I Can’t Make You Happy - Lyrics

Title: I Can’t Make You Happy
Artist: Loui Crow
Streaming: All platforms
📱 TikTok: @louicrow

💜 ABOUT THE SONG — I CAN’T MAKE YOU HAPPY
This one came straight from my ribs. It didn’t ask for polish, just permission. I wrote this song from the inside of guilt—the kind you carry even after you’ve already left the fire. This song is what happens when your nervous system is still apologizing for the version of you that kept everyone else afloat.

I wrote it to unhook. From the fake kindness. From the performative calm. From the script that says love means disappearing. I was the girl who made peace her prison, and silence her trick. This song is a door I carved out of that.

This one isn’t for applause. It’s for release. I’m still in it. Still shaking some days. Still feeling that guilt snake up my throat when I choose myself. But this time, I’m staying. And the song’s staying with me.

Louise Hay taught me guilt is a trap. Bashar showed me it’s an outdated signal. This song is the alchemy of both. I offer it for anyone who traded their truth for approval—and is finally ready to stop bleeding to be liked.

🔥 CROW BODY-BREAKDOWN — What Guilt Really Is
Guilt is the ghost of your former cage. It’s the echo of bracing in your belly. It’s a nervous system conditioned to flinch when you choose yourself. Guilt comes wrapped in old praise: "You’re so good," "You’re so sweet," "You’re so easy to be around."

But guilt is just grief with no funeral. It’s the cost of playing roles that required your silence. And the body remembers every time you bit your tongue to keep the peace. This song is how we bury that lie. This is how we get loud again.

🗣️ Crow Affirmation:
"I name the guilt, but it doesn’t decide."

💜 CROW TRUTH
They called it kindness.
But it was a muzzle.
They called it love.
But it had rules.
I am done being praised for vanishing.
I stay loud. I stay whole.

🖋 LYRICS — I CAN’T MAKE YOU HAPPY

[Verse 1]
I was praised for my smile while I bled through the seams
Called “so good” for swallowing screams
I was the clean one, the kind one, the calm
A self-cleaning oven with fire in my palms
I signed the vow that said “you first,” and folded inwards like a prayer
Bit my tongue ‘til it bled just to keep the room fair
I made myself small, made myself smooth
Bent every edge just to stay in the room
My truth was a weapon, so I locked it away
Till I couldn’t even cry without rehearsing what to say

[Chorus]
I can’t make you happy
I tried
I broke myself trying
I still feel guilty sometimes
But I’m not going back
I’m staying with me
Even if the guilt crawls
Even if it screams

[Verse 2]
They liked me better when I played it small
Soft voice, closed fists, back against the wall
Called me wise for never making waves
But I was drowning just to keep them saved
I wore empathy like body armor
Read their moods like weather
But they never asked if I was sinking
Only if I made things better

[Chorus]
I can’t make you happy
I tried
I broke myself trying
I still feel guilty sometimes
But I’m not going back
I’m staying with me
Even when the guilt grips
Even when it bleeds

[Bridge]
There’s a scream in my gut that’s been trained not to rise
A riot of truth that I shoved behind my eyes
I am not mean for naming what I need
I am not cruel for letting myself breathe

[Rap Verse]
They called it empathy, I called it fear
Reading the air like a prophecy seer
I wasn't tuned in, I was trained to detect
Any flicker of tension that might break the deck
My empathy was armor, a mirror, a trick
A way to go silent before things got thick
And I’m done calling that noble
It was just damage control

[Verse 3]
And I learned to equate being liked with being quiet
Took my rage, dressed it up, and turned it to a diet
Of apologies I never meant, but offered just in case
They’d abandon me for showing my face

[Chorus]
I can’t make you happy
I tried
I broke myself trying
I still feel guilty sometimes
But I’m not going back
I’m staying with me
Even when I’m shaking
Even when it stings

[Bridge]
That’s what they mean when they praise “being nice”
It’s the death of the voice in exchange for the price
I’m done trading warmth for permission to speak
Done calling myself weak just for wanting to leave
Guilt still visits, but it doesn’t decide
I feel it, I name it, but I don’t let it ride

[Rap Verse]
I can’t be the version they crop in tight
Can’t pose for their comfort, can’t dim my light
I’m too much to filter, too whole to reduce
Too fluent in pain to keep being their truce
They said I was great, but they needed me small
Praised me for breaking, and ignored my fall
So I wrote this from inside the ache
Where nice was the lie and rage had to wake

[Chorus]
I can’t make you happy
I tried
And I still feel guilty
But I finally know why
It’s not truth that hurts
It’s the mirror I became
They wanted my silence
But I gave them my name

[Final Verse]
But the nice girl is gone now
She burned in the purge
What’s left is the woman
Who will not submerge
I don’t soften the mirror
I don’t crop the frame
If they’re triggered by my wholeness
That’s not my shame
They can call me selfish
They can say I’ve changed
But I was never theirs
I just played the game

[Outro]
They liked me better
When I didn’t need
Now I like me
Even when I bleed

[Final Chorus]
I can’t make you happy
I tried
I broke myself trying
I still feel guilty sometimes
But I’m not going back
I’m staying with me
I can’t make you happy
I tried
I can’t make you happy
That was never mine to do