[INTRO — whispered, layered voices] Be a good man… They’ll still hate you. Do everything right… They’ll still watch you. And the second you slip… (whisper from the left) There he goes… (low voice) Yeah… I see you watching. ⸻ [VERSE 1] I tried to walk straight, they were praying I would stumble, Built it brick by brick, they just waited for the crumble. Never took from nobody, never begged for a plate, Funny—doing people right still don’t protect you from hate. Maybe something in my light reminds ’em what they ain’t, Maybe seeing me survive puts a pressure on their brain. I can hear it in the silence, I can feel it when they stare, They congratulate me smiling, but resentment’s sitting there. They don’t ask how many nights I was fighting with myself, They just see me standing now and think I had somebody’s help. They weren’t there when I was bleeding with my back against the wall, But somehow they bought tickets just to witness when I fall. So I watch the room different. I don’t hear words—I study faces. Some people shake your hand while secretly measuring spaces For the hole they wanna bury your reputation in— Then call themselves your friend when the celebration begins. ⸻ [HOOK — haunting, slow] They’re waiting on my fall… I can feel ’em in the shadows. Waiting on the call, Hoping everything unravels. I could give my heart away, I could sacrifice it all— Somebody somewhere Still wanna see me fall. Waiting on my fall… Waiting on my fall… They don’t wanna see me dead— They just wanna see me lose it all. ⸻ [VERSE 2] That’s the sickness of envy—it don’t need a reason, Somebody can hate your harvest ’cause they’re struggling in their season. You can feed ’em from your table, give ’em shelter from the rain, And they’ll curse the roof you built because it carries your name. That’s what scares me. Not an enemy announcing that he’s coming through the door, It’s the one saying, “I’m proud of you,” but hoping you lose more. The one asking how you’re doing just to calculate your weakness, Collecting every secret while disguising it as sweetness. So now every compliment got another voice behind it, Every handshake got me wondering what motive’s hiding by it. Am I losing my mind? Or did I finally learn to see? Because jealousy gets dangerous when admiration turns to greed. They don’t want what I got— They want me not to have it. That’s darker. They’d rather watch it burn than admit they never grabbed it. ⸻ [BRIDGE — beat nearly disappears] (whispers circling) Mess up… Come on… Just once… Give us something… [MAIN VOICE] That’s what you’ve been waiting for? One mistake? One bad decision? One moment where I stop being perfect so you can finally tell yourself you were right about me? (silence) I never said I was perfect. I said I was trying. ⸻ [VERSE 3 — controlled anger] And maybe that’s the lesson I was supposed to understand: Being good don’t mean the world will ever treat you like a good man. Integrity ain’t armor, kindness doesn’t stop a knife, And doing right won’t guarantee they’ll speak your name right. So let ’em watch. I’m done performing innocence for people keeping score, Done explaining every scar to people praying for one more. If I stumble, I’ll get up. If I break, I’ll rebuild. If they celebrate my failure, let ’em choke upon the thrill. Because my worst day doesn’t make their life succeed. My downfall won’t repair whatever emptiness they feed. You can spend your whole existence hoping somebody collapses— Then wake up twenty years later and realize what happened: While you were staring at my road, Waiting for my wheels to fall… You forgot to build your own. ⸻ [FINAL HOOK — bigger, darker] They’re waiting on my fall… Still hiding in the shadows. Waiting on the call, Hoping everything unravels. I could give my heart away, I could sacrifice it all— Somebody somewhere Still wanna see me fall. So watch me. Watch every mistake. Remember every flaw. Tell everybody what you saw. But when I hit the ground… Watch how I crawl. Watch how I stand. Watch how I rise again. ⸻ [OUTRO — distorted whisper] They were so busy waiting for him to fall… (pause) They never noticed… he learned how to get back up.
