It was written by Josh Cumbee, Shari Short, and Afshin Salmani, and produced by NONFICTION for Candy's unreleased album Daddy Issues.

Moving away from her past rap sound from her 2014 EP Opulence, the track is a mid-tempo pop song revolving around issues relating to commercialism, superficiality, and capitalism.

Darren Craig directed the song's music video, which Candy envisioned as a satire on political and socioeconomic repression of women and misogyny.

[1][2][3] While "Paper or Plastic" was released to promote Brooke Candy's unreleased album Daddy Issues, the 2017 follow-up song "Living Out Loud" was chosen as the project's lead single.

[4][5] In 2017, the release for Daddy Issues was canceled after Candy left RCA to record an extended play (EP) that returned to her original punk-inspired rap sound.

[4] Mike Wass of Idolator felt that Candy was making a conscious move away from "the twisted white-girl rap" present in her past songs "Opulence" and "I Wanna Fuck Right Now".

Noisey's Daisy Jones interpreted the words as a reference to Australian singer Sia's 2013 single "Elastic Heart", who served as the executive producer of Daddy Issues.

[4] Zarah Cheng of Hypebae praised Candy's vocals as "soothingly wispy", calling the song a "sultry track filled with a throbbing dream beat and slowly paced synth notes".

[14] While Wass initially responded positively to the track as showcasing Candy's versatility as an artist,[8] he was more critical of it during his review of the follow-up single "Living Out Loud", including it in his list of the "string of flops" released to promote Daddy Issues.

[18] Mimi Davies wrote the core theme for the song and its video was "[t]hat being fabulous is not synonymous with equality" and a woman is still controlled by the patriarchy even if she can purchase objects for herself.

[9] A writer from Promonews.tv found the visual to a "creative new take" on Western fashion, pop music videos, and nudity, comparing it to the work of American film director Russ Meyer.