Well we had a mouse right in our house and were afraid to move

But I'd never trade that time we spent huddled up in the front room

No chill or rats or poverty can quell my love for you

Or for this dump we're standing in 'cause this is my home too 



Chicago, Chicago, well there's assholes everywhere

Chicago, Chicago, where you're 15 pints from all your cares

Where your wallet's like a sieve

And that's where all of the gangsters live

Chicago, Chicago, is where we can afford to live 



Well I sit out on my front porch step, watch the gangsters selling crack

And I call the cops when a girl walks by and they give her a smack

Oh I like to get my beer and sit on my front step or by the store

Hanging out where white folks fear to tread, yeah this is my home for sure 



No gangsters can deface it 'cause it's still the same to me

Sometimes the bullets frighten me but I speak up you see

Oh I can navigate the subway sect just like a weathered pro

And anywhere I want to you know that is where I go 



Chicago, Chicago, assholes everywhere

Chicago, Chicago, we are 15 pints from all our cares

Where your wallet's like a sieve

And that's where all of the gangsters live

Chicago, Chicago, is where we can afford to live 



I'm going out all by myself, no victims role for me

No I'm not transgressed by lovers or friends or owed something you see

Well the new condo's they're coming fast and the rents have gone sky high

Just because we're seen as pioneers they start to build for all the whites 



They fuckin' gentrified my home, they fuckin' gentrified my home

Left affordable housing there to roam, they fuckin' gentrified my home

They fuckin' gentrified my home, they fuckin' gentrified my home

Daley kicking ethnic vendors off the street, ordinanced nothing cheap to eat 



No more vendors in front of restaurants

'cause Daley says they attract vermin to their haunts

But I don't think that's the targeted vermin that he wants 



See the copper with his badge and his gun

He's not hiding from anyone

So you better collect your shit and run 



New shopping fronts are popping up all around

Driving our affordability out of town

You'd think they no longer want us around 



Public housing coming down by federal mandate

All of whom they promised to relocate

Rick Lazio's bill passed congress but they just segregated 'em back from where they came 



Neighborhoods splits up by highways lined

Dividing different races by color lines

Old mayor Daley put 'em there in the ever old grand ol' time 



Real world hype drives the rent sky high

Now MTV age yuppies want to buy

The city got the exorbitant tax

But in the real world in Chicago someone was shot outside the apartment and they died 



So you better run, stand, fight