[c] In "Streets", an R&B ballad with elements of trap music, Doja Cat sings and raps about her desire to return to a former romantic partner.

It depicts Doja Cat's attempt to seduce a cab driver by performing her version of the Silhouette Challenge, after which she proceeds to trap him in a giant web.

Doja Cat released her debut studio album Amala in March 2018, four years after the viral success of her first single, "So High".

[12] A remix of "Juicy", with a guest appearance from the rapper Tyga, served as the lead single for Doja Cat's next album, Hot Pink (2019).

[13] Aliya Chaudhry of Slate argued that TikTok users' propensity of making songs go viral – often due to an Internet challenge – factored into solidifying Doja Cat's status as a household name.

[18] Doja Cat, David Sprecher, and Lydia Asrat wrote the original version of "Streets" with the track's producers Dominique and Darius Logan, brothers who comprise a band called Blaq Tuxedo.

[e] Jade Gomez of Paste called the song's vocal performance an immersive blend between a "wispy" singing voice and a "raspy" rap delivery;[27] AllMusic reviewer Fred Thomas described this as a transition from "breathy" verses into "unexpected scattershot rhymes".

Speaking on behalf of the label in an interview with Billboard, the chief operating officer John Fleckenstein thought that he and the others had "moved on" from Hot Pink with the amount of singles the album produced.

Once "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" ended and the beat dropped to signal the beginning of "Streets", TikTok users would then show themselves covered in red lighting, backlit to give the impression of a silhouette.

[33] Consequence of Sound's Lucy Shanker, in a review of Hot Pink, argued that "Streets" presents Doja Cat "in her most serious form".

"[24] Starling shared a similar opinion about this versatility, but wrote that Doja Cat ran the risk of having listeners mistake her for another artist due to Hot Pink's use of several musical styles.

Nonetheless, Starling praised Doja Cat's slow and raspy voice which was present in tracks like "Streets", believing that such vocal performances constituted one of the album's clearest.

[22] In an analysis of "Streets", Aaron Williams of Uproxx opined that Doja Cat's reaction to its growing popularity was an example of how to properly handle fame online.

He wrote that she can adapt to her audience's interests and activities, consciously capitalizing on the Internet trends that her fans create and letting them determine which songs she should promote as new singles.

[35] Similarly, staff writers at Billboard believed that the track's gradual rise to fame demonstrates Doja Cat's "innate ability" to produce hit singles and prolong the commercial success of her albums, "in an era where artists are moving between records faster than ever".

[6][36] It began to gain traction on social media platforms in the early days of 2021 after three live performances of the song, released to YouTube during the previous year, sparked interest in the track.

[40] "Streets" initially received a negligible amount of airplay; the song's chart performance was driven predominantly by streams and digital sales because of its online success.

[59] "Streets" was Doja Cat's third biggest song in the country upon the release of her third studio album Planet Her (2021), having garnered 53.6 million UK streams at the time.

[92] Because it utilizes a combination of erotic and horror elements, Rolling Stone's Claire Shaffer summarized the music video as a "sultry [...] horror-fantasy".

[23] While inside a cab on a heavily congested street, he notices Doja Cat posing as a mannequin by a shop window across the sidewalk.

[32][90] The lights suddenly change to a red color, and the music transitions from "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" to "Streets" as she dances to the beat,[32][93] seducing the cab driver while doing so.

[35] Jessica McKinney of Complex shared the same opinion: she thought that the video did "a great job of appealing to current social media trends".

[92] Heran Mamo, a staff writer for Billboard, found Doja Cat's iteration of the Silhouette Challenge to be "epic";[94] Slant Magazine's Eric Mason called the visuals "yet another fruit of the Doja-to-TikTok feedback loop".

McKinney further argued that Doja Cat has had a history of releasing "the most innovative music videos in the industry right now" and cited the one for "Streets" as the latest example of such.

[93] A live performance of "Streets" was posted to YouTube on March 5, 2020, as part of video hosting service Vevo's Lift initiative, aimed at promoting up-and-coming artists to a wider audience.

Lynn Sharpe, in a HotNewHipHop article published during the release, believed that the live performance marked Doja Cat's "latest step toward world domination".

[21][97] After winning Best New Pop Artist at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards, she performed the song again, as part of a medley that incorporated it with "Say So" and "Kiss Me More" featuring American singer SZA.

Once the medley ended, Doja Cat was lifted off the stage while showered in rays of light, appearing to levitate towards an unidentified flying object above her.