Came up in the valley

Came up in the valley where the summer hit like lava,

Mama prayin’ over plates, ramen noodles, agua fresca in the botella, we was broke but had bravado,

Learned to flip a eighth before algebra, numbers in my cuaderno,

Dreams bigger than this trailer, tryna turn this lil terreno to a rancho full of dinero.

Candy paint dreams but the tires all bald on the bucket in the driveway,

Cops hit the block, everybody goin’ sideways, ain’t nobody lookin’ my way, they just see another vato with a crime rate,

Homie got locked, now his name in the chain and the frame on abuelita’s mantel,

He call from the box, says “keep that flame,” so the pain in my veins turn beats into candles.

From the fields to the corner tienda, we was schemin’ on a better maňana,

Still ride for la familia, even if the whole world call us bandana.

If the judge wanna treat me like nada, I’ma carve my name in la luna,

Make the whole barrio light up, every time they twist that knob on the tuner.

[Third verse] I’m the kid they never planned for,

Food stamps on the table, plus a pistol in the drawer that my tío caught a case for,

Teacher said “choose books, not the streets,” but the streets wrote the hook that put shoes on my feet,

Now labels wanna eat off a pobre, funny how they love you when your story on a beat.

Windows down, bump bass through the grapevine roads, dusk lookin’ like a ghost in the fog,

Tattoos tell stories that the courthouse never cared to applaud.

If heaven got a hood, save me a block with my primos posted up by the gate,

Till then, I’ma scribble these bars like a court date, hopin’ one song might re-write fate.