Mold In The Walls

It’s like a condemned building

With cracked foundations, and mold in the walls that you can’t get rid of

Decay set in years ago, probably when you started pretending

That what you do is a lifestyle, and you don’t plan on quitting

It’s like a condemned building

With cracked foundations, and mold in the walls that you can’t get rid of

Decay set in years ago, probably when you started pretending

That what you do is a lifestyle, and you don’t plan on quitting

 

Thunder thudding somewhere beyond the gutter-punched skyline, sitting hunched

On the busted brick stoop of the building, my hood’s up, thumb’s

Brushing the crumbled edge of a cigarette, neighborhood thick with tension yo

Feeling a dull thrum of hunger more emotional than physical

The burnt husk of the barber shop still smolders in those memories

Shuttered after the third robbery and one blunt bullet through the register

Now it just sits, tagged with faded murals, sagging under graffiti

The pavement below is split and swollen, speckled with blunts, and I’m seeing

Bottle caps, and the remains of Faygo and corner-store ketchup

A bus’s muffler drags like a loose chain, glance up at the sky, the clouds hang above

No sunlight, helicopter blades cut through the smog above the street

Hunting someone or something, maybe both, my gun is still tucked beneath

The floorboard upstairs, it hadn’t moved since my friend ran with it on a mission

That turned into a funeral, I found it three days after the service

Wrapped in a butter-soft T-shirt, control is a myth, but I mastered it

Hear a baby crying, the sound cuts through like a blade, the city ain’t handing out

Forgiveness, it hands out function, a dumpster lid slams shut

Two dudes skate past, like me and my buddy before the raid and stuff

He bled out under a billboard for the mayor, clutching a pack of bubble gum

Like it might save him, my hoodie’s fabric brushes the back of my neck like a nudge

Imagining him standing beside him, smirking with that smug shrug

You can’t Clorox this kind of decay, layers of blunt decisions, a rumble of thunder

Rolls again, this time it’s louder, threatening rain, but it’ll just hover

And never release, then I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, one step

Then another, muttering to myself underneath the thunder, then

I clutch my hoodie tighter, the cotton’s damp with gutter wind

Cluttered mailboxes stuffed with unopened letters, the air smells like shit

Smothered chicken grease, and pine cleaner, a mix of Sunday dinners

And cover-ups, rats thundering through trash, chasing a twitching

Plastic bag, crushed Swisher pack laying under the couch

Roaches skittering across the crumbs of crusty peanut butter toast laying around

Gun sitting on the table, greasy, loaded and waiting, touch it like a prayer bead, yeah

Unsure if it brings salvation or slaughter, I can call someone if I need to

Low bassline bumping from an Accord parked under the busted floodlight

The voice rumbles through the alley, streetlights flickering with a butter yellow color

 

It’s like a condemned building

With cracked foundations, and mold in the walls that you can’t get rid of

Decay set in years ago, probably when you started pretending

That what you do is a lifestyle, and you don’t plan on quitting

It’s like a condemned building

With cracked foundations, and mold in the walls that you can’t get rid of

Decay set in years ago, probably when you started pretending

That what you do is a lifestyle, and you don’t plan on quitting

 

See a dude stumbling out with a blunt tucked behind his ear, and

Mumbling about reparations to someone that trailed him

The window glass is smudged with soot, I see the new condos rise like middle fingers

Turn on the faucet, cup it in my hands and splash my face till it starts stinging

You ever seen a guy walk face-first into a wall he built on his own

That’s every dumbass chasing dopamine hits like they're meth-heads, bro

On a treasure hunt, pretending it's all under control, but the truth

They’re the arsonist and the fire, and the only thing getting burned

Is the last shred of their own damn dignity, control’s the sexiest lie anyone’s heard

And every keyboard warrior thinks they’ve got life by the balls, just

Because they schedule their mornings and drink electrolyte water

Meanwhile, they’re spiraling in circles, too dumb to know the hamster wheel

Doesn’t go anywhere, decay’s not just your teeth rotting out from cheap soda, boy

It’s systemic, it's your ideals rusting and yellowing like old Polaroids

Rome didn’t fall in a day, but your ass is collapsing faster than a bridge in Flint

You treat connection like a threat, and then whine when nobody answers your shit

Through the brick wall you built out of Spotify playlists, crime’s the honest man’s

Last hope, you know it, clutching your little crimes like Gollum with the ring

But all of it’s theft, your holy sacrament is binge-watching Netflix

Until your soul leaks out your ears, you say you’re doing your best, bitch

Like that means shit while you nap through your potential like it’s a hangover

Control’s a leash, you wear it proudly, not even realizing it's looped around your

Own damn neck, you micromanage your world into a sterile wasteland

Trying to scrub out unpredictability like it's a virus that’ll go away soon

 

It’s like a condemned building

With cracked foundations, and mold in the walls that you can’t get rid of

Decay set in years ago, probably when you started pretending

That what you do is a lifestyle, and you don’t plan on quitting

It’s like a condemned building

With cracked foundations, and mold in the walls that you can’t get rid of

Decay set in years ago, probably when you started pretending

That what you do is a lifestyle, and you don’t plan on quitting