I Do
by Cardi B (featuring SZA)

Album: Invasion of Privacy (2018)
Charted: 23
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "I Do" features a hook crooned by SZA. Despite the Top Dawg R&B singer's busy schedule, she made a promise to Cardi that she would find time for a collaboration, which resulted in this song.
  • Cardi and SZA proclaim during the song that they do just what they like. SZA croons on the hook:

    I left a nigga on read 'cause I felt like it
    Dress me down in that Raf, Saint Laurent jacket
    Dapper, dapper, I look fine and my checks divine
    No wonder, wonder why I do whatever I like
    I do what I like, I do, I do


    Cardi B sums up the song's concept in verse two when she raps:

    Good girls do what they told
    Bad bitches do what they want
  • The beat comes courtesy of Canadian producer Murda Beatz, a frequent collaborator of both Migos ("MotorSport") and Drake ("Nice For What"). He was assisted by his frequent collaborator, the German duo CuBeatz.
  • The hook of "I Do" was penned by Los-Angeles based songwriter Nija Charles (Jason DeRulo's "Colors"). Nija told Genius that she didn't know the song was going be on Invasion of Privacy until around a fortnight before its release.
  • Nija drew inspiration from her own life experiences when penning the hook:

    "19 years old, getting flown out everywhere, I was with Kodak Black the night before, so I was just in a great mood," she recalled. "When the beat came in, I went into savage mode and the first thing that came out on the mic was, 'I left that nigga on read, cause I felt like it.' I wanted to channel how I feel when I look in the mirror in the morning after getting washed in dressed. The hook just came across as feeling invincible."
  • Cardi B and SZA gave the song its live debut during SZA's headline show at New York's Madison Square Garden on March 4, 2023.

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