Collateral Loyalty (Version 3)

Intro

Fenwick and Third, bail bonds sign half lit

Ledger on the counter got my name written in it

Verse

Notary stamp still wet when I sign for Dre

Judge said flight risk, set it high to make him stay

I put my checking account where his freedom used to lay

Walked out the courthouse lighter, but he walked out free that day

Mrs. Okafor need a co-sign for the lease

Turrell Street, fourth floor, radiator wheeze

I ain't got credit but she trust the way I speak

Shook her hand at the counter, sealed it cheek to cheek

My cousin Nay need three hundred for the crib

Landlord change the locks unless the rent get did

I emptied out my pocket like I emptied out a rib

Told myself it's family, that's the price you pay to live

Ledger keep on growing, names in columns, ink turns pale

Every signature's a debt that don't come with a scale

I ain't never asked for interest, never asked to get paid back

Just asked the block remember when the whole thing came to that

Chorus

My signature's the only thing I own for free

So I sign it for the block, that's collateral loyalty

Every name I vouch for chips a piece of me

Still I sign it for the block, that's collateral loyalty

Verse

Twenty-six now, credit score look like a bad joke

Bank teller squint at me like I'm the punchline of a broke

Man's dream, but I remember why the numbers dropped

Every dip on that report is a name that didn't stop

Falling, so I caught it, palms open, no return

Nobody in the ledger ever paid me what I earned

But Dre got a daughter now, she call me Uncle Ro

Nay pay her own rent since ninety-eight, ain't gotta go

Through what her mother went through, cycle finally broke

I keep the old receipts folded in my winter coat

Not for proof, just reminders of the weight I chose to hold

Some men measure riches by the interest that they're owed

I measure by the doors still open on my block

The keys still turning smooth cause my name was in the lock

Collateral ain't collateral if you never lose a thing

I lost enough to know exactly what my word can bring

Chorus

My signature's the only thing I own for free

So I sign it for the block, that's collateral loyalty

Every name I vouch for chips a piece of me

Still I sign it for the block, that's collateral loyalty

Bridge

Somebody asked me once if I regret the cost

I said the ones I saved outweigh the ones I lost

Credit score don't measure what a name is really worth

Mine's been rebuilding since the day that Dre got birth

To his own daughter, watched him sign his first lease clean

No co-sign needed, cleanest paper I seen

That's the interest that don't show up on a screen

Outro

Ledger's still open, one more line, one more name

Fenwick sign flickers, still it burns the same

My name's the collateral, always been the flame

Collateral loyalty, that's the only game