[Intro: Narrator, Young Female Spoken]
Radiator knocks three times before dawn.
The elevator groans. The hallway light comes on.
Seven floors wake behind brick and steel.
This is where the numbers meet somebody real.

[Chorus: Narrator, Young Female Rap]
Gray stairwell, count every step on the floor,
Gray stairwell, hear every knock at the door.
New glass rises where the old shops stood;
They call it progress, we call it the neighborhood.
Gray stairwell, keep every name in view;
The month just turned, and the rent is due.

[Verse 1: Narrator, Young Female Rap]
At seven, Ma folds the notice with the bills,
Sets it by the groceries and pharmacy refills.
Red ink says "adjustment," tidy and thin,
Like hunger in a necktie asking to come in.
Mrs. Cole hauls laundry from the fourth-floor door;
The dryer takes a dollar, then it asks for more.
Lila's blue bike leans with one flat tire,
While a crane cuts the sunrise into strips of fire.

[Verse 2: Narrator, Young Female Rap]
Across from the block, survey paint marks the square;
Rafi sells bread and bus cards for the people there.
A billboard promises rooftop trees and glass,
Private gardens, quiet rooms, a higher class.
They shoot our brick at sunset, crop each tenant's face,
Then rename Calder Street while dust still coats the place.
Fresh brochures land beside the overdue mail:
"An emerging district." "Investment units for sale."

[Chorus: Narrator, Young Female Rap]
Gray stairwell, count every step on the floor,
Gray stairwell, hear every knock at the door.
New glass rises where the old shops stood;
They call it progress, we call it the neighborhood.
Gray stairwell, keep every name in view;
The month just turned, and the rent is due.

[Verse 3: Narrator, Young Female Rap]
Alvarez stops with his grocery bag in hand:
"Forty years here, and I don't understand.
The bakery's a showroom, the butcher shop's a spa.
They saved every building, lost track of who we are."
Two surveyors measure every landing in pairs,
Stepping past Lila's bicycle under the stairs.
The threat fits in one figure, blue across the lease;
It breaks no glass, but it still knows how to squeeze.

[Bridge: Narrator, Young Female Rap]
That wall holds height marks beside Lila's name.
That lock knows each footstep coming home through rain.
The pipes carry bathwater, arguments, and songs.
Put a price on rooms; you cannot price who belongs.

[Drum Break][Dry kick, snare, and radiator knocks trade four-bar patterns while upright bass repeats the three-note Calder motif.]

[Final Chorus: Narrator, Young Female Rap]
Gray stairwell, count every step on the floor,
Gray stairwell, we're still behind every door.
New glass rises where the old shops stood;
You can rename the street, not the neighborhood.
Gray stairwell, keep every name in view;
The month just turned, and the rent is due.

[Outro: Narrator, Young Female Spoken]
An envelope waits where the cold air blew.
Seven floors go quiet.
The rent is due.