Excuse me ladies and gentlemen. Sorry to bother you today. My name is

Joe. And um I'm not on crack I don't do drugs I'm just trying to get

something to eat. If you can give just a penny a nickel..a dime a

quarter..anything will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time...

and have a nice day.



How do you do?

I'm from the other side of town

The place where the only skin you see is the color brown

The sun never shines in this place where I live

And it's hard to do right when you feel negative

I have no compassion

I only know agression

And there is nothing great about this opression

People I see on TV, in there towns live the good life

But I live out of bounds

Where nobody comes unless they're forced to come

In school, they call me the bum from the slum

But they don't know

My sista has no food to eat

And her hand-me-down shoes are too tight for her feet

The way I see things, life isn't fair

So I never learned how to share or to care

But to hope - and hope

Instead of feeling down

And that's how it is

On the other side of town



I live on the other side of town



Pardon me, brotha

As you stand in your glory

I hope you don't mind as I tell the whole story

Some people livin life like fun in the sun

But yo, others are givin strife, and that's all they know

I feel no comfort in talks from the President

So put back on Cosby

A shack is my resident

I think if I ever die, it might be a blessin

Some say I never try, but why are they stressin

I'll never get ahead; my raps have a better chance

I'm livin on Wonder Bread with holes in my leather pants

I'm not on the drug scene; they call me a crack head

I just had a bugged dream that I was a black man

Workin in the hospital

Then in came in a half-dead rich bitch

Yo, they must be insane

You think I would save her?

Yo, she wouldn't save me

I asked for a quater once, and guess what she gave me

A fuckin penny

A ?quarter? costs half a mill

If it's up to me, yo, she's pushin up dafodils

In a casket

Payback's a female dog

Yo, send her ass to the morgue

Then I woke up, and I sat with a frown

Damn, I woke up

But on the other side of town



The other side of town



My teacher's a fat man

Yo, how can they tempt me so

Fuck geometry, my stomach is empty, yo

Can't you teach me to win this crazy game?

You and I are in so many ways the same

People tell me, but I don't believe that shit

Why do you sell me a dream, then leave me spit?

The truth is bare, and so is my cupboards, too

I wonder what could even L. Ron Hubbard do

Because my mind right now is on the brink of breakin

Yo, look how I think

I think I'll stick up the store with the Arab guy

I'm sick of him anyway; his prices are too high

Or maybe I'll start sellin Avon door-to-door

Then pull a jammy, and make a bigger score

Nah, maybe I'll start sellin dope for my cous

Then I could drive the same car he does

The life of a poor man

Consider me desperate

I sleep in a cold room

And wish I could just get

A piece of the pie

Is that asking too much?

I can't even reach what others have in their clutch

I wish I could go on, but I have to end this

And get back to livin a life that is winless

There's no use swimmin, so I might as well drown

In my sorrows

Cause tomorrow's the other side of town



The other side of town

The other side of town