New York State of Grind

HOOK — HUGE / ANTHEMIC (massive jazz horns — crowd chant layered — heavy boom bap swing) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Everybody hustlin’, barely gettin’ by (gettin’ by!) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Big dreams livin’ where the old souls cry (old souls cry!) Concrete jungle with the blues inside (blues inside!) Wall Street glitter got a dark backside (dark backside!) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Whole city singin’ just to stay alive (stay alive!) ⸻ VERSE 1 (dusty Rhodes chords — upright bass bounce — subway ambience underneath) A train screech through a sleepless dawn Bodega cat watch the whole block yawn Oldhead play chess by the project gate Talkin’ how the city changed after Section 8 Trump tower glow like casino light Meanwhile Brownsville candle vigils every night Tourists see Times Square screens and shine But don’t smell piss on the downtown line Wall Street lunches cost a worker’s rent Meanwhile Harlem soul get displacement notices sent Jazz clubs closed for boutique cafes History buried under IPA taste And every avenue got invisible chains Old slave money still floodin’ the banks Insurance firms made fortunes off backs Now they sponsor museums to cover the tracks PRE-HOOK (beat strips down — finger snaps — trumpet echo) ⸻ HOOK (bigger drums — layered crowd vocals) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Everybody hustlin’, barely gettin’ by (gettin’ by!) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Big dreams livin’ where the old souls cry (old souls cry!) Concrete jungle with the blues inside (blues inside!) Wall Street glitter got a dark backside (dark backside!) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Whole city singin’ just to stay alive (stay alive!) ⸻ VERSE 2 (drums grimier — chopped sax sample — Tribe/ Nas storytelling vibe) South Bronx fire from the Reagan years Still burn slow through addiction tears Crack vials traded like baseball cards Now luxury lofts where the pain was hard Subway mariachi echo through the cars Little kids dance while billionaires dodge taxes offshore NYPD lights flick through the rain Like America addicted to generational pain January sixth on the Capitol stairs Felt like ghosts finally breathed fresh air Confederate flags in the nation’s home History tapped us like “I’m not gone.” And schools teach freedom real selective Skip Tulsa flames and the slave ship records Skip redlined maps and prison quotas Then wonder why the whole country broken ⸻ BRIDGE — MELODIC (beat half-time — emotional trumpet solo — choir pads) From Billie Holiday to Brooklyn rap Black pain got sampled and sold right back ⸻ FINAL HOOK — BIGGEST (live crowd energy — louder horns — layered harmonies) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Work all day just to lose more time (lose more time!) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Still we sing loud when the world go blind (world go blind!) Jazz still play through the avenue haze (avenue haze!) Slave ship ghosts still haunt these trains (haunt these trains!) NEW YORK STATE OF GRIND (state of grind!) Whole damn city just tryin’ to survive (tryin’ to survive!) ⸻ OUTRO (saxophone solo — vinyl slowing down — rain ambience) “Empire don’t fall all at once…that’s a decline state of mind”