single “Hotbox” and several other promotional tracks, packaged as an EP titled Days Before Dreamboy.

Explaining why the song was right for his latest major single, he told Paper, “‘Hotbox’ seemed light. It didn’t seem like me trying to prove something to my haters.”

Lil Nas X in Indio in April 2024.  Theo Wargo/Getty

“For a minute I was like, ‘I want to get back at my detractors for how they made me feel.’ I was like, ‘No bitch. I want to make a bubbly, fun song,'” added Lil Nas X. “I know a lot of people are very scared in the world right now, about all the s— that’s happening, especially in our own country. S— is happening so fast.”

“I don’t want to think about it,” noted the star. “And I don’t mean that in the sense of being dismissive, but I’m just so f—ing tired of being tired of this s—. If this song could even for three minutes make somebody forget what’s going on and feel some oblivious joy, then so be it.”