Cardi B scored her third No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to her guest appearance on Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You.”

In a new interview with Variety, lead singer Adam Levine explained why the group recruited Cardi for a track that was previously released without her vocals.

“She was in the honeymoon period of her moment,” Levine said. “She was just beginning to be that female artist that everybody was talking about, and I thought it was an important thing for her to be involved. I knew she would have an interesting take on what was being said, and she would do it in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily have thought of.”

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The original version of “Girls Like You” appeared on Maroon 5’s 2017 album Red Pill Blues. The rendition featuring Cardi was released as a single in May 2018.

Elsewhere in the Variety feature, Levine gave high praise to Hip Hop while discussing how Maroon 5 should be categorized these days. The Voice cast member, who has collaborated with rap superstars such as Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West, said all of the current innovation in music is happening in Hip Hop.

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“Something unique to this band is that we have always looked to Hip Hop, R&B, all rhythmic forms of music, from back when we were writing our first album to now,” he stated. “Rock music is nowhere, really. I don’t know where it is. If it’s around, no one’s invited me to the party. All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in Hip Hop. It’s better than everything else. Hip Hop is weird and avant-garde and flawed and real, and that’s why people love it.”

Check out the entire piece here.

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