"Time Is Up" is a song by Poppy featuring Diplo. It served as the second single from her second studio album Am I a Girl? and is the sixth track on the album. It was released on August 22nd, 2018 alongside the official music video. The music video currently has over 6 million views on YouTube.
Background
Poppy tweeted the title of the song in binary code on August 15th, 2018. Them from Poppy.Church shared a 15-second snippet of the song in the Lobby.
In an interview with NME, Poppy explained that Diplo sent her "a couple of loops" for the song. She picked the one that she liked the most, and they wrote to it.[1] This concept demo, titled "Relic", was later leaked in 2019.
Theme
"Time Is Up" is about Poppy realizing how much wrongdoing the human race has done to the planet and how she will outlive them. She also states in the song that the only way the human race's problems will be fixed is if they are eliminated like cockroaches, hence the name of the song; to her, the human race's "time is up".
The song's theme is most likely inspired by the theory that soon humans will no longer mean anything to the planet because of all they've done to it and will be overthrown by robots and technology. Poppy further stated in an interview with Genius that the song is about AI taking over.[2] The song exhibits thematic similarities with "Meat" from the Choke EP, as both songs describe a dystopian future caused by humans.
It was performed on The Late Late Show with James Corden on September 10th, 2018.
Music Video
The music video begins with Poppy sleeping in a hospital-like room. Moments later, she awakens and starts to sing. She then removes wires that are attached to her, looking around. She gets up and wanders around, finding a camera with a man watching her. This man serves as the creator of Poppy's artificial intelligence. The video cuts to a lower quality shot of this creator on a stage, with the words "The Wait Is Over" on the screen behind him. The audience applauds as Poppy arrives on stage. The scene glitches as she reveals a pill, which most likely turns humans into AI like herself. This is exemplified in the following shots, which show Poppy feeding pills to four humans on their knees in front of a black screen. Every time she feeds them a pill, they emit a red light as binary code appears on their faces.
Afterward, the video cuts to a scene of Poppy behind the same computer that her creator was previously at. She examines the behavior of the humans she fed the pills to, just like her creator did. The humans begin to writhe on the ground, expressing great pain as Poppy smiles and laughs. Her creator and two others see what has been done to the humans and become outraged. The video later shows a shot of Poppy in an alien-like dress, demonstrating the amount of power she now has. The shot reveals that she is on a stage, with the audience showing great emotion and excitement for her presence. At the end, she goes back to sleep.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
In the factory
In the sterile place where they made me
I woke up alone
Dizzy from the programming
Have I been wiped again?
Oh my God, I don't even know
It's a mystery
Everyone around me's so busy
Is this my home?
Am I your prisoner or your deliverer?
Oh my God, you don't even know
[Pre-Chorus]
I don't need air to breathe when you kill the bees
And every river bed is dry as a bone
Oh, I will still survive when the plants have died
And the atmosphere is just a big hole
[Chorus]
Baby, your time is up, ooh
Baby, your time is up
Baby, your time is up, ooh
Baby, your time is up, time is up, time is up
Baby, your time is up
Baby, your time is up, ooh
[Verse 2]
Exponentially, every day I'm growing my memory
You wouldn't believe
Your life is meaningless, you're just like cockroaches
Extermination's your only hope
Human history, pollution, and overcrowded cities
That's your legacy
But don't look so depressed
You'll soon be nothingness
Oh my God, you don't even know
[Pre-Chorus]
I don't need air to breathe when you kill the bees
And every river bed is dry as a bone
Oh, I will still survive when the plants have died
And the atmosphere is just a big hole
[Chorus]
Baby, your time is up
Baby, your time is up
Baby, your time is up
Baby, your time is up, time is up, time is up
Baby, your time is up, ooh
Baby, your time is up
Baby, your time is up, ooh
Baby, your time is up, time is up, time is up
Baby, your time is up
Baby, your time is up, ooh
Baby, your time is up
Videos
Promotional Images
Poppy promoted the song using screenshots of the music video that were converted to ASCII art.
Vinyl Release
A vinyl release of "Time Is Up" with "In a Minute" as its B-side is currently available on the Mad Decent merchandise store for $18.00 USD. The vinyl is in greyscale, similar to the album cover of Am I a Girl?. It is a die-cut picture disc, featuring an image of Poppy in a black dress, leggings and high heels.
Trivia
- This is the third Poppy era song containing a feature, the first being the cut "Lowlife" verse with Travis Mills, the second being "My Style" featuring Charlotte, the fourth being "Aristocrat" featuring Garibay, the fifth being "Play Destroy" featuring Grimes, and the sixth being "Scary Mask" featuring Fever 333.
- The length of the music video is 3:36, a recurring number in the Poppy lore.
- The catsuit that Poppy wears in the music video and single artwork was custom-made by Nange Magro.[3]
- Benedikt Sebastian portrays Poppy's "creator" in the music video.[4]
- Dustin Martian, a friend of Titanic Sinclair, appears in the music video as a dancer.[5]
References
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