City Never Holds My Hand (Version 2)

Verse

Four a.m., the skyline cuts in half

Taxi radio running on the last chapter of that

Six-story shadow where the neon turns to gray

City never holds my hand, it's the only way

I was twenty-four and I couldn't tell the lie

Said I'm not leaving when the whole town said goodbye

Mama kept the lights on but the landlord cut them off at nine

I had to find another kind of light that wouldn't blind

Wrote my name in smoke above a streetlamp glow

Watched it rise and fall like a prayer nobody know

Every dollar counted, every promise was a test

Learned how to hold a dream with one hand and rest

Pre-Chorus

So I don't need your hand to walk this floor

I don't need the validation of the score

Something in me's saying keep your grip loose here

This city'll burn but I ain't going to disappear

Chorus

City never holds my hand, I hold it myself

Every step I take is proof I know what wealth is worth

No one needs permission when the block already knows you're coming back

City never holds my hand but it won't break me yet

Verse 2

Now the skyline's taller and the shadows move more

Same six-story window but the fire in here burns for something more

I used to say the money's everything, now I just need space

To hear myself again without the weight of that one place

Priya's building something opposite the highway light

Said the noise don't scare her if it means she's still alive tonight

I watch her walk the rooftop when the stars come out to play

City never holds my hand but sometimes I'm okay

Pre-Chorus

So I don't need your hand, don't need nobody guiding me

Learned to trust the heartbeat of a man who knows he's free

Chorus

City never holds my hand, I hold it myself

Every step I take is proof I know what wealth is worth

No one needs permission when the block already knows you're coming back

City never holds my hand but it won't break me yet

Bridge

Maybe that's the myth we chase instead of truth

Maybe holding on means losing something new

The block don't need a hero, just a man who'll stand

Static in the radio ain't no worse than empty hands

Chorus

City never holds my hand, I hold it myself

Every step I take is proof I know what wealth is worth

No one needs permission when the block already knows you're coming back

City never holds my hand but it won't break me yet