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Words from the artist’s archive
FLOOR PLAN 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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Verse 1
Fluorescent kitchen, marble counter, Keurig pod, pour the cafecito like I'm still off NW Seventh. Fourteenth and L, the lobby got Italian leather, doorman call me sir like sir was my first name. Cousin texted five fourteen. Eviction Tuesday. Four forty due. I read it, locked the screen, finished knotting the silk. Comms director memo said, stay on message, smile. Smile is a muscle. I been training it like a sprint. The chair is mahogany, the chair is heavy, the chair is mine, that's what they say. Mine. Like the word does the work. But the chair belongs to whoever pays the cleaning crew. I take their notes. I write their bills. I name their streets. I sip from the master's cup and call the water sweet.
Pre-chorus
Tell me what the suit cost. Tell me what the silence cost. Tell me what I owe them, what I owe Quan. Look at the room. Look at the hand. Look at the door.
Chorus
Same plantation, different floor plan. House got the finer plates, field got the longer memory. They handed me a key to the kitchen, they ain't hand me a key to the door. Same plantation, different floor plan. I sip from the master's cup and call the water sweet. Same plantation, different floor plan. House got the finer plates, field got the longer memory.
Verse 2
Press conference, eleven, name plate brass. Cameras click like locusts, every quote is half a leash. I said our communities need investment, not surveillance. Got a standing O from the same hands wrote the carceral bill. The donor in row two sells body cams to twenty cities, shook my hand at the after, said we love your voice. Voice. Like a stocking on a piggy bank. Like a tool in a drawer. Liberty City flooded again, my chief of staff said later. Later turned to never, never turned to we tried, we tried turned to next cycle, next cycle turned to no quote. House Negro got a corner office, view of the Mall. House Negro got a townhouse, view of the Hill. House Negro got a Wikipedia page, view of the world. House Negro got a mama nobody picked up the phone for.
Chorus
Same plantation, different floor plan. House got the finer plates, field got the longer memory. They handed me a key to the kitchen, they ain't hand me a key to the door. Same plantation, different floor plan. I sip from the master's cup and call the water sweet.
Bridge
Mama said the apple don't fall far. I said the apple ain't gotta fall. The apple gets picked. Polished. Set on a desk in a room with my name on the door, the door I don't got the key to. I look in the mirror, Quan is in my mouth. Liberty City in my eyes. The suit is wearing me. Fourteenth and L. Three a.m. Tie undone. I called Mama. She picked up on the second ring. I said nothing. She said, I know. Same plantation. Different floor plan. And I built the floor.
Chorus
Same plantation, different floor plan. House got the finer plates, field got the longer memory. They handed me a key to the kitchen, they ain't hand me a key to the door. Same plantation, different floor plan. I sip from the master's cup and call the water sweet. Same plantation, different floor plan. House got the finer plates, field got the longer memory. House got the finer plates, field got the longer memory.
Outro
Phone buzzed. Quan again. Voicemail thirty-one. Cufflinks on the dresser. Suit on the chair. The chair is mine. That's what they say.
Inside the recording
Fluorescent kitchen, marble counter, Keurig pod, pour the cafecito like I'm still off NW Seventh.
Tell me what the suit cost. Tell me what the silence cost.
Phone buzzed. Quan again. Voicemail thirty-one. Cufflinks on the dresser. Suit on the chair.
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.