The title "Hips Don't Lie" comes from Shakira's in-studio mantra about how her band members need to watch her hips to determine where a song they're working on needs to go - if they're not moving, something is wrong. "I would tell them, 'Listen, hips don't lie. If they're not moving, this isn't working. If they shake, we're in good shape,'" she said. Shakira then took her private joke with the band and put it in the context of the song, which is about "a woman dancing, her seductive powers through dance."

Wyclef Jean does the rap. He based it on his song "Dance Like This," which he recorded with Claudette Ortiz for the Dirty Dancing (Havana Nights) soundtrack in 2004. Jean explained to Live Daily why he remade it with Shakira: "God works in mysterious ways. I had to do a record for Shakira. They wanted me to remix 'La Tortura.' I was like, 'No. I have this record that I really think if Shakira comes in with me and we redo it, I really think it'll work.' I think it just missed in 2004 because it wasn't promoted right and probably the right artist wasn't on the record. I guess my instincts were right."

The intro comes from the song "Amores Como El Nuestro" by Jerry Rivera. The trumpet flourish was taken from the song "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" by Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz.