The Building Knows

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The Building Knows lyrics

Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.

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Intro

Lobby light. Forty-four floors of glass. They scanned my face before they asked my name.

Verse 1

Floor one, the cameras clock me at the door, retina read, concierge bot say welcome home once more. Came up off Allapattah where the rent ain't ask for much, now the lobby smell like money and a marble I can't touch. Outside the glass a chant about a variance they slid, inside they hand me cucumber water, tell me hide my kid. Brickell built a heaven you only rent the keys, doormen know my coffee 'fore I order, please.

Pre-chorus

Elevator climbing, watch the little numbers run, my reflection in the steel say look how far you come, but the fob inside my fist been blinking like a cuff,

Chorus

Forty-four up and the doors lock slow, the higher that I rise, the more the building knows. I tap the little key, watch the green light glow, they gave me the whole view, can't turn off the show. The building knows, the building knows

Verse 2

Floor nineteen, the screen inside the lift light up, a zoning hearing pushed again, somebody pumped the token up, neighbor brag his deed got sliced to thirty little coins, the tower pay you back, he laugh, gold watch on the join. Notification: amenity fee went up by two, the Live Local Act made room for them, ain't make no room for you. Down on Eighth the ventanita where my auntie used to pour, now a sales suite with a model of the floor above my floor.

Verse 3

Floor thirty, all mirror, I'm a man inside a glass, treadmill running nowhere while the local news rerun the past, Overtown, a class-action, a block they bought for grass, and I'm pedaling in chrome like I ain't part of what they cast. I side-eye my own face, it don't blink back honest, sweat on a machine that count my heartbeat like a promise.

Pre-chorus

Elevator climbing, but it feel like going down, every floor go quieter, every camera turning round, and the fob inside my fist still blinking like a cuff,

Chorus

Verse 4

Floor forty, rooftop, influencer ring-light on the rail, a drone drop a package like a hawk that never fail, champagne over Biscayne, I-95 a string of red, way down past the valet, little signs I can't quite read. They filming for the timeline, I'm just trying to find the air, the bay don't smell like salt no more, it smell like nobody there.

Bridge

They gave me a key that only opens doors that watch me back. I climbed it. I wanted it. That's the part I can't take back.

Verse 5

Floor forty-four, my door, I kill the lights, the thermostat, the app, unplug the little speaker, throw a towel on the cam, collapse, Then the HVAC hum come breathing through the vent, the wall still warm with watching, every dollar that I spent. Liberty City on the news, my mama say come home, and the building log the second that I picked up the phone.

Pre-chorus

No elevator now, just me and what I chose, the view I paid to own been owning me, I suppose, and the fob inside my fist, it ain't blinking, it just glows,

Chorus

Forty-four up and the doors lock slow, the higher that I rose, the more the building knows. I tapped the little key, watched the green light glow, they gave me the whole view, can't turn off the show. The building knows, the building knows

Outro

Forty-four floors. Green light. Goodnight.

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