Intro
Yeah, block still remembers my name
Every crack in the sidewalk got a story to claim
Concrete kept the receipts
Verse
Third floor walk-up, radiator knock like a beat
Momma countin' quarters on the kitchen table, half discreet
I was ten with a notebook, rhymes in the margin
Watchin' dealers on the corner turn hope into bargain
Didn't want that life, wanted mic time and marquees
Slept with headphones on, dreamed in harmonies
Fourteen years old sellin' mixtapes out the schoolyard
Every no I collected made the yes hit that much harder
Seventeen, got jumped for a beat CD
Came back the next day, sold it right in front of he
That's the block law, you fall you get up quicker
Every scar on my knuckle got a verse, it's a sticker
Grandma said the concrete never lies, it just waits
Writes your name in the cement before you walk through the gates
So I walked, left a print they could never erase
Every hustle, every hour, stamped into the pavement, a face
Chorus
Concrete kept the receipts, every step that I made
Every night that I bled for a dream that don't fade
From the block to the booth, still I carry the weight
Concrete kept the receipts, I ain't erasin' a page
Verse
Twenty-two, studio session, forty dollar an hour
Splittin' beans out a can 'cause the rent had the power
Engineer said "one more take" like he owed me a favor
I gave him bars that could outlive a paper labor
Burned a hundred CDs, sold 'em out the trunk
Windshield fulla flyers, backseat fulla junk
But that junk was my future foldin' up in a bag
Every corner store clerk knew my hustle, no gag
Twenty-five, first show, fifty people packed tight
Felt like Madison Square under one bulb of light
Momma in the front row, tears on her collar
I told her hold tight, gonna turn this to dollars
Now the block got a mural, my face on the wall
Kids walk past pointin', "that's the one who stood tall"
I ain't forget the linoleum, the roaches, the cold
Concrete remembers, and concrete don't fold
Chorus
Concrete kept the receipts, every step that I made
Every night that I bled for a dream that don't fade
From the block to the booth, still I carry the weight
Concrete kept the receipts, I ain't erasin' a page
Bridge
They ask me how I made it out with my soul still clean
I tell 'em I never left, I just widened the scene
Same sidewalk, different shoes, but the ground remembers
Every winter I survived, every one of them Decembers
This ain't about the chain or the watch on my wrist
It's about the version of me that refused to not exist
Outro
Concrete kept the receipts, yeah, it's all on file
Every step, every setback, every hard-fought mile
Block still whisper my name when the wind pick up speed
I wrote my name in the pavement, that's the only deed I need
