City Don't Sleep

[Intro]

"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?"

[Verse 1: Macklemore]

Now everyday that I walk outta my building

I see homeless people sleeping and chillin' 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 changin', 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

[Chorus 1: 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

[Verse 2: 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 injectin'

We just see dirty clothes and another bum beggin'

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 walkin' on the block pacin'

'Cause the only way she knows how to make it is gettin' 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

[Chorus 1: 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

[Chorus 2: 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

[Outro: 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