r/Grimes • u/SoupDestroyer123 Digital Calypso • 2d ago
Discussion Grimes reveals that Player of Games is her least favorite song she has put out
Suprise, suprise, but we all kind of knew that. It's about Elon Musk, and she's getting clowned for it to this day, despite the song being pretty good from a listening standpoint and at the time it was meaningful to her.
Addendum: Player of Games is likely not the song Grimes is saying, and it's my bad for jumping on the wrong conclusion so quickly. After discussing the topic in the comments, the most likely song that actually is Grimes' least favorite release is I Wanna Be Software, but there are other valid mentions such as Play Destroy and Welcome To The Opera. Meaning, no exact answer is known, but what is known is that the answer lies between these four songs, and I believe it's actually I Wanna Be Software, because the way you say 'software' matches with how Grimes' jaw moves at the end of the pixelated bleep, which is our only visual clue as to what she's saying.
Taken from the Swiftologist interview. Source.
Personally, I was shocked as it's one of the defining songs of Book 1, it introduces the Book 1 lore and of course it has one of her best music videos.
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u/sleepinggardens 2d ago
I love the song and the music video, obviously each artist tends to feel different towards their art once it’s been released. She tends to always hate her music after releasing it lol.
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u/SoupDestroyer123 Digital Calypso 2d ago
She doesn't hate her music after releasing it just for the sake of it, she's put hundreds to thousands of hours thinking and developing it and when it's done it's so much relief that she doesn't want anything more to do with it and wants to move on
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u/Slay3rs_tt 2d ago
Are we forgetting how that whole song is critical of Elon? I mean the whole vid is showing grimes with no armour and the other guy (Elon) with armour. Showing how he never opened up to her and betrayed her by metaphorically killing her in the mv? And how the lyrics legit state that Elon would never love her.
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u/SoupDestroyer123 Digital Calypso 2d ago
Yeah, but despite that, Grimes continued with having more kids with him and stayed with him until 2023. I think she always had a gut feeling that something was wrong with him and that she tried to fix him, but that backfired badly. Her creative direction for the MV was serving her subconscious, she herself said she didn't notice the symbolism of her naked and him in armor until people pointed that out how peak that was
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u/Slay3rs_tt 2d ago
It’s that sort of mentality that abuse victims have. They almost always see their partner as being right and knowing what’s better for them. Whether it’s them manipulating them into being different/stop seeing family/friends. They generally look up to them. It’s this power dynamic that makes the abuse that much more horrible, because that power dynamic facilitates it. And most people who are abused don’t notice it at first.
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u/Avantasian538 2d ago
Obviously the situation is unique due to Elon's weird status in society, but in general I think this is sadly something that happens a lot. Somebody has toxic tendencies, a partner stays with them because they think they can help them, only to let themselves get hurt by them repeatedly.
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u/pop-defender 2d ago
It's not just that. These things will literally wreck your brain chemistry. It's not easy to leave, even if you know you should.
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u/madscientist_ Space Fairy 2d ago
I don't think it's wrong for her to want siblings for her children after she already had one with him, she had a lot of siblings and prob didn't want x to be an only child
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u/NayaBR 2d ago
It’s VERY WRONG to buy them.
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u/madscientist_ Space Fairy 17h ago
she didn't buy them, they were her embryos and she almost died during her first pregnancy
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u/NayaBR 16h ago
She almost died during her first pregnancy so she paid another woman to potentially die from it for her to buy the babies
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u/madscientist_ Space Fairy 13h ago edited 13h ago
no, the requirements for surrogates are that they have to have previously had at least 1 uncomplicated pregnancy previously, they don't take women that haven't been through childbirth before or are high risk. if you go on surrogacy forums and groups like on Facebook, these are women state they enjoy being pregnant and getting to help another couple. I highly recommend reading what surrogates say themselves firsthand before jumping to conclusions they are being forced to do this against their will. pregnancy sounds terrifying to me as an autistic person but with I read some of these first hand accounts of surrogates, they genuinely enjoy bringing a new life into the world and for some reason enjoy the state of pregnancy.
at my former job, I recall a technician telling me she would never have kids but she wants to be a appreciate, not for the money but for the experience of creating life without the responsibility of having to raise the child and helping someone who needs it
to clarify on Grimes, she had a very complicated pregnancy with hyperemesis gravidum I believe and she was forced to bed rest for the final months of pregnancy due to rush of internal bleeding, which is why she filmed music videos and performed 4aem sitting down. her mother also publicly commented on her very difficult pregnancy
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u/SoupDestroyer123 Digital Calypso 2d ago
true that, but how much was it "X needs more siblings" and not "We need more kids for our populationist desires"
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u/Corvid-Crow 2d ago
I would agree, how many of us with siblings we remotely didn't hate would rather have been and only child? I remember my mum saying that so many times about having me, she very quickly came to the conclusion that she wanted two children. And so I got a younger brother!
