The lead single from The Neighbourhood's sophomore studio album, Wiped Out, the track was premiered during the August 20, 2015 episode of The Kevin & Bean Show on KROQ Los Angeles.

Speaking with Kevin & Bean, frontman Jesse Rutherford explained the song outlines what has happened in the band members' lives since the success of their debut album We Love You in 2013. "I feel like it could really go for all of us as far as what has happened in our life in the past couple years and the awesome opportunities we've been able to have," he said. "I think kind of reflecting back on it - growing up per se, whether you want to or not. Sometimes your youth - some people have it taken away from them earlier and some people get to wait a little longer before you have to grow up, but either way the world kind of hits you."

Rutherford explained to Jam! Music why at the age of 24 he's already singing about R.I.P. 2 My Youth. "In the past couple of years since the band started, it made us grow up in a lot of ways," he said. "I just turned 24. I never started feeling the pressures of the world and the weight of the world as much as I started feeling it in the past couple of years." "And maybe it was because there's a lot of s---y things going on that are really in my face right now ... all the killing, especially in America with the gun s---, it makes you sick," Rutherford continued. "It's just really heavy and I feel like that's a big reason why 'R.I.P. 2 My Youth' was written was because of all that."