Betrayal. That moment when you look at the person you love, the person you’ve perhaps been a little obsessed with, and realize they are indifferent to your feelings. It’s a common narrative that, at the time, seems all-consuming, but eventually, the agony passes, and you gain perspective. 

“Better Than”

Rehaan wrote the song, Better Than, in the distant wake of such an experience. “I didn’t want it to be just another breakup song; it’s a confidence song, not a sad song,” he says. While the lyrics acknowledge pain, heartbreak and anger, they speak strongly for self-advocacy in relationships. Better Than tells the story of someone captivated by a lover:

Hypnotized, terrified, don’t know why I was not myself; Your body and your style caught my eye put me under a spell.

A lover to whom he gave himself wholly and desperately:

I kept on giving everything, sacrificing anything proving that i am the only one for you who actually gives a fuck

In the end, she betrayed him without remorse:

Then I saw him holding you just like I do […] You never asked for forgiveness; Instead you told me just get over it.

The lyrics express initial infatuation, betrayal, frustration at his lover’s lack of empathy for his feelings, and finally a determination to move on, in the chorus:

I deserve better than, better than, better than, better than, better than you; It took me too damn long for me to realize; That you were just another hoe in disguise

The song speaks to an almost universal experience — an unhealthy relationship that went on far too long – the one your friends and family perhaps exasperatedly begged you to end. One in which, after the pain eclipsed the joy, you finally realized you deserved so much better.

Rehaan hopes people will relate their own experience to the song and that it will inspire them to have confidence in themselves, love themselves instead of blaming themselves. “It was to help others,” he says, “but also to help me get through it. It’s nice to have [the song] to remind me that I got through it.”

Listen to Better Than on Spotify or Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/album/better-than/1500703316?i=1500703317

https://open.spotify.com/track/5uWiNnXOp8hNx8YIcZgqGg?si=73fb328a35d347d0