SAY IT WITH YOUR CHEST

Say it with your chest (say it), say it like you mean it

Whisper never paid a bill, I need to see you breathe it

Say it with your chest (say it), let the whole block hear

I was quiet for a decade, that's enough years

Say it with your chest (say it), don't you look away

My grandmom ain't press my hair for me to hide my face

Say it with your chest (say it), loud and on the beat

Fifty-second Street, put some bass in your speech

Hot comb on the stove, Sunday, quarter to ten

Record on the player skipping right where the bridge begin

Grandmom hummed the part the needle wouldn't give

That's how I learned a song's a thing you finish where you live

Fifty-second and Market, El train overhead

Shaking every window while I'm practicing in bed

Notebook full of hooks, pillow full of doubts

First open mic I whispered and the host said "speak out"

Second time I didn't. Third time I was late

Fourth time I came early with a verse that couldn't wait

And when I finally said it the whole room went still

Somebody's auntie in the back said "there she is"

They told me pick a lane, sing or spit, can't do both

My grandmother cooked and drove and raised and wrote

Letters to the council 'bout the streetlight on the corner

It's on now. She did that. Don't tell me pick an order.

Say it with your chest (say it), say it like you mean it

Whisper never paid a bill, I need to see you breathe it

Say it with your chest (say it), let the whole block hear

I was quiet for a decade, that's enough years

I ain't writing to be chosen, I ain't writing for a ring

I'm writing 'cause my cousin need to hear somebody sing

About a girl who did the math and kept the whole amount

Own my masters, own my schedule, own the way I say it out loud

Water ice in August, cherry, from the corner stand

Dollar-fifty when I was little, now it's four, I understand

Everything goes up. So did I. That's inflation

Difference is I priced myself, didn't wait for valuation

Soft is not the opposite of strong, that's a lie they sell

I can hold a note and hold a grudge and hold the door as well

Crown ain't on my head, it's in my throat, that's where I keep it

You can't take it off me 'less you find a way to make me quiet

Grandmom, the streetlight's still on

I walk under it every night

And I say it (say it), I say it

Say it with your chest (say it), say it like you mean it

Whisper never paid a bill, I need to see you breathe it

Say it with your chest (say it), don't you look away

My grandmom ain't press my hair for me to hide my face

Say it with your chest (say it), loud and on the beat

Fifty-second Street, put some bass in your speech