Mercy Got Buried

No artist release note is published for this song yet.

More listening destinations

YouTube Music Spotify artist page Apple Music artist page Deezer artist page UnitedMasters catalog

Words from the artist’s archive

Mercy Got Buried lyrics

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

Read the lyric sheet

Intro

The house got three empty chairs at the table now One for the one we buried, one for the one the system took, one for the one still deciding which way the scale tips tonight

Verse 1

Corner store on four forty-one still got his favorite pack behind the bulletproof glass Old man behind the counter don't ask how I'm holding up, just lets the transaction pass Potholes on Liberty City streets fill with rain water like they're trying to hide what the block can't forget I-95 at night carries the hum of tires and the weight of every choice that led to this Little brother used to race the streetlights home, laughing like the dark was just another game Now the only lights that come for us are the ones flashing blue and red in the middle of the night The oldest said we had to make it even, said mercy was a language the block don't speak no more He started keeping score on the back of his hand with ink that looked too much like the blood we couldn't wash off I told him the scale don't balance when you add more bodies to it, it just tips further into the dark But his eyes were already set on a revenge that wouldn't bring our little brother back

Chorus

Mercy got buried with my little brother Buried with my little brother

Verse 2

The house got court papers stacked higher than the rent that month I-95 drive to downtown felt longer every time the lawyer called with another bill we couldn't pay The oldest said we had to stand tall, said showing weakness was how the system wins But every signature on those papers felt like signing away another piece of who we used to be Mama's picture on the wall watched us argue over money we didn't have for a fight that wouldn't end The weight of it all sat on my chest like the humidity before a storm that never breaks I tried to tell him mercy might be the only way to keep what little family we had left But he said the block don't forgive and neither does the gavel waiting in that courtroom I saw the same fire in my own eyes when I looked in the mirror that morning, and it scared me more than the charges Because if I kept going down this road, there'd be four empty chairs instead of three

Chorus

Now the gavel don't care about the reasons why. Mercy got buried with my little brother.

Verse 3

Overtown nights on seven ninth still got the same corner where it all went wrong that night I see my little brother's face in every young boy walking with his head down like the world already decided The oldest looks at me like I'm the one who don't understand, like mercy is for people who ain't lost enough But looking at him is like looking at a mirror that shows the version of me that chose the fire instead of the light I told him we don't have to be what the block expects us to be, we can choose different He said the only choice left was to make them feel what we felt when the phone rang that night The fire in his eyes was the same one I saw in mine when I almost picked up the gun that week And for the first time I understood why he couldn't let it go, even if it meant losing the last of us

Chorus

What did we gain when we lost the light? Mercy got buried with my little brother.

Verse 4

Downtown courthouse hallway smelled like old coffee and broken promises Lauderhill streets outside waited for the verdict like it was another episode of the same show The oldest stood tall when they read the charges, shoulders back like he was finally at peace with the path I stood beside him, heart beating like the gavel that was about to decide if we had anything left to lose He looked at me one last time before they took him away, eyes saying "this is what justice looks like" But all I could see was the little boy who used to race me to the porch light In that moment I realized revenge don't bring the dead back, it just puts more of us in the ground or behind the glass And the scale we thought we were balancing was already broken the night we lost him

Chorus

Now the gavel don't care about the reasons why Mercy got buried with my little brother

Verse 5

Opa-Locka bus stop on six second got my niece waiting for the story I promised her last week She asks why uncle don't come around no more, why the light stays on all night I tell her the story of three brothers who tried to make the scale balance in a world that only counts the losses I tell her mercy ain't weakness, it's the only thing that might let the next ones sleep without the weight She looks at me with eyes too old for her age, like she already knows the ending before I say it I tell her the block will try to tell her justice is a gun or a gavel, but the real one lives in the choices we make when nobody's watching I tell her the light we buried with him is the one we have to keep on for the ones who come after, even when it hurts Because if we let it go out, then the scale wins and we all lose

Outro

Mercy got buried with my little brother. Buried with my little brother.

Saved reading

Inside the recording

96 sampled loudness windows · 354 seconds. The white line follows the player; this is a local recording matched by title and duration, not a verified YouTube audio fingerprint.

↓ Save the sound print · scalable SVG

01 / The opening

The house got three empty chairs at the table now One for the one we buried, one for the one the system took, one for the one still deciding which way the scale tips tonight

02 / A returning thought