Liam Payne’s debut solo single is finally with us – and One Direction devotees are already speculating that the star is taking a shot at his former band in its lyrics!

A lyric video for ‘Strip That Down’, which features Migos’ rapper Quavo, dropped first thing on Friday morning (May 19th) and has already notched up several thousand views. However, the early attention has not just been on the music, but on the lyrical content.

Diehard One Direction fans hoping for that eventual reunion will be discouraged to see the words: “You know I used to be in 1D, but now I'm out free.”

Liam PayneLiam Payne pictured in May 2017

Furthermore, in a recent interview, Payne intimated that he actually didn’t really like his bandmate Harry Styles’ new music, which was released earlier in May.

“Harry’s song I heard and I’ll be honest it’s not my sort of music, it’s not something I’d listen to, but I think he did a great job in doing what he wanted to do. That’s the way I’d put it best I think.” Uh oh!

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He tried to row back a little on that comment later in the conversation. “I think the funny thing is, he would say the same thing about me because he doesn’t really listen to hip-hop music, whereas it’s like my song’s more [Tyga’s] ‘Rack City’ and his song is more of a different era to something I’d listen to, I guess.”

Unleashing ‘Strip That Down’ means that 23 year old Liam is the last of the One Direction stars to release solo material, just a month or so after Styles had dropped his debut solo album.

“I’ve been working hard in the studio for over a year and I’m really excited to share this new music with my amazing fans. I’ve come a long way since our One Direction debut and I hope everyone likes my new sound as much as I do. 2017 has been a big year for me already and I’m looking forward to what the rest of it will bring.”

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