Doja Cat's second and third studio albums, the
pop-oriented
Hot Pink and
Planet Her, were released in 2019 and 2021, respectively. They both received critical and commercial success and peaked in the top-10 of the
Billboard 200. Doja Cat later tweeted in April 2023 that most of her rap verses were "mid and corny" and that she would no longer be making pop music while, in May 2023, she tweeted that both of the aforementioned albums were "cash-grabs" and "mediocre pop". In August 2022, she shaved both her head and her eyebrows during an Instagram Live, which received criticism from fans online, many of whom believed she was suffering from a mental health crisis and looked "unfuckable". She responded to the criticism in a tweet later that month, writing to fans that wanted her to "look fuckable", "Go fuck yourselves." In an interview with
Variety, Doja Cat said that her fourth studio album would be more focused on
hip hop and would have a "more masculine direction". On May 24, she began teasing her album with tweets pairing a drop of blood emoji with the missives "scarlet was here" and "scarlet's watching," followed by "let myself heal, scar finally sealed." On June 12, the pre-save link for "Attention" leaked early; the following day, Doja Cat officially announced the song, alongside placeholder cover art depicting an upside-down "A" drawn in blood and its release date of June 16, 2023. The song was also made available to pre-order for
digital download and as a
CD single. "Attention" was produced by
Y2K and
Rogét Chahayed and written by both with Doja Cat. ==Composition and lyrics==