WINTER CARTWRIGHT

Lyrics

Winter (soft, slow):
Today…
This ain’t about glorifying the streets…
This is about surviving ‘em.
We here for the ones…
Who did the time…
Who lost they brothers…
And still found a way to live again.
If you ever been locked down…
If you ever lost somebody to the system…
If you still breathing after all that pain…
Let me hear you say “I’M STILL HERE!”
CROWD:
I’M STILL HERE!
🎶 [CHOIR – LOW HUM]
CHOIR (soft):
Mmm…
Still here…
Still here…
🎵 [HOOK – CALL & RESPONSE]
MARY:
Twenty years gone…
CHOIR:
(Twenty years gone!)
MARY:
Thirty nights long…
CHOIR:
(Thirty nights long!)
MARY:
Lost too many…
CHOIR:
(Lost too many!)
MARY:
Still stand strong…
CHOIR:
(Still stand strong!)
ALL:
God knows I never planned this…
But I’m still here, I’m still standing…
📖 [VERSE 1 – NO GUIDANCE / THE STREETS]
MARY:
He was just a boy with no direction…
Learned the streets before a lesson…
No OG to give him wisdom…
Just survival in his section…
KSI, the Ville, Hill where he stood…
Rockfield, Brookside raised in the hood…
Elm Street nights, Beers Street pain…
Island trades running through his veins…
All he knew was hustle or die…
All he saw was mamas cry…
War on drugs took souls alive…
He watched real men fade and die…
CHOIR (soft):
So many gone… so many gone…
🙏 [CALL MOMENT]
MARY (pause):
How many of y’all did time…
Physically or mentally…
And came out different?
Let me hear you say “I CHANGED!”
CROWD:
I CHANGED!
🎶 [HOOK – CROWD VERSION]
MARY:
Sing it loud!
CROWD + CHOIR:
Twenty years gone…
Thirty nights long…
Lost too many…
Still stand strong…
God knows I never planned this…
But I’m still here, I’m still standing…
💔 [VERSE 2 – REGRET / THE SHOT]
MARY:
One night changed his whole life…
One shot in the dark, now he can’t sleep right…
See that face every time he close his eyes…
Guilt don’t leave, it just multiplies…
He ain’t proud, he don’t glorify…
That moment still make a grown man cry…
Did his bid, sat with his sins…
Prayed to God, “Won’t do that again…”
Letters came, then letters stopped…
Friends got killed or the system locked…
Funerals turned into jailhouse calls…
Freedom came but it cost it all…
CHOIR:
Have mercy… have mercy…
🙏🔥 [SPIRITUAL BREAKDOWN – GOD BROUGHT ME THROUGH]
MARY (soft, emotional):
There were nights I thought it was over…
Steel doors closed… no way out…
CHOIR (low hum)
Sitting in that cell… staring at the wall…
Tears running down my face…
Hoping nobody saw…
Thought I’d die in that place…
Thought I’d never make it home…
Felt forgotten by the world…
Felt like God left me alone…
(pause… tone rises)
But He was there… in the midst of it all…
Every silent prayer… every tear that fall…
When that tear rolled down my cheek…
And I thought I was gone…
God said, “Son, hold on…
You still coming home.”
CHOIR (rising):
He brought you through…
He brought you through…
MARY (strong):
Through them dark nights…
Through them cold floors…
Through them long years…
Through them locked doors…
Even when I lost faith… He stayed true…
I’m living proof… God brought me through…
⛪ [CALL & RESPONSE – TESTIMONY]
MARY:
If God brought you through something…
Say “HE BROUGHT ME THROUGH!”
CROWD:
HE BROUGHT ME THROUGH!
MARY:
If you cried real tears… but you still here…
CROWD:
I’M STILL HERE!
🌿 [ANCESTRAL / STREET TRUTH]
MARY:
Grandmothers praying in kitchens…
While we was outside living that sentence…
They ain’t teach us, we had to learn…
Play with fire, you get burned…
Territory wars, block by block…
Same story on every block…
They gave us pain and called it choice…
But now we rising, we got a voice…
🔥 [FINAL VERSE – TRANSFORMATION]
MARY:
He came home but he ain’t the same…
Not that boy chasing street fame…
Now he building, now he leads…
Trying to plant a different seed…
From no guidance to giving game…
Trying to save the next from pain…
Yeah his past still call his name…
But he refuse to stay the same…
If they ain’t locked, then they in the ground…
So he walk with purpose now…
Tears fall but he don’t break…
Every step is for their sake…
🎤 [FINAL HOOK – BIG ANTHEM]
MARY (LOUD):
Twenty years gone!
CHOIR + CROWD:
THIRTY NIGHTS LONG!
Lost too many!
STILL STAND STRONG!
God knows I never planned this…
BUT I’M STILL HERE, I’M STILL STANDING!
🕯️ [OUTRO – HEALING]
CHOIR (soft):
Still here…
Still here…
Still here…
MARY (spoken):
For every man who made it out…
For every man still fighting…
For every brother we lost…
You gotta keep going…
🌍 [FINAL CROWD MOMENT]
MARY:
This for the system survivors…
This for the streets we came from…
This for the men who learned the hard way…
When you know better…
CROWD:
YOU DO BETTER!
MARY:
One more time… say it like you mean it—
ALL:
I’M STILL HERE!