Intro
Copper Street corner store, ledger under the counter
Ms. Odalys don't take cash first, she takes the story
Show her the mark, she'll tell you what it's worth
Verse
Fourteen summers, chain-link fence behind the school
Jumped it wrong, forearm split open like a rule
Nobody taught it but everybody learned the same
Blood on the concrete, spelled out like a name
Momma counted stitches, seven, kitchen chair
Said scars don't scream but they remember where
Copper Street corner store, Ms. Odalys kept a book
Lent on trust, not paper, by the way you looked
She'd study your knuckles, ask you what you bled for
Said a scar's a signature nobody forges more
I showed her mine at sixteen when the lights got cut
She loaned me forty, said pay me back in trust, not just cash
Been paying since, every winter when it aches
Interest ain't money, it's the memory it takes
Every scar collects like a debt left in the cold
Compounding quiet, never fully told
Hook
Scars for interest, every winter's due
Old wounds collecting what the summer never knew
Pay it slow, pay it steady, that's the only way I've grown
Scars for interest, still the only thing I own
Verse
Nineteen, vouched for Dre outside the barbershop
Showed the scar like a receipt, told them he won't stop
Three weeks later he ran off with Odalys' loan
Left me holding interest that was never my own
Block watched close, waiting on my collection day
Said the scar don't lie but the man wearing it might stray
I paid his debt in silence, added it to mine
Another line of interest scrawled between the spine
Learned collateral ain't just what you already paid
It's what you're willing to lose for the choice you made
Denim jacket got a rip where I sewed it shut myself
Kept the needle in the pocket like a lesson on the shelf
Every stitch a receipt, every ache a fee
Still I co-sign strangers 'cause somebody once did for me
That's the code that keeps the block from breaking down to dust
Not the money, not the paper, just the weight of trust
Hook
Scars for interest, every winter's due
Old wounds collecting what the summer never knew
Pay it slow, pay it steady, that's the only way I've grown
Scars for interest, still the only thing I own
Bridge
Kid named Elias came around, split lip, seventeen
Showed me his scar like a ticket, asked what it could mean
I told him keep it, don't cash it, don't let it run the score
Some debts you carry quiet so the next kid don't need more
Gave him what he needed, called it even, called it done
First loan on Copper
