Corner Store Sermon 4

Verse 1

Corner store light flicker on a string

Mr. Hassan stacking nickels in a tin ring

Same shelf since '97, same receipt pad worn

Cats come through asking for a second borrow

I ain't got two dimes to lend but I got advice

Watch the water bill go up before you fix

Learn the language of the ceiling when it splits

Told my cousin stay in school cause education's key

He said 'education's just another word they use on TV

Rent money due tomorrow, I still ain't made a dime

Corner store phone rings, it's the bank — don't answer mine

Momma at the counter counting out a twenty-eight

Said this block feeds itself before it feeds the street

Pre-Chorus

So how do you preach to men who only hear the hum of debt?

How do you keep the hope lit when the light bill's set on debt?

Every sermon preached in silence, every verse unsaid

Chorus

Sermon at the register ring

Not the pastor, just my own thing

Tell 'em save before they spend

Corner store sermon — start again

Sermon at the register ring

Teach it by example, not a thing you sing

Save your money like it's holy ground

Corner store sermon — preach it loud

Verse 2

Four years later, I'm behind that counter now

Mr. Hassan's retiring, putting the keys in my hand somehow

I added four more shelves for every block I know

Same receipt pad, same flicker, but this time nobody's broke

Trey come through asking how a kid like me get here?

I say it ain't luck — it was every 'no' turned into gear

Landlord raised the rent twice since my momma moved in

I made a budget out the numbers on that bill again

Cousin call to ask if I can front him twenty-nine

I said no, told him learn the math before he spend that dime

He laughed and left — maybe one day that's his own sermon

Maybe tomorrow he'll be teaching the same lesson in his corner store then

Pre-Chorus

So how do you preach to men who only hear the hum of debt?

How do you keep the hope lit when the light bill's set on debt?

Every sermon preached in silence, every verse unsaid

Chorus

Sermon at the register ring

Not the pastor, just my own thing

Tell 'em save before they spend

Corner store sermon — start again

Sermon at the register ring

Teach it by example, not a thing you sing

Save your money like it's holy ground

Corner store sermon — preach it loud

Bridge

Mr. Hassan left the phone number of his brother in Detroit

Said he still runs a corner there and owes him half a debt

I ain't answer that phone yet, got my own bill to pay first

Teaching kids how money works before I owe somebody else my word

Some folks say it's cheap living — no, it's just survival

Every dollar counted twice cause the city eats your vision

Outro

Corner store sermon still ringing in their ears

Not the words behind glass, but what the crack on the shelf clears

Someday I'll own this block before I own a name

Now it's just a register ring, calling every corner mine