K-Drama - What I Got to Show for It? Lyrics
Lyrics
Pre-Hook
My dad was broke from chasing a high
I'm broke from chasing a dream
Man I'm just tryna survive
Underwater is hard to breathe
Hook
I be putting in work
But what I got to show for it?
I be putting in work
But tell me what I got to show for it?
Verse 1
I be putting in work (Work!)
Almost everyday I clock in
Grateful for the time allotted
No distractions man I'm locked in
Dropping tracks that are knocking
Pulling all nighters like a locking
My results got me boxed in
Trapped like my father but I'm not him (Sheesh!)
But it look similar, my mind is a Cinema
I believe in me and God's will but what if we in from Ninevah
Please telling me "To be still", don't worry when I hit Him up
However, I must admit it's hard getting by with the minimum
Man, I wish I could give my feel to the world
They deserve it (They deserve it!)
Sometimes I contemplate about my future
And I get nervous (I get nervous!)
I hope I'm being a blessing
More than I'm being a burden (Being a burden!)
I don't wanna wait until I stand before the justice
And know my verdict (Know my verdict!)
When it's all said and done, it doesn't measure up (Up!)
To my expectations tryna get theses letters up (Yuh!)
That's what sad about it, man I work hard (I work hard!)
Yet it feels like we are so far
Pre-Hook
My dad was broke from chasing a high
I'm broke from chasing a dream
Man I'm just tryna survive
Underwater is hard to breathe
Hook
I be putting in work
But what I got to show for it?
I be putting in work
But tell me what I got to show for it?
Verse 2
Thank God for my Grandma
Grateful for my Grandpa
Selflessly stood in the gap
When my dad violated man laws
He was blowing money fast (Fast!)
Didn't even bring the check home
Checking mom's purse for the stash
So he could hit the ave and collect snow
Reckless, didn't care about the repos or evictions
Careless about convictions, visitations, rehabs, prisons
Should've been homeless to the his decisions
Granny had a room for us, I picked a twin
Mom slept on the floor hard like a Rock Fox Force
Trouble made me better (Better)
On average, I out Run-DMC's "Tougher Than Leather" (Leather)
Storms coming, won't let up (Woo!)
Get knocked down and I get up and inscribing these letters
But what takes it's toll is being a slave to these debtors (Man that's real!)
Should my family have to endure this bumpy ride? (Bumpy ride)
What's the difference between my dream and getting high?
I'm exaggerating but it feels like we're barely getting by (Getting by)
Question is, is my dream a drug disguise?
Pre-Hook
My dad was broke from chasing a high
I'm broke from chasing a dream
Man I'm just tryna survive
Underwater is hard to breathe
Hook
I be putting in work
But what I got to show for it?
I be putting in work
But tell me what I got to show for it?
Video
【Full】Nobody expected the man who rode a bicycle to work was actually their new CEO!
Meaning & Inspiration
K-Drama isn't giving us the usual Sunday morning fluff here. In Elegiac Sessions, he’s staring down the barrel of a question that usually gets you hushed in the back of the sanctuary: "What’s the difference between my dream and getting high?"
It’s a brutal line. Most Christian music pivots away from that kind of friction. We usually get songs about "surrendering the outcome" or "trusting the process," which, frankly, sounds like a greeting card when you’re staring at an eviction notice or watching the bank account hit zero. K-Drama skips the platitudes and drops us right into the dirt of his own ambition. He’s asking if his "calling" is actually just his own ego in a disguise—a different kind of high that keeps him from being present for the people who actually need him.
There’s a tension in the lyric, "I hope I'm being a blessing / More than I'm being a burden." We love to talk about being "world changers," but in the quiet, when the adrenaline of the work fades, that’s not what hits you. You wonder if you’re just a ghost in your own house, chasing a version of "impact" that costs your family their stability.
It reminds me of the restlessness in Ecclesiastes. Solomon goes on and on about how everything under the sun is a chasing after wind, and he says it with a lot more cynicism than we usually admit to reading. "What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?" (Ecclesiastes 2:22). K-Drama is living that verse out in real-time. He’s "locked in," he’s "pulling all-nighters," he’s doing all the things he thinks he’s supposed to do, and yet the math doesn't add up.
If God’s sovereignty is supposed to be the cushion for our failures, why does the floor still feel so hard? When you’re under water, "be still" can sound like a taunt.
The most honest part of this track isn't the confession of his father’s addiction or the poverty of his upbringing; it’s his uncertainty. He isn't closing the song with a tidy bow or a promise that everything is going to be "blessed" by next Tuesday. He’s just asking if he’s doing the right thing.
Maybe that’s the most faithful place to be—not in the certainty of the "blessing," but in the raw admission that you’re terrified your work isn’t going to mean anything at all. You can preach all day about faith, but until you’ve sat in a room with your own failures, questioning if you’ve sacrificed the wrong things for the right-sounding goals, you’re just reading the label off the jar. K-Drama is actually opening it. It’s messy, it’s unresolved, and it’s the most honest thing I’ve heard in a long time.