Weight of the Gold Tooth

Intro

Nineteen-sixty-one, the ring bell cracked like a shot

My uncle spit a molar and half a prayer in the pot

Verse

Trainer said smile pretty, boy, that's how you get paid

Melted his championship ring into the trade

Gold cap gleamed under lights he never got to keep

Fought six more rounds on a jaw that wouldn't sleep

Promoter kept the purse, left him the shine to hold

Said a scar you can see is worth more than gold

Wore it to the funeral, wore it to the door

Wore it when the landlord came knocking twice, then four

Never pawned the tooth though the rent was three months late

Said some things you carry heavier than weight

Passed it to my father wrapped in an old bandana

Father passed it to me outside a rusted Montana

Told me every legend's got a tooth that costs

Mine's the only trophy that our family never lost

Hook

Smile like a vault, but the debt was never sold

Weight of the gold tooth heavier than gold

Every grin I flash is a story left untold

I kept the weight, I never let it go

Verse

Now I got my own, capped it senior year of school

Corner-store cash, paid the dentist off in full

Kids called it flashy, they ain't know the price it hold

Half a paycheck sacrificed just to shine cold

Wore it to the block when the block was running thin

Wore it to my mother's ward when the news came in

Doctor said the tumor's small, we caught it just in time

Gold tooth in my mouth while I prayed a broken rhyme

Sold my chain that winter, sold the watch, the ring

Never touched the tooth though, that's a different thing

That's the one that stays when everything else departs

Soldered metal memory holding down my heart

Not for flexing, not for cameras, not for show

It's the only receipt of everywhere I didn't go

Every dollar spent instead of buying what I lacked

Gold tooth is the ledger of the years I held it back

Hook

Smile like a vault, but the debt was never sold

Weight of the gold tooth heavier than gold

Every grin I flash is a story left untold

I kept the weight, I never let it go

Bridge

Pawnbroker offered stacks, said gold's up on the scale

Told him weight ain't measured only where the numbers sail

Told him every ounce got a name inside the shine

Told him this ain't currency, it's four generations' spine

I'll die with it still living where my uncle bled it first

Bury me still smiling, let the ground know what it's worth

It ain't the shine that matters, it's the staying through the years

Gold don't tell you nothing that the wearing didn't clear

Outro

Cracked bell still rings soft inside my chest

Tooth still gold, the family still unfinished, never rest

Weight of the gold tooth, that's the only crown I own

Wear it till they bury me, then it's somebody else's throne