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