Pink’s “Hustle” Lyrics Meaning

“Hustle” finds Pink in a relationship where she feels that she is being exploited. Indeed under normal circumstances she is a loving and giving partner. But now she has reached the point where she can no longer endure being mistreated. In other words, she is not going to let her lover “hustle” – as in deceive – her into believing that he actually cares.

The problems in this romance, according to Pink, are quite pressing. For instance, her partner misinterprets her love as weakness. He also seems to have ego issues, as in perceiving himself to be smarter than he actually is. Ultimately it appears that he is too immature to handle the affection that Pink is bestowing upon him. And all of this has culminated in him seemingly trying her patience on a regular basis. Well now her patience has run out. And when this happens, she compares her life to “a bullet in a gun”, apparently as an allusion to how swiftly and completely she can turn her back on a bad situation.

So now Pink is basically telling her lover to f**k off. His attempts to “hustle” her are not going to work.  Simply put, she is not sympathetic to his apologetic sentiments and is terminating the relationship with no chance of reconciliation. And now her ex has to deal with the fact that he has “thrown away the very thing (he) needs”.