[Intro – Choir + River Water]
[Candles crackling softly]
Every ritual gotta end eventually.
[Accordion breathes low in the distance]
But endings in Louisiana…
usually sound like beginnings.
⸻
[Verse 1]
🎶
Gris-gris requiem underneath blood skies,
Black river glow where the moonlight hide.
Swamp-born child with ancestral scars,
Still hear thunder inside these bars.
Mon Dieu, the air feel sacred tonight,
Like every ghost standin’ nearby.
I got grandmère prayers in my bloodstream,
That’s why survival feel spiritual to me.
Gold teeth gleam near cemetery gates,
Funeral smoke twist through the rain.
I walked through floods, lust, rage, and ruin,
Still somehow my soul kept movin’.
The crows flew low over Claiborne slow,
Like they came to escort me home.
And for the first time in my life—
I ain’t scared of what haunt me.
🎶
⸻
[Hook – Choir + Funeral Brass]
🎶
Gris-gris requiem tonight…
Black candles underneath moonlight.
Gris-gris requiem still sing low…
Louisiana inside my soul.
🎶
⸻
[Verse 2]
🎶
I used to think the swamp was cursed,
Now I know it just remember first.
Every storm.
Every funeral.
Every broken promise whispered through the pines.
Flow got river mud and sacred smoke,
Every punchline drag a ghost.
I rap like ancestors stand behind me,
Correctin’ every false emotion.
Shorty from Vermilion held my hand,
Said:
“Cher, you finally look peaceful.”
I laughed soft then stared at the sky—
even the thunder sounded gentler tonight.
Truth is—
I spent years runnin’ from myself.
From the grief.
From the hunger.
From the inherited darkness.
But Louisiana taught me:
you can’t outrun water.
Only learn how to float in it.
🎶
⸻
[Bridge – Spoken + Organ]
The swamp broke me.
The swamp raised me.
The swamp remembered me…
when I forgot myself.
🎶
Black river sing beneath the trees…
Every ancestor rest with me.
🎶
⸻
[Verse 3]
🎶
Now the candles burn slower somehow,
Like the night itself calm now.
The ghosts still here—
but they quieter.
Not enemies anymore.
Just memory.
And maybe that’s healing Southern-style:
not erasing pain…
just learning to sit beside it peacefully.
So if the river ever call my name,
I’ll walk toward it without shame.
Because every curse that touched my blood—
also taught me how to survive.
🎶
⸻
[Final Hook – Full Orchestra + Choir Explosion]
🎶
Gris-gris requiem through the rain…
Louisiana carved my name.
Gris-gris requiem still rise…
Swamp-born souls never die.
Gris-gris requiem sing slow…
Black water never let me go.
🎶
⸻
[Outro – Accordion + Thunder Fading]
[Book closing softly]
Every spirit hungry for somethin’.
[Long pause]
Mine…
just wanted peace.
