Empty Chair

[Verse 1]
Kept your number in my phone
Still scroll like you might call back
Doctor said they did their best
I still hate that kind of math
Your sweater on the kitchen chair
Holds the shape of how you sat
I talk into the quiet air
Like you gon’ answer me right back (yeah)
[Chorus]
You left an empty chair at the table
Whole house full but I feel unstable
Tryna stand up on a cracked foundation
Heart wide open, heavy with the waiting
Mama, can you hear me through this static pain?
I keep saying your name, your name, your name
You left an empty chair at the table
I sit there like you’re still able
[Verse 2]
Found your note in a recipe book
Just a scribble, “baby, add more salt”
Funny how the smallest things
Make me think it’s all my fault
I replay the final week
Every word and every cough
If love could’ve healed your chest
You would’ve never turned it off (mmm)
[Chorus]
You left an empty chair at the table
Whole house full but I feel unstable
Tryna stand up on a cracked foundation
Heart wide open, heavy with the waiting
Mama, can you hear me through this static pain?
I keep saying your name, your name, your name
You left an empty chair at the table
I sit there like you’re still able
[Rap]
Yeah
I was raised on your late-night prayers
On your “call me when you’re there”
On your “text me when you wake up”
Now I’m staring at a phone that never lights up
Got your laugh in a fifteen-second clip
Run it back ‘til the screen start to glitch
Everybody say “time heals this shit”
But time feel slow and the wound still split
I’ve been cussing at the ceiling
Like, “Why you take my healer, leave me bleeding?”
They say angels only visit for a season
Guess I’m stuck here trying to redefine the meaning
Of home
Of safe
Of love that don’t erase
I see your face in my own in the mirror
Every year you gone, it get clearer
I’m the echo of your courage and your flaws
Fight through the fear ‘cause you taught me how to claw
Through the dark, through the rent due notices
Through the men who showed up with ulterior motives
You ain’t get to see me turn all this to gold
But I carry your story every city, every show
So when I win, you win, that’s the deal that we made
I pour out two tears for the price that we paid (yeah)
[Bridge]
Some nights I’m your little girl
Face down, drowning in the sheets (oh no)
Some days I’m the woman that you raised
Standing on my own two feet
If love is all that ever lasts
Then you ain’t really gone
Every time I find my voice
I hear you singing in my song (in my song)
[Chorus]
You left an empty chair at the table
Whole house full but I feel stable
Built a new life on that cracked foundation
Still wide open, stronger from the breaking
Mama, I can feel you in this aching flame
I keep saying your name, your name, your name
You left an empty chair at the table
I sit there ‘cause I’m still able (yeah)

rap, Raw, modern R&B with female vocals over moody keys and warm sub-bass; intimate verses float on sparse drums, then a halftime knock drops for the rap. Hook blooms with stacked harmonies and airy pads, ad-libs tucked wide in the stereo field. Final chorus strips to keys and vocal, letting the grief and resilience sit front and center., r&b, emotional