Who Got Paid?

WHEN THE EARTH KEPT THE RECEIPTS (Intro: radio static, distant sirens, children laughing, then a low seismic rumble. Beat erupts with distorted 808s, orchestral stabs, industrial percussion.) [ ⸻ Verse 1 Midnight ripped like a zipper through the sky, Bedrooms folded before the babies could cry. Concrete kissed every dream on the way down, Now the whole city’s heartbeat under eight pounds. Mama got a photograph clenched in her fist, Calling every nickname that don’t answer the list. Bare hands bleeding through rebar and stone, Digging for a voice underneath her own. Dust so thick it turned daylight gray, Sun looked guilty for showing its face. Church bells buried before they could ring, Only sound left was the silence of things. The clinic became another broken wall, The school became numbers on a government call. No electricity, no running clean water, Just fathers becoming excavators for daughters. (Strings swell. Choir enters.) ⸻ Hook (Gang vocals) WHO GOT PAID? WHO GOT POOR? WHO KEPT BUILDING? WHO KEPT SCORE? ⸻ Verse 2 Before the rubble came the ships with flags, Crosses in the front, chains in the bags. Sugar left sweet while the fields stayed bitter, Gold crossed oceans, hope got thinner. Debt wore a necktie, smiled for the press, Called it development, delivered less. Every loan another brick in the cage, Every generation inheriting rage. Blueprints written in a boardroom’s glow, Never felt monsoon, never walked those roads. Cheap cement dries like an empty vow, Everybody knows… Everybody knows. Aid lands clean with a logo bright, Camera flash disappears by night. Same hands counting donations aloud, Quietly invoicing the grieving crowd. (Beat drops out except piano and heartbeat.) ⸻ Hook WHO GOT PAID? WHO GOT POOR? WHO KEPT BUILDING? WHO KEPT SCORE? WHO GOT PAID? WHO GOT POOR? WHO KEPT BUILDING? WHO KEPT SCORE? ⸻ Bridge A tectonic plate has no passport. No prejudice. No stock portfolio. But people do. Empires do. Banks do. History does. So when the walls came down… They didn’t fall alone. (Massive beat switch. Choir and brass explode.) ⸻ Final Hook (Gang vocals, repeated) WHO GOT PAID? WHO GOT POOR? WHO KEPT BUILDING? WHO KEPT SCORE? WHO GOT PAID? WHO GOT POOR? WHO KEPT BUILDING? WHO KEPT SCORE? (Beat strips down.) 1WHO DIES FIRST… …motherfuckers do 1WHO DIES FIRST… …motherfuckers do 1WHO DIES FIRST… …motherfuckers do 1WHO DIES FIRST… …motherfuckers do (Outro: heartbeat, shovels scraping concrete, a child softly singing an old lullaby as everything fades into static.)