Intro
Ashford Street, four in the morning
Same block, same faces, no warning
Verse
Corner of Ashford and Ninth, streetlight flickering slow
Five of us splitting one coat when the winter wind blow
Marcus held the block down when the sirens came through
Tay kept the ledger, wrote down what was owed and to who
We ain't have much but we had what mattered
Split a dollar meal seven ways, nobody scattered
Momma's rent short, we passed the hat round
Nobody asked why, we just put the cash down
Ten years deep, still got the same four faces
Different scars now, same handshakes, same places
Watched Reggie fall off, we ain't watch him alone
Drove him to meetings, made sure he made it home
This the loyalty concrete can't erase
Etched in the sidewalk like a name and a date
We ain't perfect, we just consistent and true
Concrete kept score, and it remembers what we been through
Chorus
Concrete kept score when the world kept quiet
Every crack in the block remembers who stayed by it
We built something real off nothing but trying
Concrete kept score and we ain't done climbing
Verse
Now the checks got bigger, but the code stayed the same
Still split it even, ain't nobody chasing fame
Bought Marcus a shop, he don't gotta grind for nothing
Tay run the numbers clean, no under-the-table something
Reggie two years clean, got a daughter now named June
Whole block packed the hallway when she came in that room
See, success tries to test you, tries to thin out the crowd
Tries to make you forget where the ladder was found
But I still ride the same block just to breathe the same air
Same barbershop chair, same old
