Top Floor

Beat Starts

Intro

Top floor is the destination and I earned every view

Jermaine from Carolina and the culture always knew.

Verse 1: J. Cole

Top floor living and I earned every single view up here

built from every basement every night I persevere

every level that I hit was paid for with the grind

Carolina in my chest and Carolina on my mind

no elevator to the top I took the stairs alone

built the whole foundation bar by bar on my own

every fake nigga doubting better watch the clock tick now

Jermaine from 910 and I'm done taking the vow.

Every bar a different weapon every weapon precise tight

the ones who said the ceiling was the limit got it right

that the ceiling was a challenge not a permanent design

I been climbing past the ceiling and the vision is mine

past every level every limit every wall they made

no ceiling on the vision and the vision never fade

top floor is the standard and the standard always mine

Jermaine from Carolina running every single line.

Fuck the ones who preached the ownership and kept the deed

I built the whole cathedral from the hunger and the need

of a culture that was starving for the real and the true

top floor in the building and the building coming through

every bar a different floor and every floor I own

built from every no and every cold dial tone

of a call that was supposed to break what I had made

Carolina raised a king and the king never afraid.

Riding through the city with the vision crystal clear

every closed door every no that brought me to right here

built from every version of myself that almost quit

every bar a different level every level legit

of a standard that I set before the culture knew my name

Jermaine from 910 and the game never the same

I decided I was done when the hunger hit the bottom

every lesson from the block and the basement never forgotten.

Beat Switch

Verse 2: J. Cole

Top floor and the view is something different up here now

every bar I ever wrote I earned it through the sweat somehow

of a basement and a notebook and a hunger that grew

past every ceiling past every limit past every view

they had of what a kid from Carolina could become

I became the standard and the standard never numb

to the truth of what the craft was always meant to be

Jermaine on the top floor and the top floor always free.

Built from every scar built from every cold and dark night

built from every version of myself I had to fight back

past — the version that almost quit before the breakthrough view

top floor in the building and the building breaking through

every wall every ceiling every limit they designed

Carolina in my chest and Carolina on my mind

every bar a different level and the level getting high

top floor is the vision and the vision touching sky.

910 the debut and the debut sitting at the top

built from every basement and I never gonna stop

climbing past the ceiling past the limit past the wall

top floor is the standard and the standard got it all

figured out since the notebook since the pen since the grind

Jermaine from Carolina and I never left behind

the hunger that was planted when the dial tone went cold

top floor is the story and the story being told.

No features no assistance no cosign on the way up

every bitch that said it wouldn't happen better wake up

cause Jermaine in the building and the building got no roof

top floor is the vision and the vision is the proof

of a kid who turned the nothing into everything alone

built Dreamville from the bottom and I built it on my own

every bar a brick and every brick a different scar

top floor is the destination and Jermaine going far.

Beat Ends