The Streets Don't Love You

Yeah…

Midnight on the block, streetlights hummin’

Heart heavy, mind sharp

Listen close

Born where the heat stay on even when winter cold

Sirens write the soundtrack to the stories untold

Mama held it down with a prayer and a stare

While the rent stayed late and the cupboards stayed bare

I learned math from survival and nickels on scales

Learned trust from the nights when my phone never rang

Homies said forever, but forever got short

When the money came quicker than the morals we taught

I seen love turn thin when the pressure applied

Same hands that hugged you be the ones that decide

If you worth the risk when the drama ignite

Or if they disappearin’ when the beef gettin’ live

Every corner had a lesson, every loss left a scar

We was dreamin’ bout the top from the back of a car

Tryna make sense of a world that don’t care

Where survival a skill and peace feel rare

They say the streets don’t love you, they just mold you

Break you down slow, then they cold-shoulder

I’m just tryna make it out clean

With my soul intact and my name still me

From the gutter to dreams

I speak for the ones who never got seen

I watched brothers turn bitter from a taste of success

Watched others fold quick from the weight of the stress

The system love cages, hate seein’ us fly

Call it justice, but it feel more like disguise

They glamorize pain, then blame us for bleed

Sell fear on the screen, then expect us to be

Calm, collected, when we raised in the storm

Where the wrong move cost you everything you own

Pac in my thoughts, sayin’ “keep your heart pure”

Biggie taught me how to talk slick and still make it endure

I balance both sides of the coin when I speak

Pain in the verses, wisdom in the beat

I ain’t glorify death, I just tell what I saw

Empty chairs at the table, names etched in the wall

If you listen close, every bar is a plea

For the kids on the edge tryin’ hard just to breathe

They say the streets don’t love you, they just mold you

Break you down slow, then they cold-shoulder

I’m just tryna make it out clean

With my soul intact and my name still me

From the gutter to dreams

I speak for the ones who never got seen

Fame look shiny till it isolate

Money come fast, but it don’t translate

To peace of mind or a quiet night

When your past keep knockin’ under neon lights

I lost friends to the cell and the cemetery

Two exits from the game, both temporary

I chose the pen over permanent rage

Tryna spark a little light with every sentence I page

If I fall tomorrow, let ‘em say I stood

For more than survival, I tried to do good

I tried to show love where hate felt easier

Tried to be proof we more than statistics on paper

This for the ones still stuck in the grind

Still prayin’ for signs while they run outta time

Keep pushin’, keep faith, let the truth be your shield

‘Cause the realest thing alive is the pain that you heal

Not for charts, for hearts in the dark. if you’re breathing, you got a chance. Keep walking.