Title: Corrupt System

Verse 1 (breathy, low register, lots of space)

Fluorescent mornings hum in monotone

Paper cups and antiseptic ozone

Name tag hanging like a quiet oath

To a life I learned but never chose

I was raised on “if you do it right”

You can earn your way into the light

So I traded time I can’t reclaim

For a promise printed without a name

Pre-Chorus (slightly more melodic, still restrained)

They said, “hold steady, it accrues”

But the interest never reaches you

Now I’m measured out in tasks I do

Not the person I once grew

Chorus (clear, haunting, simple hook)

Corrupt system, soft prison

Turns devotion into something missing

All that faith, all that discipline

Tell me where the living is in it

Corrupt system, I listened

Followed every rule they’d written

Now I’m here, indistinct in it

Tell me what exactly I’ve been given

Verse 2 (slightly tighter rhythm, more bite)

Vitals steady, but the pulse feels thin

Learning how to ration what I give

Started out with something like intent

Now it’s just compliance dressed as sense

Incremental cuts, dressed as reform

Future plans quietly withdrawn

And I watch the numbers misalign

While I’m audited for every line

Pre-Chorus

I don’t envy, I observe

How the system bends what we deserve

There’s a calculus that doesn’t serve

Those who did what they were told to learn

Chorus

Corrupt system, soft prison

Turns devotion into something missing

All that faith, all that discipline

Tell me where the living is in it

Corrupt system, I listened

Followed every rule they’d written

Now I’m here, indistinct in it

Tell me what exactly I’ve been given

Bridge (intimate, almost spoken, emotionally sharp)

So this is the exchange rate now—

Years of study, flattened out

Missed experiences, written off

As “necessary losses” in the cost

You mean I did all that for this?

Deferred a life I couldn’t risk?

Just to balance on a line like this—

Existing, but not quite convinced

Break / DnB Drop Section (rhythmic, minimal phrasing)

Check pulse / hold breath

Give more / get less

Shift ends / reset

Am I finished yet?

Check pulse / hold breath

Same loop / same steps

Time spent / in debt

To a system I never met

Final Chorus (slightly more open vocally)

Corrupt system, don’t miss it

How it frames the loss as something gifted

All that work, all that persistence

Tell me why it feels so distant

Corrupt system, I did it

Every metric, every limit

Now I see the fine print in it

And it doesn’t read like living

Outro (fragile, fading)

Morning comes the same again

Nothing lost that they can’t spend

If I had the choice back then…

Would I choose it again?