“Tied to the System” finds Xilence trapped inside the machinery of institutional life, where identity is reduced to paperwork, diagnoses, and case notes. The track paints a stark world of hospital corridors, probation checks, medication routines, and authority figures who see compliance instead of humanity. Rather than focusing only on chaos or breakdown, the song centers on what it feels like to be continuously interpreted, labeled, and managed by systems that never ask who you are beneath the record. At its core, the record is a confrontation with that erasure. Xilence pushes back against being defined as “broken,” reframing that label as something constructed through neglect, judgment, and repetition. The hook’s central line, “They say I’m broken but I’m the one they made,” becomes the thesis of the track, turning blame outward toward the structures that shaped him rather than inward toward the individual. Musically and emotionally, “Tied to the System” carries a cold, restrained intensity, mirroring the sterile environments it describes. It’s less about escape and more about awareness the moment of realizing the system is not neutral, and that survival inside it often looks like rebellion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Hook] Tied to the system, chain on my name Papers on papers treat my soul like a stain They say I’m broken — but I’m the one they made Cold white lights every step that I take Institution walls keep echoing my pain Probation on my back like a leash on a stray [Verse 1] Metal chairs, cold floors, and a number for a name Every question that they ask tryna box in my brain Hospital lights flicker — déjà vu again Same halls, same stares, like they waiting for me to cave in Pills in a cup, “take two, stay sane,” But they never understood what’s insidе my veins Got a file so thick it could build me a cagе They never see a human, just lines on a page [Hook] Tied to the system, chain on my name Papers on papers treat my soul like a stain They say I’m broken — but I’m the one they made Cold white lights every step that I take Institution walls keep echoing my pain Probation on my back like a leash on a stray [Verse 2] Judge looked down like he reading off fate Didn’t care ’bout the story, just the choices I made But the choices were survival, what you know about that? Fighting shadows in my head and the ghosts in my past Therapist writing while I spill my chest But she only hears triggers — never hears the rest If trauma was a weapon then they taught me to aim If pain was a language then they carved out my name Walls heard secrets I never meant to say System got a hunger and I’m part of the prey [Hook] Tied to the system, chain on my name Papers on papers treat my soul like a stain They say I’m broken — but I’m the one they made Cold white lights every step that I take Institution walls keep echoing my pain Probation on my back like a leash on a stray [Outro] Can’t box my soul in a file or a case Can’t tell me who I am from the scars on my face If rebellion is survival then I’ll never behave — I’m not broken — I’m the one you shaped more