Halsey returned yesterday with “Without Me,” the first new solo song that the singer-songwriter has released since her 2017 album hopeless fountain kingdom. The Louis Bell-produced track features Halsey dropping her musical persona to address the difficulties of her public relationship with rapper G-Eazy. To help make her point, Halsey interpolates Justin Timberlake’s 2002 hit “Cry Me a River.”
On the bridge, Halsey puts her twist on the Justified track. Genius contributor MxAngel breaks it down in an annotation:
“Cry Me a River” is the second single from Timberlake’s debut solo album Justified. Produced by Scott Storch and Timbaland, it reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Much like “Without Me,” the track features Timberlake singing about a high-profile relationship. In this case, the ‘N Sync member addresses his former relationship with fellow pop singer Britney Spears:
You know that they say some things are better left unsaid
It wasn’t like you only talked to him and you know it
Don’t act like you don’t know it
And all of these things people told me
Keep messin' with my head (messin' with my head)
Elsewhere on “Without Me,” Halsey describes the ups-and-downs of a relationship:
I said I’d catch you if you fall
And if they laugh, then fuck ‘em all
And then I got you off your knees
Put you right back on your feet
Just so you could take advantage of me
Halsey is singing about G-Eazy, who she dated for a year before they broke up in July. It appears that they are back together for now, as she recently posted a photo of them together on Instagram.
This isn’t the first time that Halsey has addressed their relationship. On G-Eazy’s late 2017 single “Him & I,” she takes inspiration from the 1930s bankrobbers and star-crossed lovers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow to describe their love for each other.
In an interview with Beats 1’s Zane Lowe, Halsey explained the inspiration behind the song. “I have this record where it’s just me,” she said. “No wig, no colorful hair, no character, and it’s about my life and about my relationship that the world has watched so closely and so vehemently in the past year and a half.”
Listen to the song above and read all the lyrics to Halsey’s “Without Me” on Genius now.
