"Battle Scars" is a song performed by Australian recording artist Guy Sebastian featuring American rapper Lupe Fiasco. It was released digitally in Australia and New Zealand on 10 August 2012 by Sony Music Entertainment. The song lyrics and music were written by Sebastian and David Ryan Harris, with the rap written by Fiasco. It was the third single lifted from Sebastian's seventh album Armageddon. Fiasco added "Battle Scars" to his fourth album, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 in countries other than Australia. It was released as the fourth single on 28 August 2012, credited as a duet.
"Battle Scars" debuted at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart in its first week of release and has been certified 13× platinum. It was Sebastian's tenth of 12 top ten singles in Australia and sixth to reach number one, and Fiasco's third top ten and first number one single. "Battle Scars" was the third highest selling single in Australia in 2012, the highest selling single by an Australian act. Sebastian received ARIA Award nominations for Best Pop Release and Best Male Artist for the song. "Battle Scars" also reached number two and double platinum certification in New Zealand and gold certification in Sweden.
In the United States "Battle Scars" peaked on the Billboard charts at number 71 on the Hot 100, number 23 on the Digital Song Chart and number one on the R&B/Hip-hop Digital Song Chart. The song spent 20 nonconsecutive weeks in the Hot 100 and has been certified platinum. "Battle Scars" also reached number two in Norway. It was nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration, and won the R&B/Hip category in the 2013 International Songwriting Competition.
Background
"Battle Scars" is a song about the scars left from hurtful and broken relationships. In a radio interview Sebastian said, "It's about your own personal battle scars and for every individual those are different; some might be words or labels... it might be relationship scars. When I wrote this song, and when Lupe wrote his bits, we just really wanted it to be something that just inspired people to, sort of, confront those things, and also maybe try and work to think about burying and ripping up those labels; throwing them away."
Sebastian said Fiasco was always his first preference to contribute the rap, as he wanted to stay true to the theme of the song and found Fiasco's work very deep. Sebastian said, "He doesn't rap about booty shaking or cash, he's much more political and insightful and exactly what I wanted." He looked at other options as well, as he didn't know if Fiasco would be interested, and said he was overwhelmed when he heard Fiasco wanted to come on board. Explaining why he agreed to participate in the song Fiasco said, "Guy's vocal performance first got me about the song because it's great and then the story of the song was attractive; I just tried to enhance it." Speaking of what it meant to have Fiasco collaborate on "Battle Scars" Sebastian said, "Just to get someone like Lupe on the track I knew it was going to have heart and have depth." He said of Fiasco, "He is a lyrical genius and he has really portrayed the emotion of the track". Sebastian says "Battle Scars" is his "proudest release", adding, "Every now and then in your career you release something that you feel has a deeper meaning and purpose. I don't know how it will chart, but I am really proud of it regardless of what it does."
Composition and recording
"Battle Scars" is an R&B ballad with a hip hop rap, and is written in the key of F minor. Sebastian and Fiasco contribute equally in the song, with the sung and rap vocals interspersed throughout. Sebastian performs the pre-chorus and chorus, with Fiasco performing the intro and two rap verses. Both artists contribute to the bridge. Music writer and radio announcer David Lim said, "unlike the majority of these rent-a-rapper verses, Lupe Fiasco's contribution here actually feels valid and in equal weighting to Guy's sung vocals. I don't know, y'guys – it just felt like they spent a minute on this and it's not just another vanity project."