Scar Tissue Economics

Intro

Barbershop mirror, count the marks like they're line items

Old man Willis reads a scar the way he reads religion

Says every one of them a receipt for what you learned

Says the block don't give nothing that you didn't earn

Verse

Twelve years old, chain slipped off my dirt bike wheel

Metal kissed my shin, taught me how pain deals

Quick lesson, scar closed up like a stitched-up zipper

Wore it into school next day, told the story bigger

Kids on the block start comparing who bled worse

Marcus had a burn mark, Danny had a curse

From his daddy's belt, we ranked it like a currency

Whoever hurt the hardest earned the most emergency

Respect, that's the interest rate on flesh and bone

Nobody teach you that at home, you learn it alone

By fourteen I had three, wore 'em like they merit

Didn't know the scar bank charges you to inherit

Next one, then the next, compound till you drowning

Every mark a receipt, every receipt keeps counting

Thought I was rich in reputation, stacked in proof

Didn't nobody tell me proof don't pay the roof

Chorus

Scar tissue economics, that's the only bank we trust

Pay in blood before you ever pay in trust

Every mark's a receipt for what you had to prove

Interest never stops till you got nothing left to lose

Verse

Seventeen, jumped the fence chasing a paycheck

Landlord's dog tore my forearm, I ain't break step

Kept running 'cause the job depended on the timing

Showed up bleeding, boss just nodded, kept me climbing

That scar bought me six months steady at the loading dock

Told my mama it was nothing, kept the story locked

She saw it in the shower steam, asked what happened

I said cost of doing business, she just sat there, silent

That's when I learned the currency ain't only pain

It's what you hide to keep the people that you claim

Safe from knowing what the safety really cost

Every dollar that I made, some piece of me got lost

Started keeping score like it was something I could bank

Scar for scar, rank for rank, tank after tank

Thought the marks would buy me out the block for good

Turns out debt like that don't leave the neighborhood

Chorus

Scar tissue economics, that's the only bank we trust

Pay in blood before you ever pay in trust

Every mark's a receipt for what you had to prove

Interest never stops till you got nothing left to lose

Bridge

My little cousin showed me a cut across his knuckle

Proud like I was at his age, waiting on my chuckle

I told him put the story down, that ain't a badge, it's a bill

Told him the block don't forget what you owe, and it never will

I used to think the ledger balanced when the pain looked equal

Now I know real wealth is walking off before the sequel

Started paying different, time instead of tissue

Sat with him on the stoop, talked instead of miss you

Told him every mark I got still aches when it rains

Told him currency like that don't c