Selena Gomez's New Song “Cut You Off” is About “An A**hole Boy Who Shall Not Be Named”

Kara Nesvig

Updated January 10, 2020 at 9:24 AM

Selena Gomez's much-anticipated new album, Rare, dropped today, Jan. 10, and fans are absolutely thrilled to see their fave thriving personally and professionally. The album, which is Selena's first since 2015's Revival, is a deeply personal mix of songs about finding yourself, letting go of your past, and recognizing your self-worth, and one song in particular seems to address a particularly trying and dramatic time in Selena's life.

"Cut You Off," a slow jam towards the end of the album, is about saying goodbye to a relationship that's dragging you down. "I imagine all the endless places I could know/if I drop, drop and I let you go," Selena sings. Is it giving you echoes of her on-again, off-again relationship with one Justin Drew Bieber? While nothing in the song explicitly addresses the Biebs or their journey by name, one of the songwriters on "Cut You Off," Liza Owen, shared a post about the song on Instagram, that hints at its origins. "Chloe Angelides & David Pramik and I wrote a song called 'Cut You Off' about an asshole boy who shall not be named and our super empowering baby is finally coming out," she wrote.

Of course, just because the song sounds like it could be about Selena and Justin doesn't mean it is. The writers may have written the song with Selena in mind, or they may have just written an empowering breakup anthem pulling from their own experiences. Selena herself didn't contribute any lyrics, though something in the song must have resonated with her since she chose to record and include it on her album.

A certain set of lyrics has fans scratching their heads. At one point, Selena sings, "Gotta chop-chop all the extra weight/I've been carrying for fourteen-hundred-sixty days." Fourteen hundred sixty days = four years, exactly the length of time since Revival ... and possibly, the length of Selena and Justin's tumultuous relationship? "I've been carrying it for fourteen-hundred and sixty days? How could I confuse that sh*t for love? Jelena = lasted 4 years. 1460 days = 4 years," tweeted one fan. However, another was quick to point out that it could be more about the album and experience itself rather than Justin. "It' not about Jelena, it's about the album, it came after 4 years, she waited to tell us the whole story," they wrote. Also while the timeline of Jelena is murky, their relationship likely started around 2009/2010.

Regardless of the subject matter, "Cut You Off" is exactly what we needed to hear right now, and we'll be binge-listening to Rare (and decoding possible clues) all weekend long.