Grew up where the streetlights flicker like they scared too
Corner store bulletproof glass talkin’ more than the pastor do
Stairwell smell like smoke, piss, and regret
Mama prayin’ in the kitchen over bills she ain’t paid yet
Cops ride slow, windows tinted, watchin’ us breathe
Hand on the waist like they itchin’ to squeeze
They know my face, but they don’t know my name
Just another “suspect” in their fucked-up game
I seen tape on the sidewalk more than chalk in a class
He was runnin’ from the sirens, not runnin’ from his past
They said “he was dangerous” but he ain’t have shit
Just melanin and dreams — and they punished him for it
Trump on the screen, talkin’ like a king
While the hood got quieter every time that phone ring
Another mom screamin’, another cousin gone
Another funeral fit where the whole block mourn
Apartment walls thin, you can hear the pain through the plaster
Kids learn quick life ain’t fair — it’s faster
Fast to kill you, slow to care
Fast to cuff you, slow to be fair
I watched my brother get searched on his way to work
Like clock in for slavery or clock in for a hearse
“Hands up” ingrained in my muscle memory
Like school taught me fear instead of history
They red-lined the map then blamed us for the maze
Built cages, then expected praise
Politicians come through for a photo and dip
We still stuck with trauma on our hip
Fuck a curfew — my mind never sleeps
Money too low, pressure too deep
Every night feel like I’m rollin’ dice
Between a jail cell and a cold hard slice
They don’t see artists, they don’t see kings
Just a target outline and a list of things
That they think we are, but they never asked
Just judged the future off a fucked-up past
This ain’t music — this a letter from the block
From the broken steps to the rusty locks
From cracked playgrounds to the boarded schools
Where survival the class and the streets make rules
I carry names in my chest like a battlefield
Faces in my mind that the earth tried to seal
This anger ain’t random — it’s centuries stacked
In my voice, in my walk, in my heartbeat cracked
But I’m still here, breathing, writing my way out
Every bar another reason, every line a shout
They tried to make a villain, they made a poet instead
I turn pain to power and speak for the dead
[Female Vocal]
