Bad Things

"Bad Things" is a song by American rapper and singer Machine Gun Kelly and Cuban-born American singer-songwriter Camila Cabello. The song was released on October 14, 2016, and was produced by The Futuristics. Its music video was directed by Hannah Lux Davis and premiered on December 1, 2016. The song features an interpolation of Fastball's 1999 single "Out of My Head". The single peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming both Machine Gun Kelly and Cabello's first top ten single as solo artists, as well as the former's only top-ten hit to date. The song was nominated for Top Rap Collaboration at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, and won Best Collaboration at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. Background and composition During her time as a student at New York University (NYU), American songwriter Madison Love conceived "Bad Things" with several songwriters while she was in a physics class. "Bad Things" is a mid-tempo ballad that interpolates Fastball's 1999 song "Out of My Head". It incorporates lyrical themes of pain-is-pleasure type of love. Critical reception Gil Kaufman from Billboard called it an "instant earworm four-minute ode to dark pleasure." For Fuse TV's Bianca Gracie the song shows rapper's "softer side", and highlights Cabello's "delicate vocals". She described the song opens with Cabello "softly crooning" the hook, and MGK then comes in with a "naughty rap flow that cruises over the piano melody." In Idolator, Rachel Sonís described it as a "sleek" ballad with a "dreamy" hook. Time magazine ranked it the fifth worst song of 2016, describing it as a "promising concept" with a "fine" chorus performance from Cabello ruined by the rapper's "milquetoast contribution".