Currency of Concrete

Verse

Eighth and Denby, curb chipped like a knuckle

Ms. Odell lent me sugar when the cupboard'd buckle

Paid her back in shoveled snow, four winters straight

Never wrote it down, the block just calibrates

Chalk lines from a hopscotch game still faded pink

Same square where they laid Andre out, same block, same brink

Tyrell fronted me the fare when my check ain't clear

Three years later I'm the one who covers his kid's gear

Nobody swiping cards, nobody counting cents

The ledger's in the cracks, that's how the loyalty's spent

Pre-Chorus

So what's it worth, a favor held that long

What's it cost to hold a debt that strong

Ask the sidewalk, it remembers everything

The interest that a neighborhood collects and brings

Chorus

Concrete don't take checks, concrete don't take cash

It just remembers every favor, every debt attached

You settle up in presence, you settle up in time

Round here the currency of concrete's on the line

Verse

Moved my cousin's mattress down four flights, no elevator

Same week his landlord raised the rent up like a threat later

He slipped me forty, told him keep it, you'll need that

Still collecting on the summer that he had my back

Watched him watch the block through a windshield, driving slow

Ten years since he left, still sends what he can throw

His mother's light bill, my name still on the account

That's the only interest rate the block will ever count

Some men measure worth in what the safe can hold

I measure mine in doors that opened when it's cold

Pre-Chorus

So what's it worth, a favor held that long

What's it cost to hold a debt that strong

Ask the sidewalk, it remembers everything

The interest that a neighborhood collects and brings

Chorus

Concrete don't take checks, concrete don't take cash

It just remembers every favor, every debt attached

You settle up in presence, you settle up in time

Round here the currency of concrete's on the line

Bridge

Renny called his favor in for something dark last spring

Said I owed him silence for the winter he had brung

Told him debts don't cover that, I ain't built in that trade

Lost a friend that night but kept the currency I made

Some accounts you close for good and eat the balance owed

The concrete cracked a little, still it held the whole road

Chorus

Concrete don't take checks, concrete don't take cash

It just remembers every favor, every debt attached

You settle up in presence, you settle up in time

Round here the currency of concrete's on the line