Lyrics of 'City Don't Sleep' by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Now everyday that I walk outta my building,
I see homeless people sleeping and chillin' on the steps to the apartment that I live in.
I'm not saying everyone is a victim, but the people that I live would treat em more like villains then actual citizens.
I walk past a man laying in his own vomit, who gets his food and his garments by digging in the garbage.
I beg your pardon. Mr president but I'm a resident and since you've been in office I haven't seen any evidence of things changin'
We go into our Iraq and attack
When got people on the streets without a roof over their backs.
We've come to accept the homeless as part of our landscape.
The money the government wastes could provide them with a safe place.
To eat and sleep, but we cease to see that our own country is based around war, power and greed.
We got families on the street with no where to go, and the concrete's the only place they have to call home.

Nowhere to call your own,
Out here in the cold,
Wishin' you had a home,
Feelin' you're all alone.
[x2]

Now every face tells a different story, a different message.
Now how can we judge the book when we don't know the beginning.
We don't know what turned 'em to the bottle, or started injectin',
We just see dirty clothes and another bum beggin',
Whatta bout the kid who was an addict the second that his mom was pregnant,
Or the young girl who was raped and stripped up, everything sacred.
Who now stands downtown walkin' on the block pacin' cause the only way she knows how to make it, is gettin' naked.
We don't want to face it,
And it being the fact that the government created the ghetto and gave it crack,
To oppress immigrants and blacks, and give 'em more of a set back.
Like the last 500 years wasn't enough to accomplish that.
Now look at the homeless rate, and tell me to my face the race,
Doesn't play an intricate part in your fate in the United States,
Now think about your home, and the place that you sleep,
And the homeless, who only have the concrete.

Nowhere to call your home,
Out here in the cold,
Wishin' you had a home,
Feelin' you're all alone.
[x2]

Now if you wanna see change?
Then throw your ones in the air,
You think the system that we're living in is not fair?
You wanna see change?
Then put your ones in the air,
Now point it to the ground, 'cause change starts right there.
You wanna see change?
Then put your ones in the air,
You think the system that we're living in is not fair?
You wanna see change?
Then put your ones in the air,
Now point 'em to yourself, 'cause change starts right there.
'Cause change starts right there.