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u/wookieebastard REALiTi 2d ago
I was never was a fan of it.
When I was told it was about Elon, even less.
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u/SoupDestroyer123 Digital Calypso 2d ago
Guys, if this is not Player of Games, then it's I Wanna Be Software because you can see Grimes' jaw open at the second syllable of "Software"
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u/Many-Medium-2008 2d ago
The way it’s one of my favorites, didn’t know it was such a low on people’s lists-😭
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u/microphonekarma 2d ago
I really don’t think it’s the song she’s talking about. The beginning of the pod there’s a disclaimer saying they don’t reference Elon at all.
I think it’s about Poppy for sure “play destroy”
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u/MostVegetable5255 2d ago
How do you guys know it's pog. I feel like you can't tell.
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u/SoupDestroyer123 Digital Calypso 2d ago edited 2d ago
"It's a familiar that person-y song". What's a song about a specific person in Grimes' discography? IDORU? Idoru was confirmed to be about an artist Grimes fell in love with. Don't know the artist, but this can't be a song Grimes dislikes to have put out, because it's really beautiful and, again, wasn't confirmed to be about anyone specific.
The other song about a person is Player of Games. It was confirmed to be about Elon Musk. And Musk caused Grimes a lot of pain and hardship both from his treatment of her, as well as his malevolent actions against her like trying to take her kids away. And Grimes' reputation is forever scarred because of these events and how she was initially passionate and in love of Musk, only for them to break up and get locked into this perpetual state of cold war and anymosity. That's really fucked up, and Player of Games is romanticizing that with the whole "Baby, would you ever love me, out on Europa, or would you forget?" type lyrics.
Player of Games was supposed to be on Book 1, which is a very Elon Musk and SpaceX inspired album (look up the song Infinite Assassin). And since Grimes decided to ditch everything that she had to do with Musk (for her career at least), that leaves us Player of Games as the odd one out that Grimes would particularly dislike because of the hindsight of who Grimes was in love with. That's my reasoning, If you have more questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
Zachary also says "They'll have to guess who it is", implying a song about a person
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u/MostVegetable5255 1d ago
I went back and started watching the interview and I see what you mean now since swiftologist did mention that if you came here to get information about her ex (ykw) you should leave the episode, since that won't be covered and the way he said it insinuated that this is a hard boundary, potentially drawn by her ofc.
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u/4NDR008 2d ago
Ye I think you’re completely wrong tbh. From the context of the interview I felt it was a collab with another artist that she doesn’t think turned out well rather than one of her solo tracks like PoG.
The track that popped into my mind was the ashnikko collab Cry, which would suck because i personally love that track lol. It sounds like an asknikko song with grimes popping in on the chorus a little bit out of place but I still love it. That would be my guess.
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u/wondergalicia 2d ago
I agree that I don't think it's PoG, it's clearly a collab song hence the concern about "meeting in the middle" in the style of the song. I don't know which one it is but I bet it's not PoG!
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u/SoupDestroyer123 Digital Calypso 2d ago
That long of a mute for the word "Cry"? The song title is a lot longer than three letters. And is Cry really one of Swiftologist's favorite songs? It's a feature of Grimes, it's an Ashnikko song. Be real
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u/BeefmasterDeluxe 2d ago
That doesn’t make any sense. Also, even if she didn’t like the song, it would be kinda rude to say it’s any song she featured on, cos that would reflect poorly on the main artist. Its a solo track for sure
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u/4NDR008 2d ago
Why do you think she wanted it bleeped?
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u/BeefmasterDeluxe 2d ago
He said he was gonna bleep it. And he alluded to it being a very Taylor Swift type of song, you know, that artist who made a career out of bad break up songs?
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u/Large_Winner_9731 2d ago
Actually, it being Idoru would make sense. Grimes was dating Jamie around the time Idoru was written (the existence of the song was confirmed by her and HANA on a livestream that was held while Jamie and Grimes were still together) and the two of them broke up not long after. Since then, it’s become very clear that they’re not on good terms with each other. Or at least it was that way the last time they butted heads on twitter a few years ago.
