Songfacts®:

• "Eleven" is a sultry guitar-laden tune where Khalid uses the metaphor of a late-night drive to sing about the thrills of a new crush. During the chorus, he asks his romantic interest if she likes him.
  
  Late at night, eleven, we're cruisin'
  Lately, I've been watchin' your movements
  If I'm the only one that you're choosin'
  Am I your favorite drug you've been usin'
  
  Speaking to Zane Lowe on his Beats1 Radio show, Khalid said: "I love making music you could drive to, and I feel like "Eleven" is, like, the perfect track to just play on your stereo, grip the wheel of your car and just, I mean, just go where the wind takes you. That's what this song makes me feel like."
• Khalid's go-to songwriting partner Digi and Simon Says (Selena Gomez's "Rare") helmed the track. The singer cited the turn-of-the-century R&B music of Missy Elliot and Aaliyah as inspirations for the tune.
  
  "This one, I just wanted to do something different. I'm R&B to my core, an R&B household, my mom lives, breathes, sleeps R&B music. So I really feel like this is the ode to, just, people who came before me. I really love, you know, it reminds me of, you know, like, that Timbaland era with Missy Elliot, Aaliyah, just where, music just felt so good that you just wanted to turn it on and drive."
• The song features some additional ad-libs by English singer Craig David that add to the song's nostalgic feel.
  
  "We got some of him tucked up in the back of that record for sure, a couple of hidden ad-libs, vocal chops, all that," Khalid said. "He's awesome. He's amazing. He definitely has the ad lib that's just fly and it's soaring across the song and I feel like it really makes it what it was in the first place."