[Intro – Prominent Clock tick tock sound, female voices only; smoky lead with distant ethereal harmony] We built the city, they branded the view Keys to nothing and the rent comes due Lights stay off while the towers stand bare Everybody needs a home—they put a price on air [Verse 1 – British male cadence rapper only; dry, conversational and precise; controlled internal rhyme and wordplay; calm but observant] Field gets a border, border gets a name Name gets a number, number learns to gain Planner draws a skyline, lender draws a chain Land earns more by waiting than a worker earns in rain Concrete meets contract; every floor becomes a yield Family sees a front door—fund sees an asset sealed Homes split to units, units folded into funds Funds leave the street but still collect what the street becomes [Cadence tightens slightly; wordplay sharpens but remains controlled] Bank owns every winter, tenant pays the rain Agent calls a shoebox “luxury” and lifts the rate again By the time the key is cut, every hand has claimed a fee Except the hand that worked all month just trying to keep the key [Chorus – female voices only; smoky melodic lead with haunting minor-key harmonies] We built the city, they branded the view Keys to nothing and the rent comes due Lights stay off while the towers stand bare Everybody needs a home—they put a price on air [Verse 2 – same British male rapper; storytelling with sharper emotional edges and restrained anger] One mum counts overtime, one landlord counts the yield Same damp climbs the bedroom wall the contract calls “sealed” Meter eats the breakfast, radiator keeps the time [ Male: Mockingly polite whisper] “Not urgent”—means the mould can work the overtime [Return to cadence; slightly more urgent but still precise] Nurse cleans the tower, drives three towns to bed The tower makes a killing with half its windows dead Hands that wired the penthouse cannot hold a lease Empty homes earn interest while the tents inherit the freeze [Emphasis on contrast and double meaning] Cranes raise the skyline while they raze the street Sleep gets sold by square foot, peace gets priced by week Home is where the heart is—if the heart can meet the lease [Brief cracked breath; controlled bitterness] They call the market free… funny how freedom comes with fees [Final Chorus – female voices only; layered harmonies, restrained but powerful] We built the city, they branded the view Keys to nothing and the rent comes due Lights stay off while the towers stand bare Everybody needs a home—they put a price on air [Outro – female voices only; stripped back, fading] Keys to nothing… Rent comes due… They put a price on air…
