Rotten Signal

Intro (breathing, distant heartbeat, low hum)

Yeah—uh

Verse 1 (rapid, clipped)

Static on the dial, city screaming through the wire,

Newsfeed’s vomit, every headline’s full of fire.

Kids on the corner coughing plastic in their lungs,

Preachers in the sky selling hope with loaded tongues.

Glass towers glitter but the gutters still drown,

We selfie the sunset while the roofs cave down.

Politicians pawn compassion for a vote and a grin,

They smile for the camera while the famine settles in.

I’m pacing on the rooftop with the skyline looking cheap,

Counting broken promises, counting children who can’t sleep.

And I rap it like a doctor with a scalpel in my palm,

Tear the wound wide open so the truth can stay alarmed.

Pre-Chorus (building, melodic undercurrent)

I got a rotten signal, static in my veins,

White noise telling bedtime stories to the pain.

I try to tune it out but the frequency remains—

A fucked up melody, played on broken chains.

Chorus (melodic, cathartic)

This fucked up world keeps spinning, neon cracked and thin,

We’re shouting at the echoes, trying to drown the din.

Heartbeat drum, I hum, I rap, I bend the steel with kin,

Hold me through the blackout—tell me where to begin.

This rotten signal’s buzzing, but I’m tryna hear within,

All the ghosts and glimmers, every scar that won’t give in.

Verse 2 (faster, sharper)

You got toddlers on the 6 p.m. news like background props,

Advertisements for salvation with a loop that never stops.

My neighbor’s sleeping heavy, dreams taped up with duct,

While some CEO’s trimming profit margins with no gut.

We worship at the altar of the brand and endless scroll,

We rate our self-worth daily by the comments on the pole.

I spit syllables like matches, light the skyline for a sec,

Flashes turn to flames when the lies collect and trek.

Mama calls me worried, daddy chats in half-sentences,

We script apologies in texts with zero recompenses.

I flip through faces passing like a film with missing frames,

All the anthems sound the same—just different sets, same games.

Bridge (sung, vulnerable)

And sometimes I break—quiet, in the mirror, I confide,

The weight of all the noise, the guilt I try to hide.

If the world’s a choir of sorrow, I still want to sing,

But the chords keep cracking, and the bell keeps missing rings.

Rap Breakdown (explosive, rhythmic)

Tap, tap—this is tally, tally, tally, tally of the lies,

Toss the ballots in the alley, watch the roaches rise.

We banking on illusions while the children memorize

Confusion as a currency, we let empathy die.

I’m sprinting in the static, lungs filled with fumes,

Flipping through the channels, every channel bleeds the news.

I lace my verses tight like boots for a march,

March through the market where the truth got a charge.

Hands up for the fallen but the cameras choose the frame,

Filter grief for profit, sponsor sorrow with a name.

You shout, I shout, but the stadium’s a dome,

Echoes come back sharpened like a razor in a home.

Pre-Chorus (repr