City Don't Sleep

(album: The Language Of My World - 2005)

"I don't feel there's any point in trying to survive when people don't try to help me."
"When we—we share a community, we should all be engaged and more involved in each other's wellbeing, you know?"

[Macklemore:]
Now everyday that I walk outta my building
I see homeless people sleeping and chilling on the steps to the apartment that I live in
I'm not saying everyone's a victim
But the people that I live with treat 'em more like villains than actual citizens
I walk past a man laying in his own vomit
He gets his food and his garments by digging in the garbage
I beg your pardon, Mr President, but I'm a resident
And since you've been in office I haven't seen any evidence
Of things changing, we go into Iraq and attack
When we got people on the streets without a roof over their back
We've come to accept the homeless as part of our landscape
The money the government wastes could provide them with a safe place
To eat and sleep, but we cease to see
That our own country is based around war, power and greed
We got families on the street with nowhere to go
And the concrete's the only place they have to call home

[Don-P:]
Nowhere to call your own
Out here in the cold
Wishing you had a home
Feeling you're all alone
Nowhere to call your own
Out here in the cold
Wishing you had a home (Yo)
Feeling all alone

[Macklemore:]
Now every face tells a different story, a different message
Now how can we judge the book when we don't know the beginning?
We don't know what turned 'em to the bottle, or started injecting
We just see dirty clothes and another bum begging
We don't see the kid who was an addict the second that his mom was pregnant
Or the young girl who was raped and stripped of everything sacred
Who now stands downtown walking on the block pacing
'Cause the only way she knows how to make it is getting naked
We don't want to face it, and it being the fact
That the government created the ghetto and gave it crack
To oppress immigrants and blacks, and give 'em more of a setback
Like the last five-hundred-years wasn't enough to accomplish that
Now look at the homeless rate, and tell me to my face that race
Doesn't play an intricate part in your fate in the United States
Now think about your home, and the place that you sleep
And the homeless, who only have the concrete

[Don-P:]
Nowhere to call your own
Out here in the cold
Wishing you had a home
Feeling you're all alone
Nowhere to call your own
Out here in the cold
Wishing you had a home (Yo)
Feeling all alone

[Macklemore:]
Now if you wanna see change then throw your ones in the air
You think the system that we're living in is not fair?
You wanna see change? Then put your ones in the air
Now point it to the ground, 'cause change starts right there
Now if you wanna see change then throw your ones in the air
You think the system that we're living in is not fair?
You wanna see change? Then put your ones in the air
Now point 'em to yourself, 'cause change starts right there
'Cause change starts right there

[Don-P:]
The streets are cold, all alone
In the city
Where you lay your head is your home
What a pity
People pass you by with a glance
Say you're filthy
But they don't know they pain you've been through
No, not really