Sold My Future Cheap

Verse 1
I was fourteen and bulletproof,
tossed my innocence away.
I got tired of being nobody,
so I built myself a name.

But a name ain’t worth much, brother,
when the price is your soul.
And the road that I was walking
left me standing all alone.

Chorus
Lord, I sold my future cheap,
yeah, sold my future cheap.
Thought I was buying the good life,
too young to know the price was me.

Verse 2
Some men build with sweat and patience,
some men build with time.
I chose to build mine with fear and anger,
through a life of crime.

Mama’s warning sounded foolish,
Family bridges I burned.
What they were out to teach me,
I had no desire to learn.

Bridge
Funny thing about transgression—
It always finds your door.
You can run from it for years,
but it eventually settles the score.

Chorus
Lord, I sold my future cheap,
yeah, sold my future cheap.
Thought I was buying the good life,
too young to know the price was me.

Verse 3
Had no need for friendship or love.
Bitches came easy back then.
As the years keep rolling by,
Y’all still believe this makes you a man.

Now I got nothing but reflections,
and a whole lot of wasted days.
Thinking ’bout the man I might’ve been,
If I’d chosen different ways.

Final Chorus
Lord, I sold my future cheap,
yeah, sold my future cheap.
Thought I was buying the good life,
too young to know the price was me.

Outro
Now the only thing I’ve learned,
Comes forty years too late.
Take a good hard look at me.
I am the man I made.