“929” is 16th and final track on Halsey’s 2020 album ‘Manic.’ In this unique musical experience, Halsey gets very personal and confessional about her life. The song title ‘929’ is a reference to the time, 9.29 AM, and the date September 29 (9/29) of her birth.
Halsey released her third studio album ‘Manic‘ on January 17, 2020. The album was preceded by its singles such as “Clementine,” “Graveyard,” “You Should Be Sad,” “Without Me,” and “Finally // beautiful stranger.” The album also features SUGA of the KPOP boyband BTS.
On Spotify, Halsey spoke about the inspiration behind this personal track; “A stream of consciousness ranting confessional. This one was almost like a freestyle in the booth. I barely wrote anything down. I just started spilling all of my thoughts about myself and my fans and my family, and I admit so many faults and flaws all in one go. It’s forgiving, however, it ends with the acknowledgement that I am learning and growing, minute by minute.”
Listen to “929” by Halsey
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Intro
Halsey sets out the record straight that she was born on September 29th at 9:29 AM. Sounds too magical to be true. But she swears on it. So we will take her word for it, for now!
Verse
The only verse of the song goes into a deep confessional about the 25 years of existence of Halsey on this Earth. She talks about having to move from one cheap apartment to the other for the major part of her life. For the balance, she settled in Eastside, which also comes as a pivotal theme in Khalid’s song of the same name collaborating with Halsey.
Next, Halsey talks about her ex-lover and her former-idol, the rapper G-Eazy. They got into a relationship and broke up soon after, leaving Halsey shattered into pieces. She talks about how such an important person in her life, and a childhood idol, became such a monster in due course. Guess, you should not meet your idols after all, because nobody is what they seem to be.
Halsey shares that she quit smoking for good. She shared this news with her fans on Twitter in August 2019.
Halsey reminisces about a friend from Detroit who told her that she should hang on to her life because they need her in their lives as well. It is not clear what kind of impact these words had on Halsey’s life, because Halsey believes she lied about it.
Halsey talks about the relationships she had so far being meaningless and tasteless. She has already forgotten half their names. Nothing lasts forever. But some people do. Halsey is yet to meet such people.
Despite all attempts at correcting her actions, Halsey still feels awful about feeding her temptations. What these temptations are, is beyond our knowledge. Maybe it is love. Maybe it is money. It could be a recognition or a sense of pride. It very well could be her love for G-Eazy as well. She admits that she has a long way to go. Salvation is a long and tough road.
Interlude
Halsey has lied to us all this time. In the intro of the song, she swore that she was born at 9.29 am. At the end of the song, she says that it was a lie and she was actually born at 9.26 am, 3 minutes less. However, the interesting fact is that this song is exactly 3 minutes long. Did all these realizations in the song actually alter her time of birth? Did it take 3 minutes for her to realize what her life is?
Let us hear what you think about “929” by Halsey in the comments below.
Check out the complete lyrics and further song meaning breakdown on Genius.