SOUTHSIDE PROVING GROUNDS

[Intro] (I used to pray for them summers when the block ain’t bleed, When the sirens ain’t lullaby the lil’ kids to sleep. Mama said, “Boy, that Southside smoke cut deep— Either d***n in them corners or learn to breathe.”) [Verse 1] I seen homies turn ghosts ‘fore their names turned grown, Seen a dope boy die just tryna get back home. The judge don’t hear pain when they bang that gavel, They don’t see them dirty shoes from the Southside gravel. We was raised where the light don’t touch, Where the love too rare and the hate too much. Where your heartbeat race if a car roll slow— We don’t greet new faces, we don’t trust no soul. Grandma cried every night that her tears would steam, Tryna wash away the hood like it’s just a bad dream. But the concrete talk, and the struggle got teeth— And the wolves get hungry once they smell your grief. Still, I stood on that block, head high, back straight, Pocket full of losses, tryna out-run fate. I was built in the fire where the hope run thin… …But every loss shaped the man I been. Just wait ‘til the b**t drop— Because that’s when revenge begin… [B**t Switch] (Now the flow turns savage, hungry, victorious) [Verse 2] Came from the bottoms where the monsters live, Where the old heads hustle just to feed they kids. Where a Southside struggle get you sharp like shivs— Every breath mean w*r, every day God gives. I done bent that block with a heart of stone, Turned pain to a throne, now the city my own. They ain’t think I’d rise up, they ain’t think I’d grow— But pressure make diamonds in the slums, you know. I’m the hope for the hopeless, voice for the voiceless, Turned all my nightmares into loud rejoices. Ghetto taught lessons that school ain’t preach— Like how the snakes move quiet and the real ones speak. Yeah, I’m from where they fail you before you begin, Where a first breath feel like original sin. But I ran through the dirt with a lion’s grin— Southside made me bleed but it made me win. I’m the one they counted out, I’m the one they feared, I’m the voice in the shadows you always hear. No cap in my rap—I'm the truth this year, Like Jada with the razor when the bars cut near. I’m the pain in the pavement, the hunger in the breeze, I’m the prayer mama whispered on her trembling knees. I’m the dream that survived through the felonies and fees, Now I’m flexin’ on the world with the Southside steeze. We ain’t never had much but we made that flip, Turn crumbs into meals, we was built off grit. Every setback hit like a full-clip spit— But the Lord wrote strength in my Southside script. Now I'm up like elevators in a money high-rise, Still carry every tear from my mother’s eyes. Still remember them nights when the hope capsized— But the beast in my chest could never be downsized. [Bridge] This for every kid runnin' from they fears at dawn, For the ones with a dream in a world so wrong. For the ones tryna rise where the weak don’t last long— Lemme talk to ‘em… [Outro] (Southside ain’t a place — it’s a proving ground. And I’m the one who made it out just to hold it down. I’m the crown from the struggle, made of pain and sound— Let this whole world hear that Southside sound.)