# @popbase on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DalUToRBQIl
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/67687935-popbase-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/fe489e5063.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-09T19:00:00.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Pop Base (@PopBase) — https://gondola.cc/PopBase

## Caption

5 years ago today, The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber released 'Stay.'

Through Grade A Productions and Columbia Records as the lead single from LAROI's reloaded mixtape Fck Love 3: Over You*. The track's roots trace to 2020, when LAROI was hanging out at producer Blake Slatkin's house with Charlie Puth and producer Haan. Puth improvised a melody on keys, and LAROI immediately jumped in to record over it — an unplanned, freeform session he later called the most organic songwriting experience of his career. He then brought in Haan and the Australian duo FnZ to flesh the demo out, sitting on it for months before realizing Bieber, who'd previously featured him on 'Unstable,' would be the perfect fit for a second verse.

Lyrically, 'Stay' finds LAROI pleading for forgiveness after repeatedly messing up a relationship through drinking and poor choices, while Bieber's half addresses his own trust issues within his marriage to Hailey Bieber. Sonically, the song leans into synth-pop and new wave textures rather than hip-hop, a stylistic left turn LAROI initially worried felt "too pop" given his roots in melodic rap alongside artists like Juice WRLD — reassurance from Bieber helped push him to release it as-is. The song's writing credits later became a point of clarification: LAROI stated in a 2025 livestream that he wrote every lyric except Bieber's own verse, pushing back on rumors that Puth had written the whole thing.

The song became a defining hit of 2021's summer, topping the Billboard Hot 100 (LAROI's first, Bieber's eighth) and the Global 200, while also hitting number one in 21 countries including Australia and Canada. It set a Hot 100 record by spending its first 40 weeks inside the top 10, and later earned five wins at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, including Top Streaming Song and Top Collaboration, plus the ARIA Award for Best Pop Release and Song of the Year honors at the 2023 ASCAP Pop Music Awards, cementing its place as one of the decade's biggest global crossover hits.

#thekidlaroi #justinbieber #popculture

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## Tags

popculture, thekidlaroi, justinbieber

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