Rewrite My Name

Redhead kid with the hand-me-down coat

Hole in the sleeve, whole world in his throat

Mama on the floor, foil, lighter, smoke

Fridge full of nothing but expired hope

Sleeping in a car at the grocery lot

Counting up cans like they counting up shots

School called home, but the number got blocked

He just learned early how to pick his own locks

Twelve years old with a too-old stare

Bruises on his arm, ash in his hair

Ask him who he trust, he say "I don't, I can't"

Only thing that showed up was the warrants, not his dad

From the gutter to the ground I run

Rust-stained crown, I was branded young

Had a rap sheet longer than the love I got

But I’m writing new lines, yeah, I’m changing the plot

From the sirens to the sunrise now

Same red hair, but I stand proud

I was lost in the dark, now I’m staking my claim

I ain’t stuck in that story, I’m rewriting my name

Probation before graduation

Mugshot looked like a graduation

Seventeen, cuffs biting into his wrists

Public defender mispronouncing his gist

Juvenile bunk, concrete pillow

Carved his mama’s name in the paint on the window

Turned eighteen with a felony

Carry that like a melody

But he stared at that mirror like, "This ain’t it"

Saw a man in the making in the cracked glass split

Every scar spelling out "you can quit, or climb"

Heart beating like a hammer, started working on time

From the gutter to the ground I run

Rust-stained crown, I was branded young

Had a rap sheet longer than the love I got

But I’m writing new lines, yeah, I’m changing the plot

From the sirens to the sunrise now

Same red hair, but I stand proud

I was lost in the dark, now I’m staking my claim

I ain’t stuck in that story, I’m rewriting my name

Now he stack paychecks, not charges (uh)

Got a little place, got a couple spare carpets

Helps kids on the block with their homework sheets

Tells them, "You ain’t what they say in the heat" (nah)

Still hears mama in the corners of his mind

Still feels cold nights from a long, hard time

But he walks that line like a tightrope flame

One step, two steps, never going back the same

From the gutter to the ground I run

Rust-stained crown, I was branded young

Had a rap sheet longer than the love I got

But I’m writing new lines, yeah, I’m changing the plot

From the sirens to the sunrise now

Same red hair, but I stand proud

I was lost in the dark, now I’m staking my claim

I ain’t stuck in that story, I’m rewriting my name