Steel Skyline

(mmm-hmmm) Grew up where the sirens sang us lullabies,

Granny prayin' over grits before the sun could rise,

Momma work two jobs,

still she up before the day,

Taught me "hold your head up" is more than something you say.

I was raised in the church and raised in the street too,

Sunday morning "Hallelujah," Monday grinding through,

Learned to read a room before I learned to read a book,

Learned survival off my uncles,

off the way my daddy look.

Empty fridge sometimes but the love was never lack,

Six of us in one room,

still we always had each other's back,

I don't talk about the struggle for the sympathy,

I speak it so my little cousins got a legacy.

We turned nothing into something,

that's a Black tradition,

Made a feast from what was leftover,

called it intuition, So when you see the scars,

don't you see defeat,

See a family who been dancing since before the beat.

So breathe, believe,

stand up tall,

Ancestors on my shoulders,

watch me stand for all,

It's the rising up that write my name,

Play the hand I'm dealt and still flip the game.

They thought we'd fold up under all the weight,

Turned four hundred years of pain into a faith,

I don't need your validation,

got my own, Built my throne from broken pieces,

called it home. Every setback set us up for something greater,

Patience is the plan,

timing ain't a hater,

We some work in progress,

ain't a finished art,

But every rep we put in leave a mark on the heart.

Buried people young, funerals in the summer heat,

Second-lined the sorrow, made the grief a beat,

Every eviction notice was a lesson not a loss,

Taught me how to carry weight and never count the cost.

We don't run from struggle,

we just run it down,

Turn adversity to armor,

wear the crown, Ain't about the trophy,

it's about the fight,

Every day we breathing is another shot at right.

Late nights grinding when the whole world sleep,

Planted seeds in silence,

now I'm 'bout to reap,

Every scar a lesson,

every fall a school,

Turned my broken pieces to my greatest tool.

Watched my daddy struggle,

never watched him quit,

Taught me pride ain't in the title,

it's in the grit,

Got the hustle in my blood like it's a family name,

Turned generational struggle into generational fame.

I was told the odds,

I just rewrote the story,

Turned the system's "never" to a testimony,

Every closed door was a hallway in disguise,

Every "you can't" became the reason that I rise.

This ain't a fairy tale,

this the real deal grind,

Blood, sweat, and tears sewn into every line,

But I keep marching 'cause my ancestors did too,

Every step I take,

I'm walking for the crew.

They said we wouldn't make it

— watch us make it anyway,

Every storm we walked through made us who we are today,

From the fields to the ceiling,

look how far we came,

Still we rise, still we shine,

still we call it by name.

I don't glorify the struggle,

I just tell it true,

Show the world the cost of what we had to push through,

Every dollar that I made came with a story attached,

Every win I got,

believe me, ain't come easy or matched.

Lost friends to the streets,

lost some to the pen,

Made a vow to be different,

made a vow to win,

Not just for me but for the ones who couldn't make it,

Carry names on my back,

refuse to forsake it.

This the sound of survival,

this the sound of the fight,

This the sound of a people who turned darkness to light,

I ain't finished my story,

still writing the page,

Turning trauma to triumph,

turning struggle to stage.

So when you hear my voice,

know it's more than a song,

It's a lineage of warriors who refused to be wrong,

Breathe deep, stand tall,

let your struggle be seen,

'Cause the realest success grow from soil unclean.

So breathe, believe, stand up tall,

Ancestors on my shoulders,

watch me stand for all,

It's the rising up that write my name,

Play the hand I'm dealt and still flip the game.

(stand up tall) (yeah)

Breathe.

Believe.

Rise.

We still here.