Songfacts®:

• In "Love Me Not," Ravyn Lenae examines a complex relationship. Against a backdrop of groovy, syncopated drums and her dreamy vocals, she sings of that relatable predicament: Lenae feels she doesn't need her lover, but when he's not there, she misses him.
• Released as a double single alongside "Love Is Blind," "Love Me Not" is part of Lenae's sophomore album, Bird's Eye. The project explores themes of personal growth, introspection, and the general chaos of dating in your 20s.
• Lenae collaborated with songwriter Sarah Aarons (Zedd's "Stay," Maren Morris' "Girl") throughout the album - a notable shift, as Lenae had never co-written on a project before. It turned out to be an enjoyable experience.
  
  "Having someone through the entire thing who understands my perspective and the way I want my stories to be told and written was so beautiful," she told Women In Pop.
• Dahi, known for his work with artists like Kelela, SZA, and Kendrick Lamar, served as the album's main producer. The production duo Best Kept Secret and singer/rapper Anderson .Paak also contributed to this song.
• "Love Me Not" was one of the first tracks Ravyn Lenae and DJ Dahi zeroed in on for Bird's Eye, and for Lenae it was an immediate spark. Speaking to Billboard, she recalled, "I remember when Dahi played me the beat, I thought, 'This feels like something I haven't heard in ages.' It took me right back to the first time I heard 'Hey Ya!' by OutKast - that mix of soulfulness with pop sensibility that anybody could sing and dance to and feels like it could have came out in any era - that's my favorite type of song."
• When it came to the lyrics, Lenae leaned into one of her favorite themes: the bittersweet tension of loving someone you know you can't stay with. "I like to play with relationships and the push and pull of knowing you love somebody even though you know it can't work," she said. "That really elementary approach to writing is one of my favorite things. I love when the lyrics feel a little sad, but the music feels upbeat, or even the inverse."
• An official remix of "Love Me Not," featuring English singer Rex Orange County, arrived on October 8, 2024. Ravyn Lenae explained to Billboard: "I knew I wanted a remix for the song a few months after I dropped it. I remember us talking about a feature on the song originally, so it was always in my head that I thought I heard another perspective on the song, especially a male perspective, almost like a duet type of feel. But I couldn't think of who it was going to be, and I don't like to decide things quickly."
  
  When her manager, John Bogaard, suggested Rex Orange County, Lenae immediately felt he had the perfect voice and perspective to bring something new to the song - and to help introduce it to a whole different audience.
• "He loves me, he loves me not" is a game played with a flower (usually a daisy) where you pull the petals off one by one, alternating between "he loves me" and "he loves me not." The last petal on the flower will give you your answer. Ariel plays it in The Little Mermaid to get a read on Prince Eric.
  
  Ravyn Lenae isn't the first to use the phrase in a song - Whitney Houston did it in her 1985 hit "How Will I Know" and Taylor Swift in "You're On Your Own, Kid" from 2022.
  
  Not long after Lenae released this song, Justin Bieber used the motif in his confessional "Daisies."
• "Love Me Not" went viral after TikTok user @thatsode posted a mashup with Solange's 2012 song "Losing You." Almost overnight, thousands of people were filming themselves lip-syncing the chorus and do-si-do-ing along.
• Before "Love Me Not" became Ravyn Lenae's breakout moment, producer Dahi had been quietly sitting on its skeleton for nearly a decade. The core demo dates back to around 2015, a forgotten file in his archive inspired by the jolt he felt the first time he heard "Hey Ya!" by Outkast and "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. Rather than chasing trends, Dahi treats old demos like "fresh references," preserving them until the right artist unlocks them.
  
  When Lenae finally heard it, complete with a hook originally sung by Anderson .Paak, she immediately gravitated towards it and rewrote her own verse to give it a cinematic arc.