[Intro] A dot Teller They handed me the envelope on a Tuesday No ceremony, no teacher called my name Just a woman slid it softly across the counter Like handing back a life they had no right to claim [Verse 1] Back of the class dungeon, they built the perfect cell Filed me under malfunction, judged the pen and nothing else Their instruction was obstruction dressed as construction Called my disruption the reason for reduction Red pen through my name, presumption in their eyes Boxed me in their frame, let the margins tell them lies Judged the script half-blind, left the person outside Couldn’t test the mind, so they failed what lived inside By their broken measure, marked me just another case Through every lecture, they read my future in my face Only saw a restless kid, answered me with pressure While my mind was building what they'd never learn to treasure Handed walking papers like a death certificate signed Stamped with their presumption ’bout a life they thought they’d bind What they filed as failure in a folder full of dust Became the first clean page I ever learned to trust [Chorus] They wrote me off: expulsion From that dungeon of instruction What they marked as my reduction I turned it to my introduction They wrote me off: expulsion From that dungeon of instruction What they marked as my reduction I turned it to my introduction [Verse 2] I took the long way home, let the school bells fade away Past steel skeletons, dust settling in my palms, the site half-made Men raising frames bare-handed through the middle of the day No diploma in their palms, just proof no school could grade Built from grease and quiet rage, no boot camp Notes in his own handwriting — that's his roadmap His worth refused their cage, beyond their rubber stamp Still he dragged dead machines breathing from the deathtrap I froze, the world still spinning, hollow deep within Expulsion like a pilot light — just paper-thin No fire, just a twin voice rising deep within Something quiet, not a riot — walls became too thin They measured what they saw and left the rest I drafted what I'd build despite the theft Their ending was a ceiling, not a test They graded what I lacked — I claimed the heft [Bridge] Hallway of slammed doors Their verdict — trapdoors Real silence hit me to the core What they ignored — I underscore [Chorus] They wrote me off: expulsion From that dungeon of instruction What they marked as my reduction I turned it to my introduction They wrote me off: expulsion From that dungeon of instruction What they marked as my reduction I turned it to my introduction [Outro] System's malfunction, this is warfare I took the upper hand — laid my truth bare Their percussion, sent it like a flare Same ink, different hand — the truth laid bare They wrote “expulsion” with a single blink I read “beginning” in the same ink
