We Don't Fold

Lyrics

[Verse 1] Rent due Friday, Ma’s counting the change, Neighbor’s old radiator coughing in the rain. I learned what a promise costs watching Dad leave, And how a kid gets tough with a hole in his sleeve. Corner store ledger, my name in red ink, One bad choice from the edge of the brink. They sell us a ladder, then saw through the rungs, Still I kept my own truth behind my young tongue. [Chorus] We don’t fold, we don’t fake, we don’t owe them our names, Walk through the pressure with our heads in the frame. If the whole damn world wants a piece of my soul, I’ll be damned if I hand it away for control. [Verse 2] My friend caught a case for a coat and a ride, Judge read the file, never looked in his eyes. I got anger like a lit match tucked in my chest, But I aim it at the lock, not the kid on the steps. Politicians grin while the school roof leaks, Then they talk about peace for a ten-second speech. Fuck that soft lie, I know what I saw: A mother work doubles, still short at the law. So I write every bruise where the polished can see, No saint, no savior, just a voice still free. [Chorus] We don’t fold, we don’t fake, we don’t owe them our names, Walk through the pressure with our heads in the frame. If the whole damn world wants a piece of my soul, I’ll be damned if I hand it away for control. [Bridge] To the kid in the hallway with a book held tight, Your mind is a door they can’t lock tonight. Don’t let their bad math decide what you’re worth, You were more than the number they wrote at your birth. [Verse 3] Now Ma keeps the lights on, the rent still bites, But the table holds three and we talk through the nights. I don’t rap for a crown or a chain on my wrist, I rap so the ones they erased still exist. If I cuss, it’s the truth with its teeth showing clear, If I speak, it’s because somebody’s listening here. We can break that old cycle, one choice, one breath, Make a life out of scraps they were betting on death. [Chorus] We don’t fold, we don’t fake, we don’t owe them our names, Walk through the pressure with our heads in the frame. If the whole damn world wants a piece of my soul, I’ll be damned if I hand it away for control. [Outro] No crown, no savior, no script to obey, Just the truth in our hands and a long road to make.