Khalid’s “Self” Lyrics Meaning

As the title implies, this is a song that Khalid has written primarily about himself, though in addition to speaking to and of himself he also addresses the listening audience as well.

According to Khalid, he wrote this song during a ‘low point’ in his life. And you can see throughout the first verse that he is suffering from anxiety and other internal issues related to fear and self-esteem. He is also being nagged by his own inner voice – so much so that he makes attempts to run away from his own self. Ultimately it seems that the violence in the world around him is the primary cause of his angst.

In the chorus, he insinuates that he does not necessarily need any external assistance besides for some good advice, as he has always had issues when analyzing himself. He also questions if having these insecurities is supposed to make him less of a man.

The second verse is a bit more-difficult to decipher. He starts off by suggesting this his aforementioned anxiety is actually due to him being “so used to winning” that he does not know how to handle failure, and also that there is nothing wrong with him but rather his critics. Yet still he has been working on implementing changes in his life, such as monitoring his health and no longer being self-critical. Then he ends the verse by stating that if he were to unexpectedly die to “let the blood run high” and “the carpets drown”, with the meaning of those statement within the context of this song being unknown.

Additionally, he ends the track alluding to some type of transformation, possibly an attempt to give his self and listeners an ultimate sense of optimism in what is otherwise a somewhat-bleak song.