[Intro: Conscious-rap male MC, low and steady over orchestral strings] Green notebook, Greene Avenue, you know the block Conscious of every dollar that I took off the top [Verse 1: Conscious-rap male MC, clear conscious-rap flow, bars on the live drums] Twelve years old with a hoodie and a pocket full of nerve Grabbin' chips and a juice like the corner owed me what I deserve Mr. Okafor at the counter with his glasses on his nose Never said a word, just watched me walk out past the rows Every day for a whole school year I was walkin' out with somethin' And every day he'd lick the pencil, write it down, and tell me nothin' Didn't know about the notebook, didn't know there was a page With Little Man across the top and the numbers that I made [Hook: Conscious-rap male MC, full strings and live drums, big conscious-rap hook] I been runnin' up a tab, I been runnin' from the tab Twenty years of runnin' and the block was all I had Now I'm walkin' in that store with every dollar that I owe Mr. Okafor, open up the drawer, I'm comin' home [Verse 2: Conscious-rap male MC, building, every bar on the snare] Twenty years later, I got a degree and a car that's paid Walked in on a Tuesday and his hair had gone to gray Asked him for the tab, and he laughed and reached beneath the till Pulled the same green notebook out, and he was writin' in it still Every family on the block had a page in that green book Miss Dorothy, the twins, the man in three-B and the cook Diapers on credit, bread on credit, insulin on rent week Little Man was forty-one dollars, and the rest was a whole street The whole book came to eleven thousand, page by page Every corner of the block in pencil, every age [Hook: Conscious-rap male MC, full strings and live drums, big conscious-rap hook] I been runnin' up a tab, I been runnin' from the tab Twenty years of runnin' and the block was all I had Now I'm walkin' in that store with every dollar that I owe Mr. Okafor, open up the drawer, I'm comin' home [Bridge: Conscious-rap male MC, till drawer, the drums stop as the cash drawer slides open with a ring, then the strings and drums crash back] So I paid mine first, forty-one and the change Then Miss Dorothy, the twins, then the cook, page by page He said son, you don't owe them, and I said I owe this store Every kid that walked out fed came back to pay for more Conscious of the block that let a hungry kid eat lunch Every page is closed in green, and the whole street's paid at once [Final Hook: Conscious-rap male MC, full strings and live drums, big conscious-rap hook] I been runnin' up a tab, I been runnin' from the tab Twenty years of runnin' and the block was all I had Now I'm walkin' in that store with every dollar that I owe Mr. Okafor, open up the drawer, I'm comin' home [End]
