in an interview with "billboard", drake talked about "headlines" saying, "by no means is it the best song on my album, it's really just the song for this moment, right now." drake talked about why he released the song as the first single saying: "i always try to put forth a song with a message. a lot of people pick their single by what's the strongest song. i don't really do that. i like to make sure that the content is very relevant to right now." drake also said, "i want people to party to it but at the same time the fans, the people that care about my career, the people that follow me, will hear a message in it." drake told mtv news in early september that "headlines" was the perfect tune to launch the project: "i think it's great; the purpose of that record was solely to deliver a message", he said. "i could've gone with the record that was sort of super radio-friendly, but i really just wanted to talk to the people with the first record."