Something in the New York Air

There's something in the New York air
That smells like fear
And when the wind blows just right
It smells like anger
You can feel the internal furnace turn on
Like any fire you've ever stoked
Roaring to life
You see danger in every pair of eyes
Desperation makes an emotionally unstable human being
Everyone I pass
Looks like an animal ready to pounce

We wonder where the violence comes from
Two days into a new place
And some poor kid gets shot in the back of the head
Mere blocks from my house
And another black kid
Grows to be a man while in prison
The coffers of the local government
Gets fatter and more corrupt
Blood money paid to bastards
Snakes in expensive suits
Drunk on power and insulated by wealth

Trying to get ahead in New York
Is like pushing the rock up the hill
Sysiphus in all his glory
Grins at me
While I push my own rock right next to him
New York is one part shopping mall, one part prison
You gotta break out to get out of here

So I don't feel that I have to explain myself
To fools who have the nerve to ask me
Why I am so angry all the time