Intro
Tape unrolls slow, thumb presses the swell
Cutman counts stitches like currency to sell
Bell hasn't rung yet and already I can tell
Verse
Twelve years old, Pop wrapped my hands in old sheets
Said the ring don't care whose name is on the seats
First split brow I caught, I was nine rounds deep
Swallowed the copper taste and kept my feet
Learned to read a face by the way the eye swells
Purse was forty dollars, promoter kept the rest as well
Every stitch a signature, every scar a stamp
Sold my nose off twice for a shot under the lamp
Spit bucket rusted the color of my youth
Corner stool splinters carry all the proof
Nobody hands you legend, you gotta bruise for the crown
I stood back up more times than I ever went down
Pre-Chorus
So tell me what's the number, what's the price of a name
Is it stitches or the silence when they don't call again
Chorus
I keep a ledger of scars, not a ledger of cash
Every mark on this face is a debt that I paid in a flash
Column left is the pain, column right is the proof
Add it up and it spells out I never once loosed
Ledger of scars, and it's paid in full
Verse
Twenty years later my knuckles talk like stone
Trainer now, got a kid with a jab of his own
Told him the scale don't lie and the mirror don't cheat
Wrapped his hands the way my Pop wrapped up my wrists
Purse is bigger now but the cut still opens the same
Told him the scar ain't shame, it's a ledger with your name
Watched him drop in round three, watched him rise in round four
Said that's the interest, son, that's what the scars are for
Pre-Chorus
So tell me what's the number, what's the price of a name
Is it stitches or the silence when they don't call again
Chorus
I keep a ledger of scars, not a ledger of cash
Every mark on this face is a debt that I paid in a flash
Column left is the pain, column right is the proof
Add it up and it spells out I never once loosed
Ledger of scars, and it's paid in full
Bridge
Gloves hang on a nail like a flag half-mast
Still I bleed in my sleep every fight from the past
Traded corners for chairs, still I answer the bell
Every kid that I train pays a page I can't sell
Chorus
I keep a ledger of scars, not a ledger of cash
Every mark on this face is a debt that I paid in a flash
Column left is the pain, column right is the proof
Add it up and it spells out I never once loosed
Ledger of scars, and it's paid in full
