Pyramid (Schemes)

Lyrics

[Intro]
Nineteen ninety-six.
Sun shining different in Tirana.
Word on the street is a new kind of mana.
Smells like money.
Tastes like tomorrow.
No more sorrow. Just Lek.
Piles of it.

[Verse 1]
Vehbi Alimuça got a plan. Calls it Vefa.
Shemsie Kadria, down in the south, she a believer.
Got her own thing going. Gjallica.
They say Maksude Kademi, just a textile worker, built Sudja from nothing.
Social proof, huh?
Your cousin sells his apartment.
Your uncle, his daddy's watch.
Grandma pulls the cash from under the mattress.
Everybody's eating.
Everybody's paid.
The whole block smells like a promise made.

[Chorus]
Whole country building one big pyramid.
Stone by stone, everybody's in on it.
From Vlorë up to the capital.
They said the math was radical.
Two-thirds of a nation stacking paper to the sky.
Tell me, baby, can a whole country buy a lie?
Yeah. They can.

[Verse 2]
World Bank sending letters. IMF making calls.
President Berisha, he just staring at the walls.
Or maybe his pockets.
Who's to say?
When the music's playing this loud, you let it play.
Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug.
See your neighbor's new car, give your broker a hug.
This ain't a bubble.
It's a blessing.
This ain't a house of cards.
It's a national lesson... in finance.

[Chorus]
Whole country building one big pyramid.
Stone by stone, everybody's in on it.
From Vlorë up to the capital.
They said the math was radical.
Two-thirds of a nation stacking paper to the sky.
Tell me, baby, can a whole country buy a lie?
Yeah. They can.

[Bridge]
Then came January. Ninety-seven.
Cold wind blowing.
First checks start bouncing. First doors stop opening.
Then Sudja goes quiet.
Gjallica goes dark.
One point two billion dollars just... a question mark.
And the trust?
That trust turns to fire in the street.
Turns to broken glass under your feet.
Turns a military depot into a free-for-all.
Everybody got a gun now.
Waiting for the fall.

[Outro]
A Ponzi-driven revolution.
Yeah.
You start with a promise.
You end with a solution... of a different kind.
That's how you turn a stack of Lek
into a Kalashnikov.
Check the math on that.