[Intro]
They tell us to be patient.
Funny.
Patience sounds different
when the rent is due.
[Verse 1]
Mama had two jobs
and one pair of tired eyes,
still found a way to smile
when the kitchen wasn't right.
Bills on the table,
letters by the phone,
she'd say:
“Don't worry, baby.”
Like worry wasn't living
in the walls of our home.
I was young,
but young ain't blind.
You notice when your mother
starts dividing every dime.
You notice when she eats less
and says she wasn't hungry.
You notice how the world
can make good people feel unlucky.
So don't tell me poverty
is just a lack of motivation.
I've seen people break their backs
and still get blamed for their situation.
That's why I rap angry.
Not because anger makes me tough.
Because smiling at injustice
never changed enough.
[Chorus]
Still we rise.
Still we stand.
Still we make a future
with whatever's in our hands.
Still we rise.
Through the hurt.
They can bury every dream
but they can't bury what it's worth.
I seen pain.
I seen lies.
I seen good people lose
and still wake up and try.
Still we rise.
That's the truth.
If the world won't give us room...
we make room.
[Verse 2]
Lost a friend too young.
Still got his number saved.
Sometimes I scroll past his name
and forget he's in a grave.
That's a strange kind of pain.
Your mind knows.
Your habits don't.
You still think:
“I gotta tell him this.”
Then remember that you won't.
We used to talk about leaving.
New cities.
Better days.
He said:
“If one of us makes it,
we both made it anyway.”
That stayed with me.
So every little win
got his shadow in the room.
Every crowd I ever see
got one face missing from the view.
And people ask
why some of us move angry.
Maybe grief gets loud
when nobody lets you grieve calmly.
Maybe boys learn early
that crying makes them weak,
so all that hurt comes back
inside the way they speak.
[Chorus]
Still we rise.
Still we stand.
Still we make a future
with whatever's in our hands.
Still we rise.
Through the hurt.
They can bury every dream
but they can't bury what it's worth.
I seen pain.
I seen lies.
I seen good people lose
and still wake up and try.
Still we rise.
That's the truth.
If the world won't give us room...
we make room.
[Verse 3]
I seen cops look at a kid
like guilt was in his clothes.
Seen teachers lower expectations
before he ever chose.
Seen neighborhoods get cleaned up
right after the people get priced out.
Then the same struggle gets renamed
and sold back with the lights out.
That's politics.
That's money.
That's who gets heard.
Who gets called “troubled,”
who gets called “misunderstood.”
Same pain.
Different words.
Different consequences.
Some mistakes become lessons.
Others become sentences.
And I'm not saying
every problem got one villain.
I'm saying look at the pattern
before you blame the individual living in it.
Because hope gets hard
when every door feels rented.
But somehow...
people keep building
where the system left them empty.
[Bridge]
[Beat strips back]
I don't want pity.
Keep that.
I want opportunity.
I want my mother
to rest without feeling guilty.
I want kids from my block
to dream without being laughed at.
I want a mistake
to be a mistake...
not a life sentence.
[Strings rise]
And if that's too much to ask...
then maybe
we weren't asking loud enough.
[Final Verse]
I learned something:
rage without direction
burns the person carrying it.
So now I use mine
like fuel.
Write with it.
Build with it.
Protect people with it.
Because surviving ain't enough
if the next kid gotta survive the same.
Somebody has to break the chain.
And maybe I won't change the world.
Maybe that's ego talking.
But I can change one room.
One friend.
One morning.
I can tell a kid:
“You ain't crazy
for wanting more than this.”
Tell my mother:
“All those nights mattered.”
Tell my brother:
“I remember.”
Tell myself:
“You didn't come this far
just to become bitter.”
That's resistance too.
Not letting pain
turn you into the thing that hurt you.
[Final Chorus]
Still we rise.
Still we stand.
Still we make a future
with whatever's in our hands.
Still we rise.
Through the hurt.
They can bury every dream
but they can't bury what it's worth.
I seen pain.
I seen lies.
But I also seen a mother
work all night and still provide.
Still we rise.
That's the truth.
If the world won't give us room...
we make room.
[Outro]
Mama used to say:
“Keep going.”
I thought she meant
until things got easier.
Now I know.
She just meant...
keep going.
