Intro
Fifth floor, elevator dead since spring
Stairwell smell like pennies, echo makes the silence ring
Verse
Denby Courts, cracked tile, bulb hanging by a thread
Seventeen with a duffel bag, cousin said go ahead
Told me walk it steady, keep your eyes up top
Landing three, two shadows waiting where the stairs drop
Fist came quick, split my lip, iron flooded through my teeth
Tasted copper first before I tasted fear underneath
Swallowed both together, held the bag in close
Could've swung back wild, could've let the anger loose
Mama sleeping two floors up, I thought of her instead
Walked the rest in silence, blood still warm and red
Set the bag down soft like nothing ever came
Cousin never asked why my collar had a stain
Just nodded, slid me twenty, said you handled that with brain
That's the night I learned control weighs more than any pain
Some debts you pay in patience, not in letting go
Some strength ain't in the swinging, it's in walking slow
Chorus
Copper taste in the stairwell, still I climb
Every step counted heavy, still on time
Copper taste in the stairwell, weight I hide
Made my peace on the landing, still alive
Verse
Ten years later, same stairwell, different crack in the wall
Sharpie tally by the doorframe counting every fall
Young boy named Trevon carrying heavier than me
Sixteen with a burner tucked, patrolling his own street
I stopped him on the landing, told him leave it upstairs
Steel don't fix a debt, it just adds to what you're owed there
He looked at me like I ain't understand the game
Told him copper taste will follow, carries like a name
I still feel it some nights, phantom on my tongue
Every time the building's quiet, every time it's young
Loyalty ain't loud, it's showing up at three
Sitting with a kid so he don't have to bleed like me
Landlord fixed the elevator, stairwell still gets used
Old habits built from struggle, hard as hell to lose
But I climb it every morning, teach what I was taught
Some strength ain't in the swinging, it's in knowing when to not
Chorus
Copper taste in the stairwell, still I climb
Every step counted heavy, still on time
Copper taste in the stairwell, weight I hide
Made my peace on the landing, still alive
Bridge
They talk about tearing Denby down next spring
Put up glass and gold letters, call it something clean
Won't matter where I stand though, taste don't wash with paint
Carry it in my jaw like a memory, no complaint
I ain't proud of every choice, I ain't shamed of none
Just a kid who chose the stairs over the gun
That's the only trophy this neighborhood ever gave
Something in the mouth I keep to remind me I was brave
