- - - HOOK (Chorus)
From the struggle to the storm, yeah, I carried all that pain,
Born into the fire but I walked out through the flame.
Lost so many battles but I still rose up again, ’Cause the world tried to break me, but Jesus took me in.
Yeah, the darkness tried to claim me, tried to pull me to the end,
But I bowed my head in mercy, now I’ll never break again.
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VERSE 1 — Born in 1973, sick from day one, almost died a few times from double pneumonia,
and from the very beginning, life was heavy on my shoulders.
Struggling was the way of life for the whole family, not having food sometimes,
just scraping by, doing whatever we could to make it through.
Planting rotten fruit and vegetables to start a garden
because you can’t afford the store, hoping something would grow.
Father went through diabetic coma, out of service for months because the industry—
U.S. Steel, crooked for real, they took many men’s life
by closing doors without telling them.
Mother nursing him back to health and holding the fam together at the same time,
a warrior in silence, carrying weight nobody else could see.
Now years later, I think 1986, Mom gets sick
and within three days she was gone from home.
Many tell you lies about “God took her because He needed her more than you,”
but that’s not true, and those words cut deep when you’re already bleeding.
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VERSE 3
Now I am 13, unseen clearly, I am getting mean,
because of the lies I have tried to fly from it all.
Now my oldest sister became the mother to us youngans
and the second glue to the family.
Pops tried to unalive himself because he missed her so much,
because they got together in the country
when the country was at a racial divide—
him white and her Indian and Black, but they simply don’t live like that.
Their love was unrivaled as he loved her for her and she loved him for him.
Now sister was hit by a crackhead in a car flying, now she in medical maybe dying, family in turmoil from all
DSS tried to tare us apart claiming they were just doing their part,
but instead they really just pushing the agenda.
No one sees that they create more hardship than help,
and the people they need to get they leave to do harm.
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VERSE 3 — Becoming a Menace
Each of us going our own way and focus now on the youngest—myself—
a 13‑year‑old standing at 6’3’’ tall and well over 386 pounds.
I became a menace to all I approached, bringing knives to school,
running with idiots and acting out with the fools.- - -
dealing dope, running wit gangs selling them thangs,trying to cope, but life’s Hard when you feel everyones Nagy over them baggies and sacks to all the twits most still nursing on their moms’
Now running with the gangsters, thugs, crooks & savages,
we playing the game of life and I am loosing all the time,
a wise‑cracking jerk, laughing to hide the pain.
I’m always running from 12 and trying to catch my enemies,
getting even with the want‑to‑be bullies—what a joke—
all they need is a poke.
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VERSE 4 — Spiraling Downward