- Justin Bieber is getting candid about going through his struggles as a public figure
- In his new album Swag, Bieber addresses how people asking him if he’s okay weighs on him in the track “Therapy Session”
- Bieber surprised his fans with the 21-track album on Friday, July 11
Justin Bieber is getting candid about his past struggles on his new album.
Bieber, 31, dropped surprise album Swag on Friday, July 11 and throughout the 21-track record, he opens up about being asked how he’s doing.
In “Therapy Session,” Bieber talks with comedian Druski about fans assuming he’s “losing his mind” when posting on social media. “And he’s like, ‘Nah, I think he’s just bein’ a human bein’, He’s enjoyin’ social media like the f—ing rest of us. He’s just doin’ it his own way,” Druski, 30, said of Bieber.
The “Baby” singer agreed. “And that’s been a tough thing for me recently,” he explained. “It’s feelin’ like, you know, I have had to go through a lot of my struggles as a human, as all of us do really publicly.”
“And so people are always askin’ if I’m okay. And that starts to really weigh on mе.”
Justin and Jack Bieber on ‘Swag’. Renell Medrano
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Druski agreed, saying it was like being asked why you’re crying and that being the reason to make someone who wasn’t upset before cry. “It starts to make me feel like I’m the one with issues and everyone else is perfect,” added Bieber.
Elsewhere on the album, on the track “All I Can Take,” the musician also alludes to his vulnerable Instagram posts. “These symptoms of my sensitivity/ Feels worse knowin’ no one’s listening/This is it, I can’t change, Lord knows I try,” he sings.
In “Too Long,” Bieber said, “Yeah, sometimes I get insecure, I be tryin’, uh, you know I do.”
In the months leading to the surprise album drop, Bieber had been getting vulnerable on social media. In March, the two-time Grammy winner posted on Instagram about feeling like a “fraud.”
“People told me my whole life ‘wow Justin u deserve that’ and I personally have always felt unworthy,” Bieber wrote on his Instagram Stories.
“Like I was a fraud, Like when people told me I deserve something, it made me feel sneaky like, Damn if only they knew my thoughts.”
Less than two weeks later, Bieber said that he wanted to work on his “anger issues.” “I got anger issues too, but I wanna grow and not react so much smh 🤦♂️,” he wrote on Instagram.
Days before releasing the surprise album, Bieber posted a picture of himself in the studio with his 10-month-old son Jack Blues, whom he shares with wife Hailey Baldwin Bieber.
A source told PEOPLE that Bieber’s new music would be a shift in genre for the artist. “It’s darker, more vulnerable and less polished,” the source said. “It’s in no way depressing though.” They added that “fans are in for a genre shift” and the upcoming album would be “much deeper.”
Throughout the album, artists Gunna, Sexxy Red, Cash Cobain, Lil B, Eddie Benjamin are featured.
Swag is now available to stream.
