A post shared by Liam Payne (@liampayne) on May 18, 2017 at 10:07am PDT
This article was originally published by i-D UK.
Liam Payne has shared his debut solo single and it contains a not exactly blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to his old band. Co-written by Ed Sheeran and complete with guest verse from Migos main man Quavo, “Strip It Down” sees the singer wax lyrical about love and fame, with the hip hop-inspired number featuring the lyric, “You know I used to be in 1D, now I’m free.”
Payne, of course, follows in the footsteps of fellow bandmates Niall Horan, Harry Styles, and Zayn “normal 22-year-old” Malik in pursuing a solo career — the status of One Direction currently described as “on hiatus” [i.e. broken up forever and ever until the end of time]. He recently described the solo output of Styles as “not my sort of music” in an interview with Music Choice, a comment that is in no way connected to generating publicity around the release of his single. Have a listen to “Strip That Down” below.
Read: How deep is your love? Fandom in the 21st century.
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Text Matthew Whitehouse