Verse 1 (O’hene Savant as Jimmy Lee Watson):
Jimmy Lee I’m goin’ uptown
I’m finna get me a Paul Mason before I touch down
Got my brand new shoes got too much style
I just wanna see how a jazz club sound
Now put your peepers on me
Your eyes ain’t on Jesus, leave it on Lee
Jimmy that is, from the Carolinas
Where corrupt police don’t care about us
My pop and them worked for sharecroppers
Back then it was hard to share dollars
Jim Crow got a hold on a negro
Huh, got us lookin’ for a hero
So I’m on the next bus or better yet train
Headin’ to big city life to start again
Big city dream, suitcase, dental cream
And soap ‘cause that’s all I’ma need
I’m headin’ uptown

Chorus:
Bright lights, big city
Where the girls look pretty
I’m goin’ uptown
Somethin’ plane or a train
I just wanna do my thing
I’m goin’ uptown
Ghetto boy
Lookee here

Verse 2 (Jimmy Lee Watson):
And when I get there I just wanna look at the lights
Dibs on the skags lookin’ so right
Everybody dressed to the T in the city
Hair slicked back even me I’m so pretty
They say, “Jimmy, how you do it?
How you turn them there words into music?
And what ya call it, rhythm and poetry?”
Yes ma’am but this here like sorcery
The sing king, watch the king sing
You finna nod your head like Swing Wing
I brought my down South groove to the North
Everybody move I’m a boss
Fresh out the backwoods area where the klans bury ya
‘cause they young gal wanna marry ya
Out here they say negroes inferior
So I’m makin’ moves like Harriet
I’m headin’ uptown

Chorus:
Bright lights, big city
Where the girls look pretty
I’m goin’ uptown
Somethin’ train or a plane
I just wanna do my thing
I’m goin’ uptown
Ghetto boy
Verse 3 (Chubb Rock as Uncle James):
I’m in Georgia, birthplace of the klan
Where they look at me man, they don’t really see a man
I live on Auburn Avenue, middle class creed[?]
My friend Martin next door taught me how to read
He’s brilliant, graduated from school early
Boston then Morehouse, a long way from the dirty
He in church, I’m in Vietnam fightin’ Viet Cong
Uncle Sam took my arm, gone
Back in the [?] Heron is my heroin
Baby, Martin’s on TV marchin’ with [?]
He thinks nonviolence is the answer
Heh, hatred man, it spreads like cancer
I’ma just call my friend Martin and see if he remember me
His wife just told me he went to Memphis, Tennessee
I’m done with the South man I’m goin’ where it’s brown
Pimp game Harlem uptown, heh

Chorus:
Bright lights, big city
Where the girls look pretty
I’m goin’ uptown
Hey, take a plane or a train
I just wanna do my thing
I’m goin’ uptown
Ghetto boy
Verse 4 (Uncle James):
I’m done man, I got my plan all planned
I’ma pimp them girls then they know who’s the man
I’ma get them white ones first, pimp them even harder
Let them pay for the actions of their father
I’m done, packin’, what’s that on TV?
It looks like Martin lyin’ on that balcony on TV
It can’t be, the King, nonviolence was his thing
I guess his dream didn’t swing
White folks took Martin, Malcolm before that
Medgar Evers, the Kennedy brothers, damn that’s
All who believe we can unite as one nation
Enough of that lie, all for the takin’
Girl hit that track, get them fins for daddy
If ya sad, I’ll whip ya ’til ya happy
(*sniffing sound*) the heroin wears the crown
Big city still Jim Crow [?]

Chorus:
Bright lights, big city
Where the girls look pretty
I’m goin’ uptown
Somethin’ plane or a train
I just wanna do my thing
I’m goin’ uptown
Ghetto boy

Bright lights, big city
Where the girls look pretty
I’m goin’ uptown
I’ll take a plane or a train
I just wanna do my thing
I’m goin’ uptown
Ghetto boy

I said uptown
Get on down
It’s my time to wear the crown
Ghetto boy
Take a plane or a train
I just wanna do my thing
I’m goin’ uptown
Ghetto boy

Goin' uptown
Get on down
It’s my time to wear the crown
Ghetto boy
Take a plane or a train
I just wanna do my thing
Goin’ uptown
Ghetto boy