[Intro]
Ink on the page
Pain in the flow
This that ghetto poetry
Let the whole block know (yeah)
[Verse 1]
I wrote a verse on a bus pass
Folded dreams in my backpack
Concrete desk where I sat at
Turn a hunger to a hi-hat
Broken glass by the court line
Every line got a chalk sign
Turn the sirens to a bass line
Let the struggle be a headline
Mama counting every cent slow
While the landlord bang on the metal door
I was scribbling my name in the dust on the floor
Saying I ain’t going out like the ones before
[Chorus]
This that ghetto poetry
Blood in the bars
Rust on the rosary
Boom-bap bruise with the 808 thump
Sharp violins make the whole block jump
This that ghetto poetry
Raw
No filter
No pose for the feed
We spell hope with a spray can streak
Turn hard days into heat on the beat (yeah, yeah)
[Verse 2]
Loose leaf full of loose ends
Lost boys
Few real friends
Sharp tongue
No soft lens
Still we talk to the top through a broke vent
Grandma praying by the stove light
I’m loop-cutting up the lowlife
Every no turned to a note
Right?
Now the code of the road in my quotes
Tight
Who gon’ write for the kids outside?
When the teachers clock out and the judges slide by?
So I carve every scar in the margin line
Let the pain hit the snare on the two and the five
[Outro]
From the gutter to the rhyme scheme
We soundcheck all the silent screams
This that ghetto poetry
Let it ring
Boom
Nap
Heart clap
Let the block sing