Music has this weird way of freezing a moment in time, doesn't it? You hear a specific snare hit or a vocal run, and suddenly it's 2017 again. You're thinking about neon lights, leather jackets, and that specific brand of "us against the world" romance that defined the charts back then. When people talk about the Him & I album or the track that anchored it, they aren't just talking about a song. They’re talking about a cultural flashpoint that felt incredibly real until it very famously wasn't.
It's actually a bit of a misconception that there is a full-length "Him & I album" in the traditional sense. The song was the centerpiece of G-Eazy’s 2017 double-album, The Beautiful & Damned. But honestly? It felt like its own universe. It was the peak of the Halsey and G-Eazy era, a time when their relationship was the marketing engine for the music itself. It wasn't just a collab. It was a manifesto.
The Beautiful & Damned: The Real Home of Him & I
If you go looking for a record just titled after the hit single, you’ll find yourself redirected to The Beautiful & Damned. This was G-Eazy's ambitious 20-track project. It was divided into two halves, meant to explore the duality of fame—the glitz versus the gut-punch. Him & I was the crown jewel of the "Beautiful" side.
The track itself is a mid-tempo Bonnie and Clyde anthem. It’s got that dark, moody production that both artists were pivoting toward at the time. G-Eazy brings his signature Bay Area swagger, while Halsey provides the emotional glue with a chorus that felt like a vow. It's interesting to look back at the credits. You’ve got The Futuristics on production, and the song samples "Wildfire" by SBTRKT, which gives it that pulsing, anxious heartbeat.
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People were obsessed. The song wasn't just a hit; it was a voyeuristic window into a relationship that felt high-stakes. It went multi-platinum for a reason. It captured a specific kind of toxic-leaning, ride-or-die energy that resonates with people who think love should feel like a movie.
The Marketing Genius (and Risk) of a Couple’s Collab
Let’s be real for a second. Putting your relationship at the center of your lead single is a massive gamble. In the case of G-Eazy and Halsey, it worked—at least for the charts. The music video was basically a glorified home movie of them running around New York City. Eating pizza. Jumping on subways. Making out in the rain. It felt authentic because, at the time, it was.
But when you tie an album's identity to a real-life romance, the music changes as the relationship changes. By the time the tour for The Beautiful & Damned was in full swing, the narrative had shifted from "forever" to "messy breakup." This is why the Him & I album era is so fascinating to analyze in hindsight. The song stayed on the radio, but the context around it turned sour. It became a time capsule of a relationship that had already burned out.
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Why Him & I Still Generates Buzz in 2026
You might wonder why we're still talking about this nearly a decade later. It's because the "Him & I" era represented a turning point for both artists. For G-Eazy, it was the moment he cemented himself as a pop-crossover heavyweight. For Halsey, it was a stepping stone toward her more experimental, conceptual work like If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power.
- The song became a template for modern "toxic love" duets.
- It proved that celebrity gossip is the best fertilizer for a hit single.
- The stylistic choices—the 90s aesthetic mixed with modern trap drums—basically predicted the next five years of pop-rap.
There’s also the "what if" factor. Fans still debate whether the chemistry on that track was the best either artist ever had with a collaborator. Musically, their voices clicked. G-Eazy’s dry, rhythmic delivery balanced out Halsey’s more airy, theatrical vocals. It was a sonic match made in heaven, even if the personal side was more of a rollercoaster.
The Legacy of The Beautiful & Damned
The album wasn't just about one song, though. If you dig deeper into the tracklist, you find gems like "No Limit" with Cardi B and A$AP Rocky. That song was a monster club hit. But "Him & I" was the soul of the project. It gave the album its emotional weight.
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Critics at the time were split. Some felt the double-album format was a bit bloated—20 tracks is a lot to ask of a listener in the streaming age. However, others praised G-Eazy for his vulnerability. He was wrestling with addiction and the pitfalls of his own ego. By having Halsey on the record, he had a foil—someone to ground the narrative.
Honestly, the Him & I album era was the last time we saw that specific brand of "Tumblr-era" angst dominate the mainstream. It was moody. It was fashionable. It was a little bit pretentious. And it worked.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re looking to revisit this era or understand the hype, don’t just stick to the radio edit. There are layers to this story that explain why the music sounds the way it does.
- Listen to the full album in sequence. Don't skip. You need to hear how "Him & I" fits between the darker, more hedonistic tracks. It acts as a brief moment of light in a very heavy record.
- Watch the music video through a 2026 lens. It’s a masterclass in lo-fi, "authentic" branding. Notice how little of it feels staged compared to today's hyper-polished TikTok-bait videos.
- Check out Halsey’s solo follow-up, "Without Me." If "Him & I" is the honeymoon phase, "Without Me" is the brutal hangover. Listening to them back-to-back gives you the full arc of that story.
- Explore the production credits. Look up The Futuristics and see how they’ve influenced other pop-rap hits. Their ability to blend "cool" with "catchy" is why this song didn't age as poorly as other 2017 tracks.
The reality is that Him & I isn't just a song anymore. It’s a case study in how music, celebrity, and timing can create a perfect storm. It’s messy, it’s loud, and it’s undeniably catchy. Whether you love the artists involved or not, you have to respect the way they captured lightning in a bottle—even if the bottle eventually broke.