[Mood: Gritty, Cinematic] [Energy: Low — Building] [Keys, Soft Drums, Bass] [Intro] [Ambient: City Sounds — traffic, sirens, distant voices] [Spoken Word] Five million people. Nobody sees you. You just... keep moving. [Verse 1] [Soft, Melancholic] Mama worked her fingers to the bone Just to keep the lights on, keep us fed Daddy left [Verse 1] Daddy left Daddy left early every single damn day Left with nothing but his coat and what he said Son, this city eats the ones who dream But you gotta dream anyway [Pre-Chorus] [Build-Up] So he packed his lunch bag on a Tuesday morn With twenty dollars to his name and a prayer half-torn Living for the city, dying by degrees Concrete walls and broken windows And nobody sees Living for the city, screaming at the sky You were born with something in you But the city don't care why [Verse 2] [Spoken Word — street scene] He got a job pushing carts on 44th. Seven days a week. Four dollars an hour. Landlord raised the rent again. Third time this year. He just... smiled. What else you gonna do? [Verse 2 cont.] [Singing, Raw] Then the sirens came on a Friday night Wrong place, wrong color, wrong time of night They took him down to a holding cell He said officer I work, I pay, I live But justice here got something else to sell [Pre-Chorus] [Build-Up] Three years gone in a cinderblock room While mama's crying and the city goes boom [Chorus] [Energy: High] [Choir, Harmonies] Living for the city, dying by degrees Concrete walls and broken windows And nobody sees Living for the city, screaming at the sky You were born with something in you But the city don't care why [Bridge] [Breakdown] [Energy: Low] [Ambient: Distant gunshots, rain, a train] [Spoken Word — weary, close mic] You know what the worst part is? Not the hunger. Not the cold. It's waking up every morning... and still hoping. Still believing it could turn around. That's what breaks you. Hope. [Instrumental Break] [Guitar Solo — wah, crying tone] [Drum Fill] [Bass Drop] [Final Chorus] [Energy: High] [Belted, Full Choir] Living for the city — somebody hear us please Fathers behind bars and mothers on their knees Living for the city — we still reach for the sky We were born with something in us Lord we're still asking why [Outro] [Fade Out] [Ambient: City sounds returning — traffic, a child laughing far away] [Spoken Word — quiet, exhausted but not defeated] Still here. Still standing. One more day.
