Songfacts®:

• Craig David first met Bastille frontman and songwriter Dan Smith when they were both appearing on BBC Radio 1's breakfast show. He recalled to Artist Direct:
  
  "He showed a lot of love and said he was a big fan of my music and my albums from Born to Do It all the way through. And I was like, 'Oh man, I love Bastille,' and then we ended up in the studio and we wrote a song called, 'I Know You', which for me is a very special song, even with both of our vocals on it, which I love the textures of our vocals, but even if someone else had written that song, I would be like, 'Oh, I wish I'd written that song, and I don't say that very often."
• Craig David told The Independent that he is proud of this R&B banger:
  
  "It's weird, when you've written a certain number of songs, you know when a song has something. I'm so glad we actually did it, because we were talking about it for so long. But to also have a song that in its own right, if someone else was singing it and I heard it I'd be like 'I wish I'd written that.'
  
  I think every session I approach as something fun. When me and Dan came in together we were in sync, we were both open to doing something that leant a little bit out of our comfort zones. I think it'll surprise a lot of Bastille fans, and my fans as well maybe. There's something about this song. It feels like we delivered on something more than we could have delivered apart. These songs feel like they'll stand the test of time."
• The song was released a couple of months after Bastille's stint as Craig David's "backing band" when he made a surprise appearance for their September 26, 2016 Apple Music Festival show. It received its debut live performance during BBC One's music show It Sounds Like Friday Night on November 24, 2017.
• Craig David said regarding the song's meaning: "Me and Dan wanted to write a song about inclusion, love for our friends and making great memories together. 'I Know You' is a nice way of reminding us to celebrate life and how simple things like being on a night out with our mates really does give us all so much pleasure."
• Craig David told NME the Bastille collaboration is a perfect tune for 2018. "Hip-hop is leaning into that place where hip hop and R&B joins," he explained. "If you were there the first time round, you look now and think, 'This is the 2000s playing out again.' That's why it's right for us to do what we doing together. Right now it's a good time for both of our styles of music."
• David told Genius that he immediately thought of Bastille singer Dan Smith while coming up with the melody for track. "I had this melody idea of, 'through the night,' and I was singing it in this kind of Bastille, Dan way," he explained. "And I was like, 'Oh man. This sounds like, this feels like destiny to me.' Do you know what I mean?"
  
  It seemed that destiny had intended the collaboration to happen. "[I] messaged him, and he literally got back to me straight away," David recalled. "He was like, 'Oh man, yeah, I'd love to.' I said, 'Well, I'm in South London, and I don't know whereabouts you are. I don't even know if you're in the country.' And he's like, 'I'm in South London, too!' I'm like, 'What? I'm in Fulham.' And he goes, 'I'm in Fulham.' And I was like, 'Bro, are you in the booth or something that I haven't seen you?'"