Forced To Grow Up

[Verse 1]
Phone rang once
Then silence fell
Mama hit the floor
Whole world stood still
Little brother screaming
Oldest holding back tears
Three girls in the hallway
Watching all their fears
Paramedics talking
Like they’d done this before
Sheet over her sneakers
As they rolled her to the door
Childhood in a trash bag
Packed up that same night
Four kids in the rearview
New life, no guide
[Chorus]
We were forced to grow up
Didn’t get to choose
Had to lace our shoes tight
Learn to never lose
We were forced to grow up
Turned pain into proof
Carried what she left us
Like a battered truth
We were forced to grow up
Yeah, way too fast
Tryna be the future
With a shattered past
[Verse 2]
Oldest sister working
Clock in after class
Middle one cooking
Stretching every last
Baby girl folding
All the secondhand clothes
Little man asking
“Where did mama go?”
Answers in the letters
From shut-off bills
In the empty cabinets
In the we-learned-to-fill
We swapped out cartoons
For court dates and plans
Google how to budget
With shaking hands
[Chorus]
We were forced to grow up
Didn’t get to choose
Had to lace our shoes tight
Learn to never lose
We were forced to grow up
Turned pain into proof
Carried what she left us
Like a battered truth
We were forced to grow up
Yeah, way too fast
Tryna be the future
With a shattered past
[Bridge]
But every time we stumble
Hear her in our heads
“Baby, keep on going”
Echoes of what she said
Four kids in formation
Walking through the fire
Broken, but together
Built from her desire
[Chorus]
We were forced to grow up
Didn’t get to choose
Had to lace our shoes tight
Learn to never lose
We were forced to grow up
Turned pain into proof
Carried what she left us
Like a battered truth
We were forced to grow up
Yeah, way too fast
But we’ll raise our own kids
So they can just laugh

rap, Moody storytelling rap over a minor-key piano loop and deep, sparse drums; verses stay intimate and close-mic’d, with subtle pad swells under the heaviest lines. Hook lifts with layered, haunting female harmonies shadowing the main vocal, 808s blooming on the downbeat. Final chorus strips to piano and voice for a raw, vulnerable outro.