City of Pain

I'm on the night train looking at the city of pain
I'm seeing living puzzles searching for missing pieces to frame
A picture they call life or the perception of one
Where pursuit of happiness is live and die by the gun
By any means to attain the green
sell crack and fiends
come back for more
street corners the store
I'm seeing queens camouflaged as whores
Echoes of 44s
resonate through closed doors
it's all sort of hard to imagine even as I'm rapping
Two dudes fighting over ice now they start capping
Heads on the side scared play it off by laughing
Mothers up at the windowpanes praying and fasting
A symphony of sirens awakes the night
As souls yearn to sleep at daylight aight
I'm daydreaming it's my stop let me hop off and head to this bus stop

In the city of pain it rains tears
In hopes that sunshine will break through clear
so that souls can see the one
turning the city of pain to the city that needs no sun

Hopping on the bus sliding in my token gliding in my chair
I glanced to see more drama in the rear
tears scattered her man backslapped her face
knocking all the love out leaving only the hate
She cries he continues with the verbal debate
People looking out the window for a mental escape
I did the same and saw this gang beating down this homeless person
spitting kicking, hitting, cursing
Young thugs just wilding
it's almost like you could see the demons on their backs smiling
And down the block
the spot's hot
with two cops ain't doing nothing
they're in their own dirt trying to make an extra something
Undercovers in the car getting illegal loving
weed smokers on the roof passing and puffing away
the past away
the present away
the future away
to heaven is so far cause they can't see God
the prince of air got the city blazed up in a fog
Aw man I'm daydreamin' again
Yo bus driver this is my stop right here

In the city of pain it rains tears
In hopes that sunshine will break through clear
so that souls can see the one
turning the city of pain to the city that needs no sun

Finally at my crib in my bed
trying to close my eyelids
trying to shed all the things thoughts that my mind was fed
But I can't cause my burden is deep
I'm not holier than thou but my heart it weeps
Lord help me in my calling because I know I must reach
a city lost in sin and no one's willing to preach
I can't even keep my concepts no more
by the end of my songs my spirit starts to pour
I soar like a raven to see with God's eyes
if not for him it would have been just another ride
Cities are cloaked in kerosene
satan's got the matches
the breath of life will blow it out the fastest
I am a city on the hill
in the city of pain
showing the city that needs no sun
for Christ name.

In the city of pain it rains tears
In hopes that sunshine will break through clear
so that souls can see the one
turning the city of pain to the city that needs no sun