Problems & Selfless

Album: P3 (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is split into two parts. The first, "Problems," is about the problems PND has encountered with relationships, while the second, "Selfless," finds him asking why women don't reciprocate his feelings.
  • The two-part cut was produced by G. Ry, whose other PartyNextDoor collaborations include "SLS" and "Let's Get Married." He told Genius:

    "The foundation of 'Problems' was started in a normal busy and hectic studio session with PND and crew at Noah '40' Shebib's State of the Art Studio, also known as "SOTA" Studios located in Toronto. I found the keyboard sound that would design the chords. I was working in headphones which is pretty rare because I don't usually wear them to work because I need feeling to get my juices going, but like I said it was a busy night so I was just trying to focus on something new to come up with. I ended up saving the session on my laptop because I wanted to sit down with it later. Then once I got back home in LA I re opened the session one morning, created a completely new set of chords and got to work…very loudly. Took me the whole day, I sent it off and immediately I got a text back from him saying, 'Yeah it's on the album.' I didn't hear the song until we were at Rihanna's house weeks later.

    'Selfless' came about once after I heard 'Problems'. He just wanted me to take it to another direction while still leaving "Problems" exactly the way it is. It was bit of a task for me because we were doing so much moving around at the time and I was restricted to working in headphones at one point. Everyone even left to do a show across the country at one point while I stayed back so I had the freedom to work on it in speakers but it didn't come out the way I wanted it to so I kept working on it. Finally one night I just zoned out and it came together. I was pretty exhausted mentally so once I finished it I played it for Jaywray to give me the confirmation I needed which he signed off on then sent it off and crashed to bed. I never ended up hearing 'Selfless' and actually forgot about that part until one night recently I was at home and he sent me it. I though I was just listening to a mixed version of 'Problems' until after the first part was done and just heard 'Can I ask you crazy girls a question?' I was blown away and had to remember that that was also my beat as well lol."

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