Joshua Bassett’s “Crisis” Lyrics Meaning

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on one’s personal perspective, it currently appears as if the Olivia Rodrigo / Joshua Bassett / Sabrina Carpenter love triangle thingamajig may never go away. 

Most situations in which Disney stars may end up in some sort of romantic confusion tends to more or less stay within the confines of their teenybopper fandom. But since the young Rodrigo was able to blow up massively via “Drivers License“, a super-hit song she came out with at the beginning of 2021 that many believe is about her relationship with Bassett (and by extension Carpenter), then the floodgates were opened in terms of this purported drama staying alive indefinitely, i.e. as long as it continues to prove profitable. 

“Crisis”

And interestingly, that is exactly what Joshua confesses to at the beginning of this track, that his label is encouraging him “to never waste a crisis”. And he goes on to present himself as someone who prefers not to address the aforementioned topic, being a better man so to speak, but it’s like he has no choice. 

But of course Joshua coming off like this is sort of a stretch, since it has already been deemed that he responded to Rodrigo about a week after “Drivers License” came out. He did so via his own track entitled “Lie Lie Lie“.

Eventually, after some months, all of the publicity concerning the aforenoted rumors started to come down. And even though both Bassett and Carpenter also threw their hats into the ring, it was clear that Rodrigo emerged victorious from a commercial standpoint. 

So more realistically, what Josh’s label was probably telling him is something like ‘your songs aren’t selling too well, so keep the drama alive’.

But we are not trying to minimize what the young man may have gone through in the process. For instance, since Rodrigo had the biggest hit out of the trio, then logic would dictate that more fans were on her side than that of Bassett’s. And the vocalist goes on to express in the second verse that he actually “got death threats” as a result of the aforenoted situation.

The Addressee

Then, if Olivia is in fact the intended addressee, Joshua goes on to rather accuse her of “fanning the fire”. Simply put, he is saying she is not letting their old drama die – in the name of profit. 

And whereas that allegation may also, in a sense, be a stretch, the truth is that as it currently stands, “Drivers License” is Olivia’s signature song (as well as one of the biggest hits of 2021). 

So even if she has gotten over whatever had occurred between her and Joshua, which presumably she has considering that they continued to be co-workers throughout the year, it’s still as if indirectly, whenever she performs that tune she is in fact propagating an old tiff.

But Bassett’s emotional focus isn’t even so much on the business side of things per se. Instead the reason he most feels unfairly treated is because, once again assuming that Rodrigo is the addressee of this track, from his standpoint, he did in fact love her. 

Moreover he implies that she’s the one who dumped him, not vice versa. So it’s like, put yourself in Joshua’s shoes. You’re dating someone, and you’re both famous musicians. The person dumps you and then afterwards drops a track insinuating that you rather did her dirty. 

Moreover in doing so, she proceeds to make other negative comments about you which in reality are ‘half-truths’. So yes, Bassett is in fact making another attempt to capitalize off of this entire spectacle. But what he’s telling Olivia is sort of like ‘I learn it by watching you’.

Takeaway

But of course as far as us outsiders go, since we weren’t there whenever what is supposed to have happened had in fact gone down, we don’t know what actually transpired. That’s one of the reasons why such allegations are referred to as rumors, because at the end of the day it’s like you can’t prove them true or false either way.

And yes, having your heart broken – on top of dirty laundry aired, receiving death threats, etc. – can in fact be classified as a “crisis”. So maybe Joshua’s label does have a point here, that since he, by his own account, is going through some kind of personal hell, then he might as well generate some income by releasing a few songs accordingly.

Facts about “Crisis”

This song is part of an EP. And the said project perhaps can be better defined as a mini-album, entitled “Crisis/ Secret/Set Me Free”. It was released by Warner Records on 3 December 2021. 

This project only consists of three tracks, of which it is named after. The songs are as follows:

• “Crisis”
• “Secret”
• “Set Me Free”

Moreover these songs form a trilogy. And “Crisis”, as implied by the album’s title, is the first installment of the lot.

Joshua, who is primarily a musical actor by profession, has insinuated that he is the primary writer of “Crisis”. 

And he’s credited as one of the authors of this song. The other authors are:

• Derrick Southerland
• Mikey Reaves

The latter of whom is also credited with the song’s production.

The music video to this track was directed by Keenan O’Reilly. It received about half a million views 24 hours after being published on YouTube.

Important to Note

In terms of Joshua and Olivia’s aforenoted working relationship, they co-star on a popular Disney+ series. The show is called High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

Whatever may have happened between them romantically is speculated to have occurred during the first season of the show. In this season, the pair portrayed romantic interests. And even after all of the Sabrina Carpenter-related drama, they did go on to co-star in a second season of the High School Musical. This second season first aired in mid-May 2021. Interestingly, they also agreed to film a third. 

However, it seems that earlier we may have done a bit of stretching of our own. And why? This is because even though their working relationship has continued, Joshua has noted that Olivia hasn’t spoken to him since the dropping of “Drivers License” in January of 2021.