Inner city “blues?” That’s just an expression.
What I’m seeing now is a full-fledged depression.
The inflection reflecting aggression,
but they couldn’t quiet the voices through compression.

The ’67 riots didn’t end the silence.
Time is money, thus it then incentivized it.
Add police, it’d end in violence.
They sold the middle-class a dream, thus the middle tend to buy it.

I question that type of stuff,
so now I’m told I’m not white enough. Told me to lighten up.
What’s that supposed to mean?
Unless it’s them double-guessing, questioning those hopes and dreams?


For the Hip-Hoppers with the past knowledge,
the same thing that happened in the Bronx happened in Black Bottom.
They demolished the homes, laid highway cement.
Demand for new homes made outrageous rent.

The roads led out to suburban encirclement
where the middle-class dream sellers made the perfect pitch.
Racial harmony meant something different,
‘cause all-white suburbs closed their ears to black dissonance.

Black citizens trapped living in red lines,
but this type of fact isn’t in headlines.
They do their best to suppress it, especially in Klan-infested nests.
Who better to protect investments?
Get the message?


Nearly forty years after Berry Gordy,
what’s changed when we hear these stories of his territory?
Still at war, still ecology and economy
on our mind ‘cause of failed philosophies that lead to poverty.

Look at Kwame, or GM.
Only to point out problems do they peek in.
Sneak in money for those in view, the chosen few.
Bury a word in the face of closing schools.

Those are true inner city blues.
The gritty news that some of us already knew.
Still some of us go along, though we know it’s wrong,
so I write give you a small idea of what’s going on.