(Verse One)
I was born little-bitty-back-woods city—
cut pretty
where the river drift.
What a pity: no rapids.
What the fuck happened?
Manifest Destiny captains went savage with captives river trappin’.
Imagine
the first white man who crawled across this land.
Indian met him with an open hand,
white man starvin’ like Marvin lookin’ like a Martian—dam.
Before he small pox bargain,’
Thanksgivin' party startin’
broken treaty jargon,
back when he was Flintlock armin’,
boat carvin’,
I’m Lewis and Clarkin’.
Born LCV
with Twisted Hair.
Don’t get me started now.
When kids from the res come through my town,
man, they get stared down (wow)
by hicks who play nemesis with entitlement.
They trade them fists.
We be cold like a dam fish—damaged idiots,
like a pilgrim watchin’ Squanto freeze,
holdin children bundled in blankets of statements stitched with apathy.
See, the town sittin’ like an old plantation next to a reservation,
campin-on-concentration
ain’t no conversation.
Dig what i’m sayin’?
I’m American.
(Chorus)
Little girl at the lemonade stand
handin’ free samples to the garbage man (IN MY HOMETOWN).
A man killed his neighbor with a shotgun,
scattered little bones in the mud from the slug (IN MY HOMETOWN).
Boys run the courts uptown, downtown, cross over, lay up, rebound, back down, ball up. State champs raised up on the playground, hey, now.
Honey bees float in the breeze
while a mother on her knees
outside the unemployment office
sayin’ please.
(Verse Three)
IN MY HOMETOWN knew a boy shot down
round’one-o-clock when the glock popped. Watch
brains wash down the window
in the Jack-in-The Box parking lot—
boy got caught with his hand in the sugar bowl trying to play the fox.
In my hometown
things are not what they seem.
It’s a real hard to place to make word love mean a thing.
High school prom queen pukin’ in the limousine
don’t know a damn thing
about a dream.
Please, protect my hometown.
Protect my hometown.
And everyone I know still tryin’ to climb out.
Protect my hometown.
Protect my hometown.
And everyone I know still trying to hold it down
IN MY HOMETOWN
People go to work, make bullets, paper, chop trees,
mow yards, change oil, run streets, drink, drink,
pray, scream, fight, fuck, kill, breathe,
daydream.
People breakin’.
Suicides in my home town.
(Chorus)
Yeah.
A little boy stands in the government yard
trying to play his broken guitar.
IN MY HOMETOWN
Two teenagers fall in love
snuggled up in the pick up truck under the sun IN MY HOMETOWN.
IN MY HOMETOWN
They found the remains of thirteen women in shallow graves
near Los Ranchos where the little girl drinks her lemonade.
(hey)
IN MY HOMETOWN
fresh peaches hang from the trees,
but everybody plugged into they phones on Facebook chillin’ at Mickey D’s.
(Verse Three)
I smell elote roastin’ walking past the dulceria.
Old men boastin’, smokin’, jokin’ outside the cantina.
I was raised into a man in the land of the southwest.
Phoenix poet yes-yes.
Ink flowin’ wet from the ink jet,
I pay rent with words I dispense.
On the bus I bet I met a thousand people from California,
Midwest, East Coast, Guerrero, Zacatecas, Minnesota,
New York, Alabama, Georgia, Dakota, Oklahoma,
Oaxaca, Chihuahua, Chiapas, Sonora, Sinaloa.
I love people in my town
but can’t stand how
politicians make money from the lock down,
focus on one side of town.
Now, in the inner city, cops bow wow like blood hounds
though everybody know now,
most dope get smoked way out
from the city where it be pretty white crowd now.
Rich kid Billy clubbin’,
shovin' coke in the nasal,
and the poor ghetto kid get kicked profile face down,
hometown drug game is fatal. Watch out!
Ghetto bird swoopin’ like a hornet. Yep Yep.
Put a fist in the protest.
El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido:
justice, for the people.
(Chorus)
The little boy watches gangsters pray,
plays his guitar like “One day, one day. . .”
A meth cook dash from his house in flames,
police bust inside tryin’ to find the baby they need to save.
Police wash dirty laundry,
beat Rodney then walk free,
kill Oscar Grant, Troy Davis. Travon screams.
Gave Iverson fifteen years at the age of eighteen.
They used Contra Cocaine to create a crack in the back
of the black community.
Many martyrs bleed.
They can kill a man, but can’t kill a dream. . .
(Verse Four)
We sit from the pews of every church and sing.
Oil wash up on the beach.
We pray for boys in the Middle East.
In A-Z a mother screams, “Jesus Please”
cuz her son got shot down in the street
tryin’ to hold on to his Jesus piece.
The Graffiti piece says, “Rest In Peace.”
We got
many beliefs
but it seems to me
we worship the same thing
prayin’ Mr. Bling-Bling
I need, need,
green, green. Let freedom ring.
Chop-chop go the final tree.
They say,”Save the planet,”
but its more like save the human beings
cuz the planet goin’ be after we all deceased.
All we need is . . .
peace.