Concrete Kept Score — Brick & Marrow

Intro

Concrete kept score, every crack in the block

Nine mil chalk lines where the corner clock stopped

I still hear it tickin' underneath the block noise

Brick and marrow, that's the sound of my voice

Verse

Cracked knuckle winters, taught me how to grip cold

Momma stretched one check into a whole week of gold

Corner store credit, Mr. Faysal knew my face

Wrote my debt in pencil, said I'd pay it back in grace

Seventeen, sneakers flappin' like a loose tongue

Rhymed on the stoop step till the streetlight glow hung

Coach cut me twice but I ain't never cut the rope

Tied it to my ankle, called that tension hope

Every open mic they gave me sixty seconds flat

Turned that into sixty bars, ain't no coming back

Landlord taped the notice, I taped up my resolve

Learned the block don't forgive you, but it lets you evolve

Studio was a closet, egg crate on the wall

Kick drum knockin' quiet so my sister wouldn't fall

Asleep past the hour, I was chasing paper ghosts

Now the concrete kept score and I'm the one who post

Chorus

Concrete kept score, I remember every line

Every fall, every hour, every dollar, every grind

Never asked for the shine, only asked for the time

Concrete kept score and I'm still on the climb

Verse

Traded bus passes for a Metro card that's maxed

Studio sessions on an empty stomach, that's a fact

Engineer said "one more take" like it was free

I gave him thirty more, he gave the world to me

Demo tape circled back like a rubber band snap

Three labels passed, said the sound ain't got the map

I drew my own, block by block, vein by vein

Turned rejection letters into ink for the rain

Momma kept the receipts from every gig I did

Said "one day you gon' frame these," I said "yes ma'am," I did

Now the same block corner got a mural with my name

Kids that used to dap me now recite it like a claim

I ain't chase the diamond, I was chasing daylight

Studio at midnight turned to stages under stage light

Still I walk the old block, let the memory absorb

'Cause the concrete kept score before the whole world saw

Chorus

Concrete kept score, I remember every line

Every fall, every hour, every dollar, every grind

Never asked for the shine, only asked for the time

Concrete kept score and I'm still on the climb

Bridge

They ask me "how you make it," I just point at the ground

Say the pavement was the teacher, and the silence was the sound

No shortcut through the winters, no elevator to the peak

Just repetition, revelation, one bar at a time I speak

This ain't a victory lap, this a debt that I repay

To the block that never lied to me, kept me honest every day

Outro

Concrete kept score, now I'm writing my own page

Still got the same grip, different kind of cage

Brick and marrow, that's the marrow in the rhyme

Concrete kept the score — I just kept the time