Money Talks Fast (Version 2)

Verse

Told the bank teller I don't need a chair

Sixteen on my birthday, paper route, no car

Mother worked three jobs just so we wouldn't move to the block down the lane

I grew up watching the clock tower turn from black to silver and gold like it's burning the same brand of flame

Every dollar is a scream I ain't learning how to keep quiet

Sweat on my collarbone like the city owes me something still

Nine till nine at the corner store, I'm seventeen in May

Stacks in my backpack by summer's end, not a single day off for pay

Told my little brother 'be smarter than me' before he leaves home

He said why settle for small when big men sleep on their gold like it's stone

I said the fire that burns your fingers fast is still a flame

He's eighteen now, driving a car I couldn't afford at twenty-two

So I ain't chasing his fortune, I'm chasing my own truth

Every hour spent hustling is one less debt to call me slow

Pre-Chorus

They say don't let the money talk before you're ready for the sound

I say let it scream so loud it wakes up what's still sleeping in the ground

Something's building, I can feel the ground beneath

Maybe it's patience or maybe it's just my breath

Either way I'm standing taller than the man who wrote me off as a debt

So tell 'em money don't talk if you ain't listened loud enough yet

Tell them I'm the one whose name they'll be whispering in their sleep

Chorus

Money talks fast but I'm running slower, counting every step I take

Every dollar's a promise not to let it lead me straight back into the same place

I won't sell my name for silver or gold just to fit on someone else's list

This is fire that burns without burning out because it knows how to hold itself

So bring your suits and your calculators, bring the whole stack of cash I never need

Money talks fast but I'm speaking slower than a heartbeat

I won't let my name get lost in what the wallet says instead

Verse

Six years later my brother's office is three floors higher than mine

He sends me the keys to a building with his own name on it, tells me call it mine

I walk through that lobby feeling like I'm living someone else's lie

Every window shows a version of us that's already tried and died

I said he don't understand what slow is when you build your whole life from scratch not trust

He just laughed and told me trust was the cheapest form of cash we've never had yet

So now I sit at my own desk staring down the city like it owes me nothing back

No trust, no promise, just the fire still burning where my name used to crack

Pre-Chorus

They say don't let the money talk before you're ready for the sound

I say let it scream so loud it wakes up what's still sleeping in the ground

Something's building, I can feel the ground beneath

Maybe it's patience or maybe it's just my breath

Either way I'm standing taller than the man who wrote me off as a debt

So tell 'em money don't talk if you ain't listened loud enough yet