Speaking on the song, Alessia Cara says, “The song is about a relationship that has come to an end and is like the last final grasp of trying to hold onto what is left of this relationship. Basically, looking at the other person and metaphorically shaking them and saying ‘I am really trying my best to hold here, but if you don’t want to be held onto then there’s nothing left of this’. I feel like I am talking to a dead man.”

"Dead Man" follows her third studio album, In The Meantime.