Crime To Be Broke In America

I take the needle off the record and shove it in my arm

Whenever I feel life is comin' on too strong

They left me in a clinic fulla cynical and mothaf**kin' bureaucrats

And other kinda ding bats, they're livin' on the tracks

The tracks in my arm said

It all depends which side the tracks you're on

Tellin' me what to wear, tellin' me cut my hair

And tryin' to convince me that they really really care

All about my health and about my wealth

But still they built the Stealth

'Cause everybody's just lookin' out for they self

So then I ask 'em can I have a clean needle, hell no that's illegal

It's a crime to be broke in America

And it's a crime to smoke dank in America

Yeah, hit those drums now, yeah

They lockin' brother's in the poorhouse

Who can't afford Moorhouse, politicians nervous

It's the only free service they provide, you wanna go inside

There's a hot meal waitin' for ya, a deal we can score ya

On a bed for a night or two, or three or four months

They say they lockin' us up in cells

To protect us from ourselves

It smells like they got anotha plan in store house

Or should I say warehouse fulla niggaz and other misfits

That couldn't turn tricks in the courthouse

But it's a justice whorehouse

And it's a crime to be broke in America

And it's a crime to be black in America, come on

But there's a mutiny on the bounty, in ever single county

So, we remember Attica but don't forget to pat a few others

On the back as a matter of fact

Sister Asatta Shakur and Geronimo Pratt

But Amnesty international is fightin' for political

But if your analytical, you know it's much more critical

Than that percentages black is really, really whack

Can I kick a few facts, yes?

Six percent in college, from livin' on the block

Twenty five percent in prison, the school of hard knocks

Fifty percent in poverty is livin' on the rocks

Five hundred brothas on a death row box

The say, the punishment is capital

For those who lack in capital

Because a public defender can't remember the last time

A brother wasn't treated like an animal

They say, they blame it on a song when someone kills a cop

What music did they listen to when they bombed Iraq?

Well, give me one example so I can take a sample

No need to play it backwards if you wanna hear the devil

'Cause music's not the problem, it didn't cause the bombin'

But maybe they should listen to the songs of people starving

'Cause it's a crime to be broke in America

And it's a crime to smoke dank in America

And it's a crime to be black in America

And it's a crime to be black in America, come on now

Keep on comin' now, yeah

It's a crime to be Puerto Rican

It's a crime to be African

Crime to be native American

A crime to be Asian, Hatian, a woman