[Intro]
Balmy nights on Roosevelt, heat in the gutter breeze,
Busted Buick coughs a testament, alleyway expertise.
I walk past flashing courthouse lights and a bench stained in ignominy,
This is more than bravado — it’s a ledger of what made me enemy.
[Verse 1]
Corner prophet with a ledger, inked with names and losses,
A judge read my past like receipts — metal taste, copper glosses.
They called me farce in headlines, laugh tracks through the glass,
But I ain’t here to kowtow or fold, I stack scenes, make ’em last.
The block smells luxuriant — jasmine over broken glass,
Balmy palms sway like alibis, memory’s iron clasp.
Giddy kids on stoops counting stars through the smoke’s halo,
While my hands defray the ticketed nights, bail out the peso.
Ignominy sat heavy — busted chain, court bench lights,
But I learned to flip the script, turn shame into street rites.
[Pre-Chorus]
Hear the siren like a hymn, but the chorus got my name,
I’m elated when the scales tip — from the ashes I reclaim.
[Chorus]
Absolve me of the nights that made me cold,
Balmy streets keep secrets, cataclysm in the fold.
From busted chrome and courthouse benches we arise,
Elated, we take back the sky — let the past be absolved tonight.
[Verse 2]
There was a time I bowed to threats, a time I paid respect,
Knew the price of silence, how fear could defray your check.
Now I move like thunder in a suit that smells like rain,
Luxuriant dreams drip from my collar, ain’t the same.
We turned the farce into gospel — laughers learned to listen,
Giddy with the plans, like young kings plotting missions.
Cataclysm in the alley, fireworks behind closed doors,
But we built bridges from the rubble, paved new floors.
I saw ignominy in neon — wanted posters on the fence,
I carved my name on stoopwood, inked resolve, common sense.
[Pre-Chorus — Variation]
No more kowtowing to ghosts of promises unpaid,
We defray the cost of survival with the dues that we’ve made.
[Chorus — Variation]
Absolve me — clear the ledger, burn the cold receipts,
Balmy nights turned triumphs, cataclysm changed the streets.
From courthouse glare to victory rides under sodium lights,
Elated with the sunrise, we’re absolved — we earn our rights.
[Bridge]
Picture a busted Buick cruising slow, trunk full of stories,
Luxuriant smoke rings tell the history of glories.
I’ll never kowtow to hunger or to shame’s loud decree,
Absolve the kid who learned to survive on broken empathy.
It ain’t some farce — it’s homework: late nights, ink, and grit,
Giddy now at how the pieces fit, look how the fit’s legit.
[Verse 3 — Resolution]
There’s a ledger in the barber shop, names carved in the chair,
We read them like prayers — some forgiven, some beware.
Defray the debts of childhood with checks written in dawn,
Pay the rent on respect, ’til the last snarl’s gone.
Balmy breath on the window, cataclysm turned to steam,
Elated for the small wins, the quiet, petty schemes.
Ignominy’s shadow shrinks when you light the corners right,
Luxuriant,
