Ritual Frequency (Version 2)

Verse 1

Rooftop ice-cream vendor's neon sign

Two hundred people jammed against the line.

Someone lit a firework that fizzed and burst

Streetlights humming like we all get cursed.

Fourteen years old, my first real hustle

Broke three bikes and caught one full of rustle.

Pre-Chorus

Something in the signal, something in the wire

Every kid who made it here remembers this year.

Chorus

Midnight on the avenue

Where did we all go before that night?

I'm still running that corner like a war drum's beat

Ritual frequency on our feet.

Ritual frequency, ritual frequency

Every kid who made it here remembers this year.

Verse 2

Dunkin' Donuts at three with my brother

Bull-horn bass rattling through the water.

Someone's spray-painting Viking runes on walls

Nobody asked permission, everybody calls the fall a test run.

Sixteen now and I'm running two crews

Same block but different language – 'we the ones who don't surrender'.

Pre-Chorus

Something in the signal, something in the wire

Every kid who made it here remembers this year.

Chorus

Midnight on the avenue

Where did we all go before that night?

I'm still running that corner like a war drum's beat

Ritual frequency on our feet.

Ritual frequency, ritual frequency

Every kid who made it here remembers this year.

Bridge

Not just about the money or surviving

It's something deeper — the whole block breathing

Nobody leaves till we've lit a fire and stood together

That's what happens when you're raised on myth and video game heroes.

I'm not scared of anything as long as I remember that summer.

So don't ask if I'm still the same kid from thirteen years ago.

Just ask who I answer to now — the street, my brother, myself — or maybe nothing at all.

But that's never stopped me from climbing back up to the top every time it falls – like a ritual — like we're running on borrowed light.

I'm still running that corner like a war drum's beat

Ritual frequency on our feet.

Outro

Midnight on the avenue

Where did we all go before that night?

I'm still running that corner like a war drum's beat