Intro
Broke scale, bent compass, still I'm moving north
Every map they sold me led me off the course
Verse 1
Started in the basement with a broken tape machine
Fingers on the buttons, dreaming in between
Landlord at the door, I'm mixing through the night
Rent is due on Tuesday, studio my only light
Brother doing ten years, wrote me from the pen
Said keep the sound alive, we gon' build again
I sold my winter coat to book a studio
Slept in borrowed corners, let the cold just go
Momma took two shifts, I took the long way up
Every bar a brick, I'm building from the dust
They said the odds don't move for people such as us
I said watch the weight shift when you carry just enough
Four a.m. the space heater humming like a prayer
Cracked knuckles on the board, I'm threading through the air
Uncle said the struggle gonna break you down to bone
I said that's how the metal learns to stand alone
Chorus
Pressure turns the coal to diamonds in the dark
Every scar's a sermon, every wound's a spark
Watch the rust turn gold, watch the ash rebuild
This is how the marginal get legendary filled
Verse 2
Corner store arithmetic, I'm counting what I'm owed
Dimes and silver quarters from the work along the road
Cousin made it out but left his shadow in the block
Said the price of rising means the ones behind you stop
I'm writing through the silence, keeping vigil with the lost
Every line's a lantern for the ones who paid the cost
Debt collector calling, but I'm calling out the names
Of the ones who held the line before the world knew fame
Sister in the hospital, I'm sending half my check
Robbing Peter's verses just to pay what Peter's owed yet
They measuring my worth in what I'm bringing to the table
I'm measuring my worth in every voice I'm calling able
Cold coffee, ash tray, three a.m. agenda
Writing down the stories that the streets could never send up
This pen's a pry bar for the ones locked in the dark
I'm the voice the voiceless kept alive inside their heart
Chorus
Pressure turns the coal to diamonds in the dark
Every scar's a sermon, every wound's a spark
Watch the rust turn gold, watch the ash rebuild
This is how the marginal get legendary filled
Bridge
They said stay small, stay silent, stay in place
I said watch me make a kingdom from this space
Broken things don't ask for permission to survive
I'm the proof that bent don't mean that you can't rise
Verse 3
Twenty years of fighting just to earn a single breath
Wrote my name in margins, still they say I ain't earned yet
But I'm here, translating all the suffering to song
Every note a testament, a proof I held on long
The block don't build monuments for people such as we
So I'm carving it in verses, let the legacy be free
My mother's hands were callused, now my fingers know the way
I'm her sons and her daughters, every word I say
Grandmama spoke in psalms while folding other people's clothes
Now her grandson's speaking truth in every bar that flows
