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Words from the artist’s archive
THE FLINCH 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
Doorframe in Carol City, pencil up the wood. Three names, one wall, every kid that ever stood.
Verse 1
Heat off the four forty-one make the whole block hum. Pops had a hand quick as the rent come due, son. Never seen him cry, seen him swing at the air, learned to read a room 'fore I learned how to share. Pollo Tropical, three a.m., we ate quiet, tension in the kitchen like a curfew, no riot. He was somebody's bruise 'fore he was my old man, whole house flinch when a cabinet slam.
Pre-chorus
So I count the marks, watch 'em climb the same paint. Higher than the hurt, but the hurt know my name.
Chorus
I learned to wave and to flinch from the same two hands. The flinch don't fall from the sky, it come from a man. I'm raisin' him gentle where they raised me to brace, so he grow up never knowin' how to duck from my face. Same two hands, hands up, not raised Same two hands.
Verse 2
The weight ain't a backpack, it's a way that I freeze. Girl say "talk to me," and my jaw lock with the keys. Three hundred on the light bill, paid it, stayed calm, but I jumped when she touched me, that's my father in my palm. Jackson Memorial, I was born up the hall from the room where he learned that a man don't fall. Lauderhill to the Hill, we relocate the ache, same wall, new address, same line in the paint.
Verse 3
He spilled the juice, four years old, and I felt it rise, that heat in the wrist, that old familiar size. I raised my hand to point... Self-correction nah. I know what the hand was gon' do. Caught it in the air like my pops never knew how to. Sat down on the floor, let the juice just spread. "My bad, lil man." First time them words ever said in this house.
Pre-chorus
Now I add a fourth name to the wood, higher than the hurt.
Chorus
I learned to wave and to flinch from the same two hands. The flinch don't fall from the sky, it come from a man. I'm raisin' him gentle where they raised me to brace, so he grow up never knowin' how to duck from my face. Same two hands, same two hands.
Verse 4
I been mad at a man for a war he was born in. Forty-one years he carried what his father was pourin'. Granddad to daddy to me, it's a baton, not a gift, three of us sprintin' from the same little fist. I'm the one that stop runnin'. I turn and I hold it, look the old hurt in the face, tell it "I'm not gon' fold it into him." 441 still hum, but the house gone quiet, not the curfew kind, the kind where nobody fight it. Church parking lot, Sistrunk, forgave you in the car, ninety-nine cent candle, told my pops who you are.
Bridge
Same two hands... that braided my hair and bruised my mama's wrist, He was nine when his daddy left him at a stove. I'm thirty, learnin' how to let a boy be slow.
Verse 5
Lil man, you spilled the juice and the sky ain't fall. You gon' grow up not knowin' how to read a room at all, and that's the flex. Be loud. Be wrong. Be safe to be small. The doorframe say you passed me; you the tallest on the wall. I'll teach you how to wave, I'ma hide where I learned to flinch. The buck ain't passin' through you; it stop at this inch. Sunday, Publix sub line, you holdin' my hand, not duckin' it.
Pre-chorus
Higher than the hurt now, finally understood.
Chorus
I learned to wave and to flinch from the same two hands. The flinch don't fall from the sky, it come from a man. I raised him gentle where they raised me to brace, and he don't know how to duck, thank God from my face. Same two hands., hands up, not raised No flinch on the wall.
Outro
Four names on the doorframe. The flinch stop here.
Inside the recording
Doorframe in Carol City, pencil up the wood. Three names, one wall, every kid that ever stood.
So I count the marks, watch 'em climb the same paint. Higher than the hurt, but the hurt know my name.
Four names on the doorframe. The flinch stop here.
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.