"Criminal" was written by Natasha, Ozuna, Jhay Cortez, Rafael Pina, Vicente Saavedra and its producer Haze.[1][2] Pina, Natasha's manager, sent Ozuna the song after two previously failed collaboration attempts, and Ozuna called it a "home run".[3] Pina recalled, "After several months of trying to bring up the song, there was always a situation that would have discouraged anybody but, unlike me, I never got up with a 'no' in my head and continued without anything or anyone stopping me."[3] Natasha regards "Criminal" as her second chance at a career in music and her first solo release where she had sufficient record label support. Regarding the writing process, she said: "To me, it's such a special song because I had the opportunity to write my part of the lyrics and I just really loved it. When Ozuna agreed, I was extremely excited and for some reason, I knew people were going to love it as much as we did."[4]