Selfish Lyrics
[Verse 1]
What if I'm selfish? What if I'm the reason behind it?
What if I'm overprotective with family because of how mine is?
What if I'm jealous?
Maybe that's what's making me nervous
What if my effort of pulling you close are pushing you further?
What if I'm selfish?
What if the reason they call me "The Greatest"
Is also the reason that me and you livin' on different pages?
What if I'm too much?
What if I settled and I didn't fight?
What if my fear of doing it wrong's the reason I haven't been doing it right?
What if I'm selfish?
What if the kids just wanna be kids
And don't wanna live in and out of the news and chill
And don't even wanna be rich?
And what if I'm so self-centred that I don't even realise what I could miss?
And what if I'm, what if I'm fallin' in the abyss?
Maybe it's— (What if I'm—)
Yeah
[Chorus]
Maybe it's dark, maybe it's day, maybe it's too many nights in L.A.
Look at the house in Surrey and still, all of the feelings we hid in the Hills
Maybe it's you, maybe it's me, maybe the media or the provoking
Gave you my heart, I laid it bare, funny you went and you poked it
What if it's better with me out the way? What if it's better with me out the—
Like, what if it's better with me out the way?
What if I'm poison? What if I'm cancer?
What if I'm dangerous and I'm wild?
Look in my eyes, you're seein' a child
What if he's broken? What if he's scared?
What if he's ostracised and vilified?
See, peace is just an illusion
Ain't got a home, I live in confusion
What if I'm selfish?
[Verse 2]
Forever, forever, forever
I manage the symptoms forever
You can love how you want
I know to give is no loss
Can you settle for second?
And let go of your idea of heaven?
I know it's a lot
But it might be all that I've got
I wanna throw myself in
Snap off the mask
I want a clown that sings
And a love that lasts
I wanna escape the wedding
Go with you to the carriage
I wanna give you my life
Or at least something to cherish
But what if I'm selfish?
[Verse 3]
I done a lot of things I regret
Like announcin' our split on a text
Don't know why, but I still buy gifts for my ex
Watchin' her stories to see if she checks
I'm a mess, I don't know if my head's in the game
She told me don't mention her name, I'm suggestin' the same
I'ma get through the pain, wanna see the sunshine, gotta get through the rain
Bag full of trauma, I left on the train
I'm ashamed for the days that I said that I changed
I'm a cheat, sat in a therapist chair cryin' like a baby in the middle of a Harley Street
Like I'm fightin' this sickness that I can't beat, I'm disloyal
And then I go mad, reflection tellin' me I'm just like my dad
And this white woman tellin' me it ain't so bad
Middle of my sentence she cut me off, like, "Sorry, David, we don't have any more time
Your appointment till 4 and it's 3:55"
Bruh, I feel like she wouldn't even care if I died
Man, I tried all this therapy shit, man, I tried all this therapy shit
Bruh, I know, wouldn't even say I'm depressed
But I'm low in the Grosvenor Casino in Edgware Road
I've got too many sins to atone and a voice in my head
Like, at this point, like, at this point where you should've been rich, like
At this point where you should've had kids, like
At this point should've built you a life, like
Look around you, don't you feel you're behind? Like
Look around you, don't you feel you're behind? Like
Look around you, don't you feel like, like
What if I never find love?
Don't know if it's scarier, the thought of us two together or bein' alone
I'm so used to bein' alone
What if I'm somebody nobody wants?
What if I'm damaged or what if I waited too long
And have mould on me? What if I'm cold on me?
What if I cut off the hand that I hold on me?
What if I'm rapidly spiralin' and tired and jaded?
Or what if I'm faded? Or what if anxiety's growin' inside me
That I might have left all my best years behind me?
Or what if I'm scared as I touch twenty-seven
That you don't appear in my idea of heaven?
Or what if I'm, what if I'm
What if I'm selfish?
________________ End ________________
Selfish Song Meaning (Dave)
“Selfish” comes from the third studio album "The Boy Who Played the Harp" by UK rapper Dave, featuring the haunting vocals of James Blake. The album dropped on October 24, 2025 via Neighbourhood Recordings. The project marks a deeply introspective turn from Dave, one concerned less with outward bravado and more with inner reckoning.
