“Love Hurts” (originally stylised as “++* love hurts **” on SoundCloud) is the second collaboration between Playboi Carti and Travis Scott, following Travis' “Green & Purple.” It is also Carti’s first single of 2018 following his 2017 debut self-titled mixtape.

Throughout the song, the two flex their lavish lifestyles as ‘rockstars’, a topic that’s most recently played a huge role in hip-hop – notably through Post Malone’s hit song, “rockstar.”

The song was first teased in August 2017 when Travis posted a video of himself singing part of his verse. Part of the song was later teased by Carti in early 2018, and more of Travis' verse later surfaced by someone who had the song.

A rough demo of the song leaked on May 1, 2018, prompting Carti to officially release it the following day with an updated mix. According to the filename of the leak, the song was originally titled “Rockstar.”