[Intro] Yeah Check the wire, check the paper I came with cinder in my language [Verse 1] I build a bridge with a pen tip, bent wrist, set shift Every line got a second life, let it split, then it Flip from the gutter to the courthouse to the bus stop bench I make dust talk back, make rust sound rich Got a mind full of maps and a hand full of dents You can hear where I been when the verbs get spent I don't chase applause, I chase the exact right cut Put a knife-edge thought in a soft-spoken hook My tongue got torque, my lungs got proof I can curve a room with a single true move From the bodegas to bookshelves, from back rooms to noon Same hunger, different silverware, same moon They want flash, I bring fracture and form Cold front clarity in a weathered storm Ain't no costume here, this is corduroy scar This is blood in the ink and the bruise in the bar [Hook] Cinder on paper I make sparks from the page Cinder on paper Watch the dark get arranged Cinder on paper I don't rap, I unspool Cinder on paper Turn a silence to a tool Cinder on paper Say my name, let it ring Cinder on paper I can bend what I bring [Verse 2] I speak in layers, lacework, loan-shark logic Double-meaning loaded in the coat I’m in One word can mean the rent, the regret, and the relic Same sound, three shadows, let the reader connect it I been broke with a plan and rich with a doubt Seen a friend lose the plot when the chips came out You learn quick: some smiles got teeth in the grain Some saints got stains on the sleeve of their cape So I write with a thumbprint, no manufactured sheen Every metaphor lives where the mattress has been In the crack of the sidewalk, in the casket of steam In the face of the clerk when she eyes what I need I been sharpened by boredom, by sirens, by bills By the way that a dream can get folded and still Stand up in the morning with a limp and a grin That’s the old-school alchemy, pain into signal [Bridge] [Breakdown] Slow it down Let the meaning sit A blade don’t brag It just knows it fits I learned the hard way Word by word A whole life can turn On the turn of a verb [Verse 3] Now I’m back with the calculus, chassis and claw Every clause got a pulse, every pause got a jaw I can braid up a whole philosophy in a bar Then break it apart like a lock on a car Listen: truth is a tenant, not a trophy to hoard You can rent you a crown, but it rattles on chord I got a grin like trouble, a stare like rain And a sentence that can split a king from his chain They talk weight, I talk gravity, apples and skulls What falls can still feed you, that’s the law of the pull I’m the echo in the alley, the receipt, the receipt The afterimage left when the loudest one sleeps If the room wants a sermon, I bring sparks and arithmetic Add up the damage, subtract the counterfeit I don’t need a myth, I got mileage and nerve I turn gravel to gospel when I curve every curve [Hook] Cinder on paper I make sparks from the page Cinder on paper Watch the dark get arranged Cinder on paper I don't rap, I unspool Cinder on paper Turn a silence to a tool Cinder on paper Say my name, let it ring Cinder on paper I can bend what I bring
