G-Eazy’s track “Vampires,” featuring the haunting vocals of Bahari’s Natalia Panzarella, from his 2025 album Helium, plunges listeners into the intoxicating and shadowy depths of a profoundly codependent and mutually destructive relationship.
The song uses the potent metaphor of vampirism to describe a love that thrives at night, fueled by substance use, emotional manipulation, and a shared acceptance of its inherent darkness. It’s a chilling exploration of a bond where illusion is preferred over reality, and where the participants willingly engage in a dangerous dance, blurring the lines between pleasure and pain, connection and consumption.
As Track 10 on Helium, “Vampires” carves out a distinctively dark and hedonistic space on the album. The “story” it tells is not of a singular incident but of a pervasive, cyclical dynamic – a relationship built on trauma bonds and perpetuated by a shared taste for the nightlife and its accompanying escapes. G-Eazy often explores complex and sometimes troubled relationships in his music, and “Vampires” takes this exploration into a more gothic and unsettling realm.
The collaboration with Bahari, particularly Natalia Panzarella’s poignant bridge, adds a crucial layer of vulnerability and desperation to the track’s otherwise recklessly seductive atmosphere.
For a completely different side of G-Eazy — one that’s all about flexing power, confidence, and a swaggering comeback — check out our meaning breakdown of GRWM. It’s the anthem of a man stepping back into the spotlight with nothing but dominance on his mind.
Embracing the Shadows: The Nocturnal Allure of “Vampires”
The central metaphor of the vampire is woven throughout the song, establishing a world where darkness is not just a setting but a prerequisite for the relationship’s existence. G-Eazy states, “I think I like you better at night / I don’t know if I would like you in the daylight,” immediately signaling that their connection flourishes away from the revealing clarity of the sun. This preference for the nocturnal is classic vampire lore, symbolizing a life lived on the fringes, embracing what is typically hidden or forbidden. He even directly identifies with this persona: “Don’t you know that I’m a vampire, I bite,” suggesting a predatory or at least consuming aspect to his nature within this dynamic.
This embrace of the night extends to an acceptance, even a preference, for illusion and dishonesty. G-Eazy’s contradictory feelings – “I love when you’re high, I hate when you’re high / I love when you love me, I hate when you lie” – culminate in a startling request: “Whatever you do, just keep feeding me lies.” He later adds, “I hear the truth in all your lies,” suggesting that the facade, the performance, or the altered reality they create together is more appealing or perhaps more manageable than unvarnished truth. In their shadowy world, the lines between what’s real and what’s constructed for the moment become beautifully, dangerously blurred. The “green light” he gives his partner to “party and stay out all night / Go do whatever you like” further underscores a relationship that operates outside conventional norms, thriving in an atmosphere of permissive darkness.
Intoxicated Wings: How Substances Fuel a Dangerous Bond
Substance use is not merely incidental in “Vampires”; it’s presented as a crucial element that binds the couple and enables their nocturnal existence. The lyrics are explicit: “I love blow and you love puff / Love and other drugs and some other stuff.” This shared indulgence is portrayed almost romantically, as something that elevates their experience: “We treat these chemicals like wings so we can fly.” This imagery suggests that drugs offer them an escape, a transcendence from mundane reality, or perhaps from the pain that might have initially drawn them together.
G-Eazy’s statement, “I like it when you get high / ‘Cause when we get high, you’re all mine,” is particularly revealing. It implies that intoxication creates a space where he feels a stronger sense of possession or connection, where the complexities and potential incompatibilities that might surface in sobriety are muted. The chorus reinforces this idea: “I think I like you so much better when we’re high.” This reliance on substances to mediate and enhance their relationship points to a deeply fragile and potentially unsustainable foundation. Their “flight” is artificial, dependent on external chemicals, hinting that without them, the entire structure of their connection might collapse. The hedonistic lifestyle, described with “Messy hair, smokey eyes, bathtubs and threesomes,” is intrinsically linked to this intoxicated state, painting a picture of a life lived for immediate, intense sensations.
A Dance of Damage: Unpacking Codependency and Trauma Bonds
Beneath the dark allure and chemical haze, “Vampires” lays bare the mechanics of a profoundly codependent relationship. The line, “A trauma bond brought us together,” is a stark admission of a connection rooted in shared past pain. Such bonds, while intensely powerful, are often unhealthy, creating cycles of dependency and dysfunction. This is vividly illustrated by the description of their relationship pattern: “We broke up then got back, then got back / Then got back, then got back together.” This on-again, off-again dynamic is a hallmark of codependent relationships where individuals find it incredibly difficult to break free, despite the evident toxicity.
The mutual acknowledgment, “You like to use, I use you too,” strips away any pretense of selfless love. Their relationship is transactional, each person fulfilling a need in the other, whether it’s for companionship, validation, excitement, or a partner in their hedonistic pursuits. This mutual use, however, doesn’t imply equality or health; rather, it suggests a shared pathology where both are complicit in a potentially damaging dance. The cycle of “We argue, then fight, then fuck” further points to a volatile connection where conflict might even serve as a prelude to intimacy, a common trait in turbulent, trauma-bonded relationships.
A Soul’s Echo: Bahari’s Plea in a World Drenched in Darkness
Natalia Panzarella’s (of Bahari) contribution in the bridge offers a haunting counter-narrative to G-Eazy’s more dominant, assertive perspective. Her lines, sung in French, “Monsieur s’il vous plaît donnez moi mon âme / Monsieur s’il vous plaît donnez moi mon âme, mon âme” (Mister, please give me my soul / Mister, please give me my soul, my soul), inject a profound sense of desperation and spiritual cost into the song. This plea stands in stark contrast to the otherwise reckless abandon. It’s a moment where the female voice seems to acknowledge the depth of what’s being lost or consumed in this vampiric exchange.
Is she pleading with G-Eazy, the “vampire,” to release her? Or is it a more general cry for self-reclamation from the overwhelming darkness of their lifestyle? Regardless of the specific target, her words evoke a sense of being spiritually drained, a soul bartered for the intoxicating experiences the relationship offers. This adds a layer of tragedy to the song, suggesting that at least one party, or perhaps a suppressed part of both, is aware of the ultimate price of their dark pact. G-Eazy’s final outro line, “You want it darker” (a nod to Leonard Cohen’s exploration of similar themes), feels like an acceptance or even a grim invitation to descend further, making Panzarella’s plea all the more poignant and perhaps, futile.
“Vampires” is a compellingly bleak and seductive track that explores the magnetic pull of a love affair steeped in darkness, codependency, and intoxication. G-Eazy and Bahari create a nocturnal world where the lines are blurred, and the participants willingly lose themselves, and perhaps their souls, in the intoxicating embrace of the night.