Scar Tissue Anthem (Version 2)

Verse

Corner of Bellamy and Third, chair number nine

Leather cracked like a knuckle, still holding the line

Sharpie names on the mirror, half of 'em ghosts now

Kevon, Trey, Little Mook, still can't grow a mustache out

I been cutting these heads since they couldn't see the seat

Watched the fade turn to waves, watched the waves turn to street

Clippers humming like a hymn nobody wrote down

Every chip in the tile is a memory of a showdown

Buzz box rattles when the power flickers, no surprise

Same block, same static, same tired alibis

I don't ask what happened, I just tilt the chin up straight

Some scars need a comb-over, some just need to wait

Pre-Chorus

How many years I gotta cut before it heals

How many heads I gotta hold before it's real

Ain't looking for no answer, just a reason to stay

This the only chair in town where nobody gotta pay

Chorus

This the scar tissue anthem, no chorus for the pain

Just the buzz of the clippers and the mark that stays

Every scar got a season, every season got a name

This the scar tissue anthem, and we sing it just the same

Verse 2

Nineteen ninety kid named Ellis came in bleeding at the ear

Said don't go to Marsh Street, said it plain, said it clear

He didn't listen, caught a jump before the sun went down

Came back missing teeth, still asked me to shape the crown

I lost a friend that week for telling what I heard

The other side don't forgive a barber and his word

But I'd do it all again, cut the risk out like split ends

Loyalty ain't quiet when the outcome's a man's friend

Twenty years later Ellis got a shop two blocks from mine

Sends me customers he can't afford, calls it settling the line

We don't talk about the setup, we just nod and let it sit

Some debts get paid in silence, some just paid in it

Pre-Chorus

How many years I gotta cut before it heals

How many heads I gotta hold before it's real

Ain't looking for no answer, just a reason to stay

This the only chair in town where nobody gotta pay

Chorus

This the scar tissue anthem, no chorus for the pain

Just the buzz of the clippers and the mark that stays

Every scar got a season, every season got a name

This the scar tissue anthem, and we sing it just the same

Bridge

My hands shake now holding steel, arthritis in the joint

Teaching my nephew the fade, teaching him the point

Told him don't just cut the hair, you cutting through a year

Every man that sits down brought a whole life here

He asked me why I stayed when I could've left this place

I said the mirror needed somebody to hold its face

Handed him the clippers, told him mind the sound

This the only inheritance that don't get passed around

Chorus

This the scar tissue anthem, no chorus for the pain

Just the buzz of the clippers and the mark that stays

Every scar got a season, every season got a name

This the scar tissue anthem, and we sing it just the same