Pavement keeps our name

Intro

Cracked pavement holds my name for free

Same four blocks, same rusty chain

I'm the one who paid the debt, but you don't need a ledger to know

Verse

Rico's 2-door hatchback still got four tires on the ground

Lettuce in his back seat where the trunk used to be

Tay's cousin sold us gas for a Coke and an IOU

I paid that debt five years later with no receipt

We kept our word like it was currency, even when we couldn't pay

Ledger's still in my chest pocket from the day

Chorus

Pavement keeps our name

Cracked but unbroken

Every block I ever knew

Pavement keeps our name

I swear to you I paid that debt before you turned

Pavement holds it till your turn comes around

So hold up your head and watch it heal in time

Verse

Rio's been running numbers since his 21st birthday cake

Kept the books on every handout, every loan he ever made

I borrowed five hundred from him when my momma got sick

Paid back two thousand with no signature but his own word as ink

Now we're grown men counting different kinds of change

Same streets still calling us back to keep the balance in play

Pre-Chorus

The ledger's not the page, it's how you answer every time

Pavement knows who paid what and when the interest came due

Chorus

Pavement keeps our name

Cracked but unbroken

Every block I ever knew

Pavement keeps our name

I swear to you I paid that debt before you turned

Pavement holds it till your turn comes around

So hold up your head and watch it heal in time

Verse

Dre's been gone five years, still got his chain on a hook outside the bodega

The owner lets me borrow it every time I walk by

Tay's doing better than either one of us, but he don't forget where we came from

Said if you ever ask for something that costs more than love then leave

Now Rico runs the block and I run his numbers still

Kept the ledger honest when nobody else could make it out the same hill

Chorus

Pavement keeps our name

Cracked but unbroken

Every block I ever knew

Pavement keeps our name

I swear to you I paid that debt before you turned

Pavement holds it till your turn comes around

So hold up your head and watch it heal in time

Bridge

The streets ain't just where we grew up, they're inside of me now too

Every crack remembers something that someone else couldn't do

I don't need no receipt for the promises I made

Pavement's got the record and I'll die before it fades

Chorus

Pavement keeps our name

Cracked but unbroken

Every block I ever knew

Pavement keeps our name

I swear to you I paid that debt before you turned

Pavement holds it till your turn comes around

So hold up your head and watch it heal in time

Outro

It don't pay to keep track of who owes what to who

When every crack on this pavement tells me exactly what to do