Avenue Girls (Remastered)

[Intro] You ever drive past the Ave at night...? Windows up, music down, just watchin’ girls you used to know... Some of 'em used to laugh with you, play tag on the block... Now they got makeup smeared and knees bruised, waitin’ on ghosts in parked cars. We ain't forget 'em though. Nah... I remember every name, every smile, every story they never got to finish. This one’s for them... the Ave girls. [Verse 1] Charise had a job at the Shoprite line Baggin' dreams in plastic, barely sixteen, fine Mama on pills, pop ran outta time So she leaned on a boy with a fist and a dime Started out smoke, then the bag got heavy Pretty girl turn ghost by the time she hit twenty Last I seen her, heels broke, knees weak Sellin’ all her yesterdays on Kensington Ave She ain't look up when she seen me walk past I ain’t nobody to her, I’m just a ghost from her past Could’ve been me, if the dice rolled wrong So I write her name in rhythm, let her live in this song [Hook] These Ave girls don’t get a candle lit Just a cold step, a bad trick, a name they forget But I remember… I remember them all From the fireplug laughs to the night they fall Ave girls, we don’t die pretty We fade in the rain , same Philly, same city [Verse 2] Brandy had freckles, a crooked lil’ grin Talked about Cali like we’d ever get in Her momma was gone, dad drank the rent So she slept where she could, where the sidewalk bent Found a boy who said “ride or die” like a script Had her out boostin' clothes, then out turnin' tricks Gun to the dome by twenty-one, no lie They say suicide , I think she was just too tired And I seen girls go fast like a bus flyin' past With a baby in the belly and a bruise on the back Ave eats angels, turn halos to ash You either get out clean or you never come back [Hook] These Ave girls don’t get a candle lit Just a cold step, a bad trick, a name they forget But I remember… I remember them all From the fireplug laughs to the night they fall Ave girls, we don’t die pretty We fade in the rain, same Philly, same city [Verse 3] I ain’t holy, I just kept my head low Slipped through cracks that swallowed every friend I know Used to write names on my arm in pen So when they disappeared, I could hold ‘em again Could’ve been Charise with the glass in her teeth Could’ve been Brandy with blood on the sheets Could’ve been a girl on the Ave with a past for sale But I spit bars like prayers, give their silence a yell This mic ain’t for fame, this pen’s for the gone I carry ‘em all in every song I'm on And if I make it out, if my name mean a thing Let it ring like a bell from McVeigh to Harrowgate [Final Hook] These Ave girls don’t get a candle lit Just a cold step, a bad trick, a name they forget But I remember… I remember them all From the fireplug laughs to the night they fall Ave girls, we don’t die pretty We fade in the rain , same Philly, same city