I Had Just Begun

[chorus]

Come find me where the rhythm bends

Where truth begins and pretending ends

I carry fire beneath my tongue

You thought I was finished

I had just begun

[rap]

I was raised by women who could stretch one answer

Across five questions and a coming disaster

Read a man clean before he started his speech

Still let him talk, just to measure his reach

I come from names written deep in the margins

Hands built the table but never joined the bargain

So when I arrive, I do not arrive small

I bring every woman they refused to recall

Every unpaid debt, every sentence cut

Every truth pushed down when the boardroom shut

They say that I'm loud, that I'm asking too much

But silence is expensive when the powerful touch

They call it peace when nobody resists

Put a pretty new label on an old clenched fist

But peace without justice is quiet for sale

A polished little story where the honest ones fail

[chorus]

Come find me where the rhythm bends

Where truth begins and pretending ends

I carry fire beneath my tongue

You thought I was finished

I had just begun

[rap]

And love, yes, I know what the word can cost

How two people meet without one getting lost

How desire can burn without claiming the flame

How I can want you and still keep my name

Some men love power when it's dressed for display

Till a woman has an answer and refuses to sway

They say they want depth, want a woman who knows

Then panic in the water when the current gets close

I will not make myself shallow so you can feel tall

Won't soften every sentence so you never feel small

You can hold my waist, but you cannot hold the reins

I have walked through enough beautifully decorated chains

[chorus]

I am mine before your hands

Before your promises and demands

I am mine, still warm, still strong

Come with respect or move along

[rap]

I survived compliments shaped like cages

Sweet little prisons written over several pages

Men who loved the music, loved watching me move

But hated the woman who selected the groove

So now I hear more than the words that you choose

I watch what you become when you're told you could lose

Not only how you touch me when everything agrees

But what happens to your kindness when I do as I please

Chemistry is easy, character has drums

I can hear the hollow long before the chorus comes

I don't need perfection, but the rhythm must be true

You cannot speak of freedom while controlling what I do

[chorus]

Come find me where the rhythm bends

Where truth begins and pretending ends

I carry fire beneath my tongue

You thought I was finished

I had just begun

[rap]

I do not speak to decorate a beat

I speak for every truth they tried to make discreet

Language leaves prints, every sentence has a past

Every polished little lie has a shadow that it casts

Somebody might hear this and recognize her stance

Lift her head higher, give herself another chance

And if one honest line makes one woman feel strong

Then every breath was worth it

Every word belongs

[chorus]

I had just begun

I had just begun

You mistook my silence for being done

I had just begun

I had just begun

Now hear the woman I have become