The Meaning Behind Post Malone and HARDY’s Hypothetical Murder Ballad, “Hide My Gun”

Country music has its fair share of murder ballads. Artists have been singing about other people committing crimes–or thinking about committing some themselves–for decades. While many of them should be taken with a grain of salt, Post Malone and HARDY just released one that is purely hypothetical. Uncover the meaning behind their duet, “Hide My Gun,” below.

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The Meaning Behind Post Malone and HARDY’s Hypothetical Murder Ballad, “Hide My Gun”

Malone and HARDY asks a weighty question in this song. While driving down the road with a loved one, they mull over hypotheticals. In particular, they asks their partner if they would help them commit murder–as long as it was in their defense.

On the same damn road, we drove a thousand times

I swear I saw a message in them white and yellow lines

And I ain’t sayin’ I’m a killer or if I’ll ever be, but hypothetically

This song’s message and musicality stand in stark contrast with one another. While the melody is sweet and upbeat, the requests they make in the lyrics are anything but. They ask, Would you hide my gun? Would you tell no one? It’s a lot to ask of someone, but Malone and HARDY do so effortlessly in this song.

Would you hide my gun? Would you tell no one?

Would you pack a never-comin’-back-again bag?

If the three-times-four’s bangin’ at our door

Would you stall and let me slip out the back?

This song is steeped in the narrative country music tradition. Many of the genre’s greatest songs tell a story in three minutes or less. Malone and HARDY accomplish that here.

“He immersed himself into the songwriting culture of the town, and I respect that a lot,” HARDY once said of his duet partner, who recently made the shift to country music. “He didn’t care about who anybody was, he just wanted to get the best song. Made a great record because of it.”

Check out this track, below.

If you had to dig a hole, would you take it to the grave?

Put some concrete shoes at the bottom of a lake

If I shot him dead, would you shoot me straight?

Yeah, shoot me straight?

Girl, if you wanted to, could you get to runnin’ to a never-endin’-honeymoon Mexico sun?

‘Cause you know I adore ya, no shit, I’d kill a man for ya

And if I did, would you hide my gun?

Would you hide my gun?

(Photo by Michael Hurcomb/Shutterstock)