Songfacts®:

• On this dark and bass-heavy track, Au/Ra explores the challenge of living with feelings of self-destruction:
  
  You know you're your own assassin
  You don't need no help with that
  It's your back that you been stabbin'
  When you gonna understand?
  
  Those moments of self-sabotage are so human, but why do we find it so easy to let our dark side take over?
• Au/Ra originally wrote "Assassin" about somebody else, before realizing that she is prone to self-sabotage herself.
  
  "I have moments where I freak out and think I make the wrong decision, kill an opportunity, or let anxiety control me, and I want people to know that it's normal to feel that way sometimes - whether you're growing up or adulating," the singer explained. "The feeling of knowing you're being self-destructive sucks, especially when you're in the moment and don't know how to break out of the pattern, but I think it's important to be able to identify the problem so you can work on fixing it."