[Intro] They tore our towers down, but they never tore the reds out my bones. The Hawk still howls off that lake. The Gold Coast still glows a block away — close enough to see, never close enough to touch. Every name we buried, every dream they swore belonged to somebody richer... No matter where you carry from — you rise up. This the Chi. They call me Marrow. Let's get it! [Verse 1] Raised up in the reds where the arithmetic was poverty Cabrini in the marrow, William Green a part of me Mansions and the misery a Division Street away from us Seward Park at sundown and we hooped until it darkened us Dice against the stairwell where the older ones were sharpening Mama on a salary that barely made the calendar Marcus, Little Dre, the roll call getting hollowed out Cyphers on the corner where the pain became apparel-worn Little man, the third-floor apparition that I patterned with Gone before the wisdom that his adolescence rationed him So I etched the resolution in the marrow of my anatomy Author of a narrative they never had the language for [Chorus] No matter where you carry from, you rise up out the arteries Tell 'em where I marry hunger, still I harvest what belongs to me North side, born inside the anarchy, the larceny Dreams don't check your zip or nationality — they answer me Rise up, rise up, out the ashes of the balconies Rise up, rise up, authoring my own philosophy [Verse 2] Daddy served the corners but he severed the parental part Serving other sentences, his evidence was scattered art Absence was a residence, a resonance I carried far Larrabee to Halsted, on the 66 I'm scarier Never repped affiliations, never folded in the paradigm Neutral in the crossfire so they measured me suspiciously Foreign to the fraternity, too fluent in the injury Not enough of anything to occupy a category Spades on the stoop and every OG called me "joe" to me Corner store on credit and the loosies were the ministry Every syllable a chisel on the pinnacle I'm carving out Marginalized to marvelous — arithmetic reversing now [Pre-Chorus] And I ain't ask for validation, navigated laterally Elevated patiently, the gravity was rattling Anybody averaging my future got the math all wrong I was mathematical, dramatical, the aftermath a song [Chorus] No matter where you carry from, you rise up out the arteries Tell 'em where I marry hunger, still I harvest what belongs to me North side, born inside the anarchy, the larceny Dreams don't check your zip or nationality — they answer me Rise up, rise up, out the ashes of the balconies Rise up, rise up, authoring my own philosophy [Terrell Intro] Y'all don't know this one. Same reds, same stairwell, same Cabrini winter we crawled out of... he's the reason I never folded when the towers came down. His name is Terrell. My brother. Let him tell it. [Breakdown] THIS IS FOR THE CASUALTIES THEY CATALOGUED AND CANCELLED OUT EVERY NAME A GRAVITY WE CARRY TILL WE'RE HOLLOWED OUT THEY TORE THE TOWERS DOWN BUT NEVER TORE US OFF THE MAP WE ARE THE ANATOMY OF ROOTS THAT SPLIT THE ASPHALT CRACKED BREATHE — WE TAKE IT BACK BLEED — WE TAKE IT BACK [Bridge] EVERY MANUFACTURED WALL OF FRACTURE WE ARE TEARING BACK THE RAPTURE NOW SAY HER NAME SHOUT IT INTHE HOLLOW NOW THEY LEFT US FOR THE DARK WE ARE THE EMBERS THAT THEY BURIED AND WE'RE CATCHING BACK THE SPARK NEVER HAD A SANCTUARY, MADE ONE OUT THE MASSACRE CARRY EVERY CASUALTY, WE ANSWER FOR THE AFTERMATH [Verse 3] Out the belly of catastrophe, I never begged the aperture Trauma to the architecture, engineered a signature Bop and juke and steppin', it was footwork our philosophy House music raised us, and the drill became autonomy Bulls in the nineties had us dreaming past the property Everything they buried is the reason I'm epiphany Prophecy embodied out the projects that they limited Terrell on the low harmony, the family a symphony Cabrini didn't finish me, it forged the whole identity They demolished every building but they never got the memory Legacy the remedy, I carry it emphatically [Chorus] No matter where you carry from, you rise up out the arteries Tell 'em where I marry hunger, still I harvest what belongs to me North side, born inside the anarchy, the larceny Dreams don't check your zip or nationality — they answer me Rise up, rise up (rise up now!) out the ashes of the balconies Rise up, rise up (watch me work!) authoring my own philosophy Rise up, rise up — the whole of us, the harmony [Outro] For every kid in the reds, every name off this North side... The towers came down, but the dream Cabrini built never did. No matter where you come from — you rise up. Go get her, Chicago. She's still waiting.
