White picket fences, green lawns, nice, rich, expensive
College campus, so progressive
Every child advances
Lies and deception
Difference is tolerated
With a few exceptions
So liberal and colorblind you hear a "beep" when you cross the street
Let the bubble pop from culture shock and the cost of deceit
Off the beaten path
Reaching in my past
How'd I get involved?
Trying to keep the Klan from speaking on the roof of city hall
But an*lyze oppression on the daily
The truth of the deuce, city that raised me and failed me
Even worse than the Klan, still asking
Why across the street from Braeburn and Forest Hills is where they built the landfill?
Colorful like mill creek–
Most of us we grew apart but some of us we still speak
Introduction to America, Bryant Elementary
Childhood friends from Stonybrook now in the penitentiary
It ain't coincidentally
Tracked before middle school as criminals
By teachers who belittled you, claiming they're "liberal"
By 14 most of my feminine friends raped
Many males expelled to Stone or Clemente
Detroit was another planet – broken and abandoned
We so blinded, close minded, hoping to expand it
HOOK:
What part of Ann Arbor is this? What part of Ace-Deuce (?) is this? (x2)
They say, you from Ann-Arbor, right?
Oh, you had it good,
Don't get me wrong, these ain't your worse-than-average hoods
But there's people struggling here,
My family included
Don't let the campus fool you
It's a whole different planet for students
Blacks we outnumbered,
Only a handful of us
But poverty's real for most of these families growing up
Poverty varies,
I'm sure it's worse in other places
What makes it bad is
They dangle work in front of our faces
Like there's opportunities for the youth and (?)
But it's a gla** ceiling
Like snow globes for souvenirs
Go in the south side
You really see the patterns of racism
Ypsilanti might as well be an African nation
Second cla** citizens
Second cla** living conditions
Second cla** schools
Are for kids to just skip in
Back in the deuce
Some of the best public shcools
But so many of my homies still chose to hustle root
Why?
Ain't got the nerve to wanna beef and act foolishly
Knowing our separation
Is only about 2 degrees
Something ain't right
Something ain't adding up
We gotta stick together cuz
We got it bad enough
HOOK:
What part of Ypsi is that? (x3) What part of Ypsilanti is that?
broken gla**
sh**ty pampers
dirty needles
nobody pa**es off (?)
we see the evil
public education
we ain't gon' make it
ain't nothing change
it's the same situation
generation drug dealers
tell me where that leave us?
is it just me, cuz everybody smoking reefer?
we take pride when we say we from the south side
but that's small thinking
i'm trying to reach worldwide
different standards
but everybody's got the answer
making that michigan's white chocolate is dancer (??)
to spot the hop, from breaking bullets down to rock (?)
crooked cops taking money from your socks
home sweet home, where it's impossible to foot the game (?)
n***as sold they soul, and told 'em keep the change
are we to blame?
cuz around here, it's
f** them n***as, like bush when katrina came
prime made the south make when they keep the thing (?)
wealth made the n***as grind in the frozen rain
that's the west side
trust me, the east the same
stonybrook boys heavy like keys in cane (?)
believe it, man, this is hell, y'all
it ain't college dreamland, like they tell y'all
south side, y-town, where the shells fall
n***as keep answering when the jails call
but i rep my seed, what i'ma switch for
i mean, detroit listens, but it's the crib, though
it's all f**ed up, as far as the sh** go,
but if you ain't looking for change,
then what's to live for?
HOOK