[Intro] Look, this one's for the kid who folded first Sky-c on the beat, let me tell you how it hurt [Verse 1] Once upon a rhyme I burned my notebook to the ground Told myself the dream was dead, no reason sticking round Eight Mile wasn't calling, Detroit couldn't make a sound Twenty-three years old and I was six feet underground Cause I let the doubt move in like water through a crack Filled the basement of my chest before I noticed that Every line I wrote at midnight I was crumpling back Click, delete, erase — I handed silence all I had [Hook] Look, I gave it up — I laid the pen beside the road Told myself that carrying it was too much of a load But somethin in the quiet wouldn't let me stay that cold So I picked it up again and now I'm finally bold (Hey, hey — that's it, that's it) [Verse 2] I was living in a trailer off of Chalmers, broke and still Ramen on the counter, forty dollars left to fill Every demo I recorded sounded wrong until Sky-c told me raw is real — man that bar unlocked the will Cause I used to write for critics who would never hear the tape Used to shrink my voice down small enough to fit their shape Now I bang these sixteen bars and I don't leave 'em any space First-person, present tense — I'm in your face [Bridge] Heh — and I know what it costs to quit I signed the paper, walked away, I felt it split But the water always finds the lowest ground to hit And I rose up from that level, I admit (Hold up — that's the turn right there) [Hook] Look, I gave it up — I laid the pen beside the road Told myself that carrying it was too much of a load But somethin in the quiet wouldn't let me stay that cold So I picked it up again and now I'm finally bold (Hey, hey — that's it, that's it) [Verse 3] So when I say I doubted, I mean I erased my name Deleted every folder, put the hard drive in the flame Walked into Interscope in my imagination — shame Walked back out before I knocked because I thought I came From nothing worth a listen, worth a click, worth a dime But Sky-c doesn't fake it and I learned it from that line You either bang the truth out or you waste the little time You got — so I'm back and every bar's a paradigm [Outro] Woo! — once upon a rhyme I doubted, now I don't That's somethin they can't take, and trust me, they sure won't
