Songfacts®:

• Born Abubakar Baker Shariff-Farr, Bakar grew up in North London's Camden and has roots in Yemen and Tanzania. He dropped his first solo mixtape, Badkid, in May 2018, then in September 2019, Bakar came through with the EP Will You Be My Yellow? with "Hell N Back" the lead single.
• In this jam, Bakar takes us on a trip down memory lane, reminiscing about all the good times he's had with his lover, especially when they first met. But let's be real, Bakar had to grind and hustle his way through some tough times before finding his soulmate. He was struggling, turning to substances to cope, and felt hella lonely. With his girl by his side, he's finally been able to find happiness and feel complete. Dude had to go through hell and back, but now he's found peace.
• Bakar makes a direct reference to the EP title in the first verse:
  
  Would you be my light, be my yellow?
  P.Y.T. walking down Portobello
  Put a smile on this face at the end of the day
  
  Bakar's love interest has unique qualities that other girls he was with in the past didn't.
• Bakar co-wrote the breezy song with Beach Noise, an American production collective comprising Johnny Kosich, Jake the Snake, and Matt Schaeffer. They co-produced several tracks on Kendrick Lamar's 2022 Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers album and K-Dot's cousin Baby Keem's The Melodic Blue record.
• The Aiden Cullen-directed video shows Bakar strolling on an empty beach in the early hours.
• "Hell N Back" became a sleeper hit in the United States, topping Billboard's Adult Alternative Airplay chart and being certified Gold in January 2022. It also hit Gold status in Australia in 2020 and the UK in 2023.
• "Hell N Back" entered the UK singles chart for the first time in March 2023 when it soundtracked the teaser trailer for the Pixar film Elemental.
• Bakar also included "Hell n Back" on his second album, Halo, released on September 22, 2023 on Black Butter Records. The song returned to the UK Singles Chart at #49 the following week.
• For Bakar, his breakout track "Hell N Back" has been a double-edged sword. "I've had such a love-hate relationship with this song over the years," he confessed to Apple Music. "I've fallen out of love with it and shunned it, but I've grown to just love it. As a song it's one of my favorites I ever made, but just because of what it's become. I never wanted to be an artist who had this one beacon shining so brightly that it could potentially smother out its siblings, but I've ended up coming to terms with it and I'm grateful for it."
  
  Bakar grappled with how to include "Hell N Back" on his 2023 album, Halo. Enter Summer Walker, who recorded a duet version with him. "Summer Walker wrote a verse and sung the chorus with me on this," Bakar enthused. "She's done it so well, and she's the only person I could see doing it. She represents so much of what I was trying to put across on this song. There's something very Amy Winehouse about her to me."
• Spring 2024 saw a surge in popularity for Summer Walker's "Hell N Back" remix thanks to TikTok. The verse "I was over love, I had enough, then I found you" became the anthem for a viral trend where users gushed about their significant others.