Featuring duelling vocals from Father John Misty and Julia Holter, Emile Haynie described the origins and conceit of the song in an interview with GQ:

This is kind of a final fight. Man and woman fighting each other. After wanting to get Father John Misty to sing “Dirty World” and him not wanting to do it, we met and became buddies and he heard this and really liked it. I had some lyrics scribbled down and he totally changed them. He came up to my room to play his new album, and it was just another situation where the mic was on. It was going to be this thing where he sang and then she sang, but then it was amazing because they were almost harmonizing with each other and saying the same thing in the left ear and then the right ear. It’s a real headphone track. Hearing it on a stereo is weird, but if you listen on headphones you can make out the two voices. It’s an agree to disagree moment.