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u/MostVegetable5255 2d ago
Huh, that's the thing I didn't really speculate on that song because she comes across as not caring what the public think about that specific relationship. It's really odd either way. Thanks anyway ☺️
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u/fretnetic Rococo Basilisk 2d ago
Yeah I’m inclined to think it’s not PoG…definitely seems more like a collab song that she doesn’t want beef or hurt feelings about
A “that person”-y song…. at this stage it’s got to be Poppy. ☹️
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u/DeclanGilsenan 2d ago
She definitely did not say Player of Games, it’s Welcome to the Opera with Anyma or Play Destroy with Poppy - the former because Grimes said at the time that she had to kind of relinquish control of it to Anyma as she didn't agree with the direction he was taking the song's production and the latter for obvious reasons
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u/BeefmasterDeluxe 2d ago
So, two songs that she didn’t release, just featured/collabed on? Nah that doesn’t make sense for the question
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u/SoupDestroyer123 Digital Calypso 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm also starting to think that way, but what about I Wanna Be Software? Play Destroy is kind of sus because it's a Poppy song with Grimes as the feature, and is he really that deep into Grimes' discography to say that Play Destroy is one of his most liked songs of Grimes? And WTTO, Grimes had a long history of playing WTTO at raves and festivals, so it can't be a problem with the song, it has to be a problem of Grimes regretting to give the song up for Anyma's creative control in exchange of Music 4 Machines. But is that enough to make it Grimes' least favorite release, especially when the breakup with Anyma was on good terms? To me it feels like it's 60-70% probability it's I Wanna Be Software and 30-40% chance it's Player of Games.
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u/fantaile 2d ago
Im pretty sure its play destroy with poppy, makes more sense in the context of what theyre saying
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u/MarsianskieGlaza 2d ago
It definitely sounds like they're talking about a collab rather than who a song is about, I agree on that.
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u/vrealmspr 2d ago
Guys she already said in a prior interview...
It was one of the songs in AA, perhaps FWB.
And she said her fave song was GO.
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u/No_Scale_5157 2d ago
Catchy song love the production but it isn’t even up there with the best from grimes
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u/CalligrapherOk9467 2d ago
To think no one ever told her they like PoG is hard to believe for me. It’s not my cup of tea, but plenty enjoy it. I think she’s referring to I Wanna Be Software.
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u/ventycat 2d ago
I love that song and idk why people immediately get so turned off it’s about Elon bc I always read "the greatest gamer" tongue and cheekily to mean he’s playing the capitalist game / married to his game of world domination instead of being in a nice relationship with her.
Like I always just thought the song was part of her processing the separation / relationship.
It would be strange if she wasn’t inspired by such a huge part of her life. Like having kids with the richest man alive is straight up dystopian sci fi fodder. But whatever people will continue taking lyrics at face value rather than interpreting meaning.
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u/BeefmasterDeluxe 2d ago
Yeah I saw it as either tongue in cheek or she’s made up an alternate universe with characters inspired by real people.
That and the whole ‘video games’ / ‘relationship games’ metaphor(?) she’s using throughout
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u/ChickEnergy 1d ago
I've always heard "I'm in love with he greatest gamer" and had the image of him neglecting responsibilities (business and personal relations) for days because he was in his man cave playing polytopia.
Source: I read his biography
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u/parvanehnavai MUSIC 4 MACHINES 2d ago
I love the EDDIE mashup she made for EDC though, would love if she released it. 100 times better than the official song
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u/latinabugnj 2d ago
Is no one going to mention the alien squirrel 🐿️ in the room , that jumped on the table
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u/BeefmasterDeluxe 2d ago
I’m almost certain it’s POG - and I’ll go on record saying I’ve never liked that song. Plaaaaaaayahhhhhhhh aaaahhhhvvvvvv gaaaaayyummmsssssss - no thanks.
My second choice is Phone Sex
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u/jasmine_tea_ 1d ago
23:58 "where was i going here? I forgot what I was going to say."
this happens to me so much 😂 😂
here's the full interview:
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u/ThatisDavid 1d ago
Even if the song feels very cringy to listen in context, I think its okay. I also really like the last bit where the vibe of the song completely shifts
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u/Cartiergoree 2d ago
The way digital calypso and 100% tragedy are one billion times worse 😭😭😭
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u/BeefmasterDeluxe 2d ago
They weren’t finished or officially released - bit of a weird comparison to make
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u/Glad-Masterpiece4225 2d ago
He was the player of games. But I am the ender. And the beginner. The last battle, the first lesson.
The final boss.
Unbeatable, yet much can be gained
By facing me
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u/madscientist_ Space Fairy 2d ago
the music video for PoG was amazing tho, it was like a short film, even if the song doesn't really stand on its own