In “Selfish,” both artists co-write and co-produce the track, speaking directly from a place of vulnerability. The song captures a moment of self-examination as much as a commentary on the consequences of success, relationships, identity, and legacy.
The Emotional Core
At its heart, “Selfish” reads like a confessional letter — a reckoning with the question of what happens when ambition, identity, and inner insecurity collide. Dave repeatedly asks “What if I’m selfish?”: what if the behaviour we attribute to sacrifice is actually self-centred; what if the grand gestures hide a deeper fracture? Over the first verse, we sense a man wrestling with the duality of being labelled “The Greatest,” yet living on different pages from those he loves. His protective instincts toward family become a source of guilt. His desire to pull someone close might be pushing them away. The track uses the simplest of pronouns — I, you, we — yet layers them with distance and uncertainty.
In the chorus, the setting expands: nights in L.A., a house in Surrey, the media’s glare, the visuals of a life achieved yet emotionally unmoored. The refrain “What if it’s better with me out the way?” resonates with self-sabotage, fear of being the poison in someone else’s life. Blake’s ethereal vocal colour adds a spectral weight to the tape: “Look in my eyes, you’re seeing a child… peace is just an illusion.” The child mirrors the flawed adult: broken, scared, ostracised. The religious metaphor of peace being illusion fuels the duality of the survivor and the self-destructer.
Verse two shifts into imagination and desire. Dave wants a “love that lasts,” the innocence of skipping the wedding, escaping to a carriage — yet he knows what he offers might not be enough. “Can you settle for second? And let go of your idea of heaven?” Overnight success meets domestic inertia; the promise of something authentic meets the fear that the speaker might not live up to what’s offered.
In the third verse the tone is rawer. We hear discreet markers of real-life struggle: announcing a split via text, buying gifts for an ex, sitting in therapy on Harley Street, and facing the mirror where he sees his father. The anxiety of age (“as I touch twenty-seven…”) mixes with the dread of being alone when a partner doesn’t appear in his “idea of heaven.” The question “What if I’m somebody nobody wants?” underscores the fear beneath the fame — that public adoration doesn’t immunise against self-worth eroding.
What It Represents
“Selfish” is more than a track about guilt or fame. It’s about inheritance — emotional, familial, cultural — and the cost of survival. Dave has long articulated the British-Black male experience with nuance, and here he examines the cost of carrying the weight of being “great” while still feeling unresolved inside. Critics suggest The Boy Who Played the Harp might be his most important album yet, torn between the public image of success and the private battle with self.
For the audience, the song opens a mirror. It invites you to ask when protection becomes possession, when ambition becomes abandonment, when self-love becomes self-destruction. It resonates with anyone who has felt the triumph and emptiness of having what you thought you wanted — and still wondering whether you’re the problem.
Conclusion
In “Selfish,” Dave and James Blake craft a moment of rare clarity. The instrumentation, the production, and the lyrics all lean into a truth: that the hardest person to be honest with is ourselves. Success does not suspend our childhood fears, our relational baggage, or our longing for authenticity. In this four-minute dialogue with self, Dave lays bare the possibility that his greatest achievement might also be his greatest undoing — and that the question “What if I’m selfish?” might be the first step toward something resembling peace.
___________ ____________ ___________
The Boy Who Played the Harp (Tracklist)
- History
- 175 Months
- No Weapons
- Chapter 16
- Raindance
- Selfish
- My 27th Birthday
- Marvellous
- Fairchild
- The Boy Who Played the Harp
FAQ Section
Who sung the song "Selfish" by Dave?
The song "Selfish" was sung by Dave & James Blake.
Who wrote the song "Selfish" by Dave?
Dave & James Blake.
Who produced the song "Selfish" by Dave?
Dave & James Blake.
Music Video
Song Details
Artists: Dave, James Blake
Album: The Boy Who Played the Harp
Genre: Rap
Language: English
Released: October 24, 2025
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