[Verse 1] Big lad, broad back, whole road shifts, Kids see me coming, grip tighter on their wrists. Never threw a punch, never raised my voice, Still got judged before I ever got a choice. Mum said, "Keep your head, don't answer every stare," Hard when the world treats your shadow like a scare. Every pub doorway, every bus-stop glance, People write your story before they get the chance. Hundred hands, they said. Hundred ways to fight. Never saw the hundred ways I worked through the night. [Pre-Chorus] Built your walls. Laid your stones. Carried half the city On my shoulders and bones. [Chorus] You knew our size before our names. Knew the rumours, knew the claims. Saw the shape and looked away, Never asked what we might say. Hundred hands reaching out, Still nobody came. You knew our size before our names. [Verse 2] Brother Cottus got a laugh like thunder, Kids round the block love him once they get under All the stories people tell when they're scared of a face, Making myths from a silhouette crossing through a place. Gyges drives nights, helps his mum with rent, Half his wages gone before the money's spent. Big hands, rough hands, cracked from the cold, Not the kind of tale the papers ever told. They call us monsters. Easy word to use. Harder when you see How much we've got to lose. [Bridge] Locked in the dark. Locked out the light. Generation after generation, Wrong place, wrong sight. Fear makes prisons. Fear builds walls. Fear turns people into legends When they're people after all. [Final Chorus] You knew our size before our names. Knew the rumours, knew the claims. But when the city needed lifting, Who was standing in the rain? Hundred hands holding up Everything the same. You knew our size before our names. [Outro Spoken] Funny thing, innit? Whole world scared of the hundred hands. Never once asked who they belonged to.
