Family Biz (Explicit) [ENG]

Written by John Paul Bantigue NKNTØ BMI • IPI/CAE 01366401460 © 2026 John Paul Bantigue ℗ 2026 John Paul Bantigue • JP Bantigue Records jpbbantigue.com The bigger they are The harder they fall Thirty years of ribbon-cuts and courthouse halls The bigger they are The harder they fall Same five names behind every closed-door call His father held the seat for thirty years, then passed it to his wife She ran it twelve years strong, and now it's his turn to run his life His sister's on the ballot too, so the name can never leave Three seats, one goddamn bloodline, all we do is nod and believe Every fiesta that they throw, they cut the ribbon and the check Every truck of flood relief got a sticker round its neck Every scholarship, every road, every barangay hall Got a cousin or an uncle running some damn thing down the wall We grew up knowing how the votes get counted every year Knowing whose signature clears when the numbers don't appear This is just how a small town runs, this is just how it's been Till a goddamn ledger goes missing and it doesn't come back again A reporter asks a question twice, somebody screenshots a receipt By morning half the town's already talking in the street Somebody's still asking questions that won't just go away Thirty years don't hold together over one bad day The tarps are thinner, the smiles are tight Everybody's talking, nobody's polite Thirty years of quiet's coming due tonight Something's finally catching in the light The bigger they are The harder they fall Thirty years of ribbon-cuts and courthouse halls The bigger they are The harder they fall Same five names behind every closed-door call Someone swears they heard him say it, cold and calm and clear Not a threat, just a fact he's carried thirty year Huwag mong subukan, masisira ang buhay mo. At sa huli, ang bayan mo. We ain't the heroes of this story, we just spoke it out loud We ain't the ones who built the ladder, just stopped holding up the crowd They raised us on the handouts till we forgot how to ask why Made us think we need them like we need the fucking sky Every favor's got a string, every string's got a name to trace Thirty years of teaching us we don't deserve a better place Every decent one who tried got outspent or got scared away Every clean campaign we've seen got fucking buried before election day You don't run against a person when you run against a name Fresh blood doesn't stand a chance when the whole damn game's rigged the same Family business first, that's the only creed they preach Every contract, every fucking deal stays close enough to reach We're not citizens to them, we're just faces in a crowd Only worth the handshake when the cameras are allowed Don't call it public service, call it what we've always seen A fucking family business hiding under a leadership routine Every receipt we didn't burn is staring back into your face Watch the whole fucking dynasty come crashing out of place The bigger they are The harder they fall Thirty years came down in one bad week, that's all The bigger they are The harder they fall Watch the name peel off the building, off the wall The bigger we are The harder we fall Go ahead and try us, we've survived it all The bigger we are The harder we fall We're still standing after every single fall