The 2010s File Feature
Him & I
Him I: Creation, Recording, and Chart History G-Eazy and Halsey collaborated on "Him I," a track that became one of the most commercially prominent rap-pop c…
01 The Story
Him & I: Creation, Recording, and Chart History
G-Eazy and Halsey collaborated on "Him & I," a track that became one of the most commercially prominent rap-pop crossover records of the 2017-2018 era. The song emerged from a period when both artists had established themselves as major forces in their respective lanes and were also in a publicly acknowledged romantic relationship, a factor that lent the recording an authenticity rarely found in collaborations motivated purely by commercial calculation.
Gerald Earl Gillum, known professionally as G-Eazy, had built his reputation through a series of independently released projects before breaking into mainstream consciousness with the 2014 album These Things Happen and achieving major commercial recognition with the 2015 release When It's Dark Out, which contained the Billboard Hot 100 hit "Me, Myself & I." By the time "Him & I" was recorded, G-Eazy was preparing his fourth studio album, The Beautiful & Damned, which Columbia Records released on December 15, 2017. That album was conceived as a deeply personal work, exploring themes of duality, fame, and romantic devotion.
Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, known as Halsey, had her own trajectory of considerable artistic momentum at the time of the recording. Her debut album Badlands (2015) had introduced her alternative pop sensibility to a wide audience, and her 2017 sophomore record hopeless fountain kingdom had further expanded her reach. Her distinctive vocal style, which balanced fragility and assertiveness, made her an ideal foil for G-Eazy's rapping.
The production of "Him & I" was handled by HARV, a collaborator who had worked extensively with G-Eazy across multiple projects. The track's instrumental architecture is built around a hypnotic sample from Ray Charles's "Hit the Road Jack," filtered through a trap-influenced production aesthetic that was broadly characteristic of 2017 hip-hop. The interplay between the sample's percussive horn stabs and the contemporary 808 drum patterns gave the song a timeless quality while remaining firmly anchored to the moment of its creation.
The recording sessions took place in the context of the couple's active touring and promotional schedules, which meant that the song was produced under conditions that required efficiency and creative decisiveness. Both artists' vocal performances feel immediate and unguarded, a quality that critics would later note as one of the track's defining characteristics. G-Eazy's verses articulate a philosophy of mutual loyalty, while Halsey's hook provides the song's emotional center.
"Him & I" was released as a single from The Beautiful & Damned ahead of the album's full release. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 21 on the chart dated December 23, 2017, a strong opening that reflected the combined star power of its two performers. The song's chart trajectory was methodical and sustained. Over the following weeks it climbed steadily, reaching number 24 on January 6, 2018, then 17 on January 13, 16 on January 20, and continuing its ascent through the winter months.
The song reached its peak position of number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated February 24, 2018, completing a run of 20 total weeks on the chart. That peak represented the highest position G-Eazy had achieved on the Hot 100 as a lead artist at that point in his career. The song also performed strongly on the Hot Rap Songs chart and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, demonstrating crossover appeal that extended well beyond any single format audience.
The music video for "Him & I" was directed with a cinematic quality befitting the song's romantic and somewhat grandiose ambitions, depicting the two artists in a Bonnie-and-Clyde-inspired narrative that reinforced the song's themes of unconditional partnership. The visual component received substantial play across platforms and contributed to the song's cultural footprint in the months following its release.
Streaming performance was a significant driver of the song's chart longevity. The era's methodology for the Hot 100 incorporated streaming data with considerable weight, and "Him & I" accumulated hundreds of millions of streams across Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. That sustained digital consumption kept the record on the chart long after its initial radio impact, demonstrating the changing dynamics of hit longevity in the streaming era. The song's YouTube presence eventually reached into the hundreds of millions of views, confirming its status as a defining record of both artists' catalogs at that moment in time.
02 Song Meaning
Him & I: Themes, Meaning, and Cultural Reception
"Him & I" is fundamentally a song about absolute romantic loyalty between two people who frame their relationship in terms of mutual protection against a world perceived as hostile or indifferent to their bond. The central lyrical conceit is that the relationship constitutes its own self-sufficient unit, sealed against outside interference and sustained by a depth of devotion that the protagonists present as exceptional.
G-Eazy's verses develop the theme through the perspective of a man who is willing to place his partner above conventional social expectations and career pressures. He articulates a vision of love as something that operates according to its own private logic, resistant to judgment or interruption. The language he employs draws on hip-hop's tradition of aspirational self-presentation, fusing it with a romantic sincerity that distinguishes the track from more detached or transactional love songs in the genre.
Halsey's contributions on the hook and bridge offer a complementary female perspective that mirrors the devotion expressed in the verses. Her vocal performance conveys both tenderness and ferocity, suggesting that the loyalty she describes is not passive submission but an active, chosen commitment. The interplay between the two voices produces a dialogue structure in which neither partner is subordinate; each affirms the other's position with equal emotional intensity.
The Bonnie and Clyde allusion embedded in the song's imagery is significant for understanding how the track positions its protagonists. The historical couple has long served as a cultural shorthand for outlaw romance, a pairing so fiercely devoted that conventional moral frameworks seem irrelevant to them. By invoking this imagery, the song places its central relationship in a tradition of romantic mythology in which transgression and loyalty are intertwined. This framing gives the record a cinematic quality that distinguishes it from more quotidian love songs.
Culturally, "Him & I" benefited from the publicly documented real-life relationship between G-Eazy and Halsey, which added a layer of perceived authenticity to the recording. Audiences and music journalists noted that the song's emotional specificity was difficult to dismiss as purely performed sentiment. This biographical dimension shaped the song's reception significantly, with many listeners interpreting it as a genuine document of the couple's feelings rather than a commercially constructed product.
The song also taps into a broader cultural conversation about celebrity relationships and the pressures they face. Fame complicates intimacy, and the song's insistence on the primacy of the romantic bond over external validation resonates with audiences who understand the particular vulnerability of public partnerships. The song speaks to anyone who has felt their relationship scrutinized or judged from the outside, which gives it a universality that extends beyond the specific circumstances of its creators.
Critical reception was largely positive, with reviewers praising the chemistry between the two performers and the track's successful negotiation of the tension between hip-hop swagger and pop accessibility. Some critics observed that the song's emotional directness was refreshing in a moment when ironic detachment was common in popular music. The track was recognized as one of the stronger collaborations of its era, exemplifying what can be achieved when two artists with distinct voices are genuinely invested in the material they are performing.
→ More from the 2010s File
View all 2010s hits →
Keep digging