[Intro - Spoken, low reverb]
Breathe in — streets talking, prayer walking.
72 BPM, half-time heartbeat.
I sing for the lost, I sing for the ones still standing.
[Verse 1]
I grew up where the streetlights flicker like last prayers,
Mama on the stoop with a Bible and battered prayers.
Concrete sermons, Sunday shoes scuffed from running,
Watch the block keep turning while the church bells keep humming.
I count breathes like blessings, tuck my guilt in my coat,
Polaroids of brothers fading, but their names still float.
We trade dreams for dimes, trade nights for soft lies,
But I still feel the choir when a siren cries.
[Pre-Chorus]
Hands folded in pockets, or hands raised to the sky,
Either way I'm asking why some live and some die.
But faith is a rhythm, faith is a drum,
Keeps me steady when the nights come.
[Chorus - Hook: choir doubles, chantable]
Ghetto gospel, lift us up — (lift us up)
Ghetto gospel, save my blood — (save my blood)
(repeat) Ghetto gospel, lift us up.
[Rap Verse - 14 bars]
I walk with ghosts in the hallway, chalk names on the slate,
Mama stitchin’ hope in the hem of a coat we can’t state.
Corner prophets with cassette prayers, static on the tape,
We hustle hymnals and hard knocks, tryna dodge the fates.
Streetlights baptize the pavement where the young ones play,
I hold a rosary of receipts that mark another day.
Bullet holes in the mailbox, letters never sent,
Told my sorrow to the organ and it echoed where I went.
Knees on cracked linoleum, confessions to the floor,
I swear salvation’s waiting but it’s hosted out the door.
So I keep the faith pocketed, keep my people in reach,
Teach the kids to read the signs and how to preach the street.
If the system’s a sermon wrote in lead, we rewrite the page,
Turn the pavement to a pulpit and the pain into praise.
[Pre-Chorus - Variation]
Hands up, or hands folded, it’s the same kind of plea,
If the sky’s closed for business, then we’ll open up the street.
[Chorus - Hook (with choir)]
Ghetto gospel, lift us up — (lift us up)
Ghetto gospel, save my blood — (save my blood)
Ghetto gospel, lift us up — (lift us up)
(repeat with choir ad-libs)
[Bridge - sung, choir swells]
Light the corner where we gather, like candles in the rain,
Every scar a story, every loss a name.
We kneel in the alley, we rise with a song,
We find what’s holy in the middle of the wrong.
[Breakdown - sparse, organ stabs, whispered ad-libs]
Hear the choir fold, hear the 808 breathe,
We counting down to a dawn only faith can weave.
[Final Chorus - full production, 808 drop into last two bars]
Ghetto gospel, lift us up — (lift us up)
Ghetto gospel, save my blood — (save my blood)
Ghetto gospel, lift us up — (lift us up)
Ghetto gospel — (lift us up) — lift us up.
[Outro - Spoken over choir, fading]
From the corner to the altar, from the block to the bell,
We march in silence, we sing ourselves well.
Ghetto gospel — don’t let no one forget.
[Production Notes - for producer/engineer]
- Tempo: 72 BPM (half-time trap)
