RESPECT REMIX #3 (SUNO CONTEST SUBMISSION)

[INTRO] Hands in red clay cotton burrs drawing blood voices holding onto names under somebody else’s thumb Across the ridge coal dust filled the lungs steel met stone and another poor man sung Different wounds Different worlds But power learned one habit— count the yield forget the hands [VERSE 1] Sunday gave the spirit somewhere pain could learn to sing Saturday gave tired feet a floor to shake beneath Porch wire, church fire, blue notes crossing county lines Folks with almost nothing made a language out of time Nobody called it legacy with rent already due They were making something future just to make it through Factory whistle loading dock hands blackened by the shift Boss man knew the output never learned the names that built it Years change clothes power changes rooms From field to mill to badge and screen the question follows through [PRE-CHORUS] You can count the hours You can count the yield But if you never count the people you don’t know what made it real [CHORUS] R-E-S-P-E-C-T me Don’t spell it if you don’t mean it B-O-S-S U-P I quit waiting for permission P-A-Y U-P Put the weight behind the speech All that power in the building came through somebody’s hands beneath [VERSE 2] Now the shift starts with a password the whistle is a ping the foreman wears a quarter-zip and calls pressure “alignment” My idea leaves my mouth comes back wearing his name Gets applause in the boardroom like I wouldn’t know its face They say “family” in the email till the numbers miss the mark Then your keycard learns before you that the hallway went dark I watched loyalty get priced like a line beneath expense Watched a decade disappear inside one polished sentence That’s when being needed quit feeling like being known A company can rent your hours it can never own your soul [PRE-CHORUS] I kept calling it patience till patience learned to kneel Then my pulse got louder than the paper in the deal [CHORUS] R-E-S-P-E-C-T me Don’t spell it if you don’t mean it B-O-S-S U-P I quit waiting for permission P-A-Y U-P Put the weight behind the speech All that power in the building came through somebody’s hands beneath [BREAKDOWN] You rented my hours. [PAUSE] You never owned my name. [LONG PAUSE] Every tower forgets the hands when it starts admiring the height. [DEAD SILENCE] [VERSE 3] I ain’t asking for a throne I’m asking weight to match the load If my back can hold the ceiling say my name before it folds I know praise can be a leash if you need it just to breathe Know a title sounds important till it costs you what you need So keep the polished chair keep the plaque beside the door I came in begging for a measure I walk out knowing more The hands that made your comfort learned to make a different sound What began as work became a rhythm what was buried came up loud I don’t worship what came before me I carry what survived Then leave the next hands something they can bend into their time [FINAL CHORUS] R-E-S-P-E-C-T me Don’t spell it if you don’t mean it B-O-S-S U-P I don’t need your permission P-A-Y U-P Put the weight behind the speech All that power in the building came through somebody’s hands beneath [FINAL TAG] Your name on the tower. Our hands in the ground. [OUTRO]