First played live on September 25, 2023, at the MGM Music Hall, “Black Hole” is the first song from boygenius' second EP the rest, out on October 13, 2023.

Baker explained the inspiration behind the song at the band’s live in-store performance at Fingerprints on October 13, 2023:

When we were recording, Lucy showed me a tweet that was a headline that was like, ‘Black Hole Creating Stars,’ instead of just sucking them up and destroying them. And everybody on the internet was like, ‘Can’t wait to see how many people put this in a poem!’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna be one!’"

The EP was nearly finished when Baker showed the first half of the song to her bandmates.

‘What if we tracked this?’ It was like day 29. …I love to have an unhinged idea."