Static on State Street

[Intro - Instrumental] [Verse 1] Blinds half-drawn on a rusted dawn, Ashtray sermons, soul's too gone— Mama said “boy don’t chase the fog,” But the fog knew my name, like a phantom dog. Steps echo down Jackson, cracked shoes talk, Streetlamp flicker like it got somethin' to balk. They say the silence in the sirens means peace, But round here that’s just when the murders cease. [Hook] Ooh, static in my mind, can’t tune it right, Cracks in the vinyl still hold the light. Soul heavy like South Side train lines at night, We hum through pain, like lullabies in a fight. [Verse 2] Wires cross in my mental—Chicago winters, Frostbite prayers and heat from broken sinners. We built dreams outta corner store debris, Chain-smoked hopes under marquee marquee. Graffiti gods talk in ciphered tongues, Each tag a scripture for the broken young. Can’t read the signs? Look through the steam, The devil wears a badge in somebody’s dream. [Bridge] They don’t teach you the cost of breathin’... Or how soul gets pawned in quiet evenin’s. I saw God in a mirror with a gold tooth grin, He said, “the system’s rigged, but you still gotta win.” [Hook] Ooh, static in my mind, can’t tune it right, Cracks in the vinyl still hold the light. Soul heavy like South Side train lines at night, We hum through pain, like lullabies in a fight. [Verse 3] Auntie hums hymns with a cigarette breath, Told me “don’t fear nothin’ but empty death.” But I died in parts, between rent and war, In a booth where pops cried behind closed doors. So I rhyme in code, blend beats with grief, Turn trauma into texture, find peace in brief. Static ain’t noise, it’s the past speakin’ slow— You just gotta tune the pain like a jazz solo. [Outro] —just noise, just notes... or is it a map? —south side lullabies... trapped in a trap... —soul got cracks, but it don’t collapse...