Public Enemy
I
[Verse 1]
I came from a place I forgot
I woke up in a parking lot, far from a meal and a cot
On the corner where all the streets got the same name
Maybe my brain's on the brink of insane
Pain between the papers while sleepin' on the train
This the land of milk and honey, (know what I'm sayin?)
The invisible man times three, Black, down and out
Out standing on a corner no doubt
Now a nation of homeless sleepin' in bus stations
Another win for the pilgrims who said "No more Haitians!"
As I proceed, someone to feed me is what I need
Through three blocks of dealers tryin' to hit me off with some weed
Avenues and boulevards hungry as a fucker
Hope to get a ride from a trucker
Everybody know I ain't no sucker
Everytime I used to drop 30 at the Rucker
Away from crazy kids in Generation Wrecked
Dissin' pyramids while praisin' projects
Walk past old folks gettin' no respect
Callin' young folks a buncha no good rejects
And I walk on

[Hook]
An eye for an eye, I can't recognize the man in the mirror
Is it I? It is I
Now who this cat I'm lookin at?
Cause I've been waiting so long to get where I'm goin'
An eye for a eye in this country tis of thee
Now how the hell can I be free?
Now who this cat I'm lookin' at?
Cause I been lost so long without anybody knowin'
[Verse 2]
So I move on and I walk on
Past the preachers and the pimps gettin' their talk on
Now why do home gotta be where the negative roam?
"To be or not to be?", so I roll alone
I'm trapped within this skin and these bones
Amongst temporary kings on cellular phones
Can I last, as I walk past
Mad cigarette billboards and malt liquor ads?
Walkin' on broken bottles and potato chip bags
Everyone I see got the nerve to brag
Where they from what they got and don't own squat
Disrespect where they from and ya might get shot
Zombies askin' me what the latest bomb be
"You shoulda shot the fuckin' sheriff and the fuckin' deputy, G"
For okaying the drug trade and lettin' it be
But I know prison for me is an industry
So I walk, I heard the best things in life be free
Didn't God make this land and the air that we breathe?
Now former homeless don't give a damn about me
In the mirror, somebody else is starin' at me
Maybe prison is the skin I'm within
All this time I been sufferin', can't fix it wit a Bufferin
Plus they said I'll never work in this town again
(Goddamn) So I keep on walkin'
[Hook]
An eye for an eye, I can't recognize the man in the mirror
Is it I? It is I
Now who this cat I'm lookin at?
Cause I've been waiting so long to get where I'm goin'
An eye for a eye in this country tis of thee
Now how the hell can I be free?
Now who this cat I'm lookin' at?
Cause I been lost so long without anybody knowin'

[Verse 3]
Lil day day is big day and just did time
Seen him standin' on the unemployment line
Which collided wit the line of the health clinic
I seen Crazy Stacy her ass standin' up in it
No more welfare, they cut her Medicaid
Damn, my mama used to do her braids
I keep walkin' so they don't see me
But I doubt if they doin' any better than me
So I walk on never take the planet for granted
I paved the concrete, asphalt and granite
I walk fast past three brothers sittin' on the porch
With a yard of dirt, and littered with Newports
Talkin' how they comin' up while they sittin' on their ass
As I walk past em I'm a target of their laughs
And one said, "Let's get him for his fuckin' stash"
As I walked fast past the other yards with grass
Had a lil' cash, tried to make it last
From a few deals I made from cleanin' windshields
I ran like a rally, they caught me in an alley
Can't get out the ghetto from New York to Cali
I thought I had nothin' till I felt the knife
And now I ain't even got a life