Trouble Downstairs

[Chorus]
Let's party on the rooftops
There's trouble downstairs (There's trouble downstairs)
You can talk about whatever you want
But don't say nothing [?] (Let's talk about)
Let me say it again, just in case you forget
Who's in charge here, I said
Let's party on the rooftops
There's trouble downstairs (There's trouble downstairs)

[Verse 1]
We're gonna get sorta vicious, just for a minute
Armed with nothing but paper and pen as a frame to express
The mob of ignored afflictions important business
It's absurd if you expect your girl to selеct threads
When she gеts up in the morning itching for your attention
So if I'm displaying my chest in the way that I'm dressed
Don't think I'm an ornament for your porn addiction
You prefer that I get checks for 30 percent less
And work in the red dress while birth control gets left
On my employers cutting board and so, of course
I won't afford a dose of Ortha Novum
Let a male court decision force commitment
When no choice was given maternally expressed
Her daughter's a born victim of an abhorrent system
That burdens the X sex and doesn't support our children
But some would torture women well before envisioning
All the hoards of infant corpses in the abortion clinic

[Chorus]
If, only if you would hear and understand
If, only if you would take it in your hands
If, only if for another you would stand
Then, only then can you call yourself a man
If, only if you would hear and understand
If, only if you would take it in your hands
If, only if for another you would stand
Then, only then can you call yourself a man

[Verse 2]
Ten cent ramen over twelve cent, 'cause I got
Half a dozen dimes and I'm gonna need that sixth meal
Cut my hand open real bad, but I can't afford the stitches
So I'm praying that that skin heals
"Sorry guys, but your friend can't come to play
I mean that in a 'Love ya, but I got no money' way
And if that isn't clear, let me put it another way
If I come to the movies, I can't eat for a couple days"
Nobody gets it, but being poor is really expensive
Don't got the dollars to afford any decent necessities
So they break and you gotta pay to replace 'em
A situation where a thousand dollar Ford is the cheapest selection
To replace your thousand dollar Ford that just ate the dust
To get to your second job, you gon' have to take the bus
Half of the middle class are afraid of us just because we look dangerous
The rest sit and laugh about, calling us lazy bums
While the upper class call the poor
A sick bunch of beggars entitled to have it all, ignoring
The heavy reality, we work seventy hour weeks
And hope the landlords forgive us for being a dollar short

[Chorus]
If, only if you would hear and understand
If, only if you would take it in your hands
If, only if for another you would stand
Then, only then can you call yourself a man
If, only if you would hear and understand
If, only if you would take it in your hands
If, only if for another you would stand
Then, only then can you call yourself a man

[Verse 3]
I told Uncle Sam that I'd pay, fight, stand and die
For this amber waves, fruited plains land of mine
But bright stars barely light up the perilous fight
That follows you after the red glare of a landmine
I came back from the war with an enemy inside of me that I can never flee from
And I know he's only tapping on a table as a habit, but it sound like a machine gun
So any second I'll be snapping 'cause it got me comin' back
Into the middle of a racket
It's like a murder and attack without a way of fighting back
And I'm reliving the traumatic experience like a re-run
The mental health clinic put me on a waiting list and stated
It would cost me an arm and a leg to pay for it
Sorry, but I already spent an arm and a leg on your right to vote
You can ask the guy who amputated them
Today, twenty of my brothers decided
That something about runnin' around through puddles of proud blood on the ground
To the thunderous sound of hundreds of rounds in the name of freedom wasn't worth surviving
Tomorrow's the same and I'm tired of waiting
My piece of mind is a piece of me I'm nothing without
I feel nineteen pairs of eyes starin'
So this time, maybe I'll be the twentieth one found with a gun in his mouth

[Chorus]
Let's party on the rooftops
There's trouble downstairs (There's trouble downstairs)
You can talk about whatever you want
But don't say nothing [?] (Let's talk about)
Let me say it again, just in case you forget
Who's in charge here, I said
Let's party on the rooftops
There's trouble downstairs (There's trouble downstairs)