Cracked concrete, and Dusty back roads.
Hand-me-downs that don’t-say-much.
Mama gone late, porch light dim
Learned real quick how the night gets grim.
Cousins by blood, but that word felt thin.
We slept on your floor, shared the same sins.
Different last names
whispered in trouble
Same fists clenched when the world went subtle.
They tried to put us in a box with a name
But pain don’t care, and love don’t change.
We were raised in the cracks between the ’90s snapped
And 2000s.
We weren’t just kin, you were my little brother.
Same hellfire, same cover
From dirt roads to dead-end nights.
We learned how to live, learned how to fight
Yeah, blood don’t bend and it don’t break
We were raised in the old ways.
Flannel faded into white tees
Burned CDs, chipped MP3s
Skate decks broke, knuckles split
Dreams got heavy but we still bit.
First smoke, first run from blue lights
First time realizing wrong felt right
You followed my shadow, I took the heat
Two hearts learning how to take defeat.
We didn’t ask for the hand we got
But we played it hard, gave it all we had.
We were raised in the cracks between the ’90s snapped
And 2000s.
We weren’t just kin, you were my little brother.
Same hellfire, You weren’t just kin, you were my brother
Same damn blood, no need to stutter
From porch swings to prison talks
From big dreams to sidewalk chalk
Yeah, love like ours don’t fade or fake
We were raised in the crack it makes
If I fell, you bled with me
If you broke, It split what was left of me
No halo, no clean slate
Just loyalty tattooed in fate.
Ain’t about the name
It’s about who stayed.
We were raised in the crack.
Between hope and collapse.
Where boys grew up way too fast.
You weren’t just family, you were my shield
Every scar proves this was real.
From back roads to real-life pain
From “one day” to “we still stand”
Yeah, the world tried hard to take
But it couldn’t break what we were raised to make.
Yeah…
More than a cousin
That was my brother
Every damn day.
