Rooftop in Lahaina

This track was born from a real headline: Lahaina residents who survived the catastrophic August 2023 wildfire only to face devastating flooding less than three years later, many still living in temporary housing when the Kona Low struck. Muckraker's r&b production gives the story the weight of a front-page exclusive — journalism you can feel in your chest. Lines like "And when the sun comes back to Maui, and you know it always does," anchor the track in specifics that generic coverage misses. The mood — heartbroken, soulful, intimate — reflects the emotional reality behind the numbers. Every Majik's Studio news track exists to make you feel the story, not just read it.

[verse 1] August twenty-three the fire took her house on Front Street down, Smoke still in her lungs the day she drove back into town, She rebuilt with FEMA vouchers, plywood walls and borrowed time, New foundation barely cured before the rain began to climb, Three years since the flames of Lahaina turned the banyan black, Now the water's at the doorstep of the home she just got back, She carries photo albums wrapped in garbage bags upstairs, The only things she saved from fire, now drowning in her prayers, Her daughter on her hip, her phone light cutting through the dark, Climbing to the roof again, same terror, different spark. [chorus] How many times, how many times, How many times we gotta lose it all? How many times, how many times, How many times before we break the fall? How many times, how many times, Tell me how many times we gotta start again? How many times, how many times. [verse 2] The shelter at the civic center smells like wet and deja vu, Same Red Cross cots, same coffee, same faces pushing through, She sees the neighbor from the fire, the man who lost his wife, He nods and hands her blankets like it's muscle memory life, The FEMA forms are photocopies of the ones she filled before, Same boxes, same disaster codes, just water now, not war, Her little girl draws rainbows on the intake paper's back, While mama signs her name in triplicate for everything she lacks, Outside the Kona Low keeps pouring on the ashes of their grief, And Lahaina holds its people like a prayer beneath its teeth. [chorus] How many times, how many times, How many times we gotta lose it all? How many times, how many times, How many times before we break the fall? How many times, how many times, Tell me how many times we gotta start again? How many times, how many times. [bridge] She whispers to her daughter, baby, close your eyes and sleep, The water's just the ocean come to visit, not to keep, We made it through the fire, girl, we'll make it through the flood, Our roots go deeper than disaster, stronger than the mud, And when the sun comes back to Maui, and you know it always does, We'll plant our feet in Lahaina soil because that's where our home was. [chorus] How many times, how many times, How many times we gotta lose it all? How many times, how many times, How many times before we break the fall? How many times, how many times, Tell me how many times we gotta start again? How many times, how many times. [outro] How many times, how many times, Lahaina's still standing, how many times.