[Rapper Mafioso Sessions] Track (3/24): Count It Twice

Four forty-seven in the AM, kitchen table, fluorescent hum

Rubber bands snap like small bones under thumb

One thousand — that's Ronnie, caught a case in '91

Two thousand — that's Preme, slept with the wrong someone's gun

Three — don't look up, the ceiling's got judgment eyes

Four — remember every face that fed you these lies

Five — Tyrell said he'd be out by the spring

Six — his mama still answers, don't say anything

Seven thousand — the corner where the cameras went blind

Eight — the re-up that arrived with no sender, unsigned

Nine — the first body I didn't personally know

Ten — the distance from the window to the sidewalk below

Eleven — the number of times I almost walked away

Twelve — the number of times the money said "stay"

Thirteen — betrayals counted like blessings at church

Fourteen — the age I learned that hunger hurts worse

Fifteen — the cuts on my palms from the paper's sharp edge

Sixteen — the years between the promise and the pledge

Seventeen — the faces in the stack that I'll never see free

Eighteen — the band that represents me

Count it twice 'cause once is for amateurs

Count it twice 'cause memory conspires against ya

Count it twice — every dollar got a shadow, every bill got a name

Count it twice 'cause the math don't care about your pain

*Count it twice. Count it once for them. Count it once for you.*

*If the numbers don't match, somebody's lying. Maybe it's you.*