B-More: For Freddy Gray

When you’re poor

You’re most likely born to a poor parent

That parent most likely lives in Baltimore and with addiction

So, it’s more likely you were born premature

So you’ll live in the hospital and you won’t go home

Until you weigh at least 5 pounds

And home is most likely the projects

Where the paint is peeling off the walls

When you’re poor and a baby born in Baltimore, you learn real fast

How to pick things up off the floor to put into your mouth

Like binkies, cheerios, pennies

And paint chips...

More than likely that paint peeling off your walls -

Was put there a long time ago,

So it’s mostly likely leaded like old gasoline -

So that by the time you’re 3, you most likely have more

Than 30 milligrams per of poison metal in your blood

And by age 6, you suffer from all the acronyms -

That get you put into special Ed.

And they all begin with the letter "A"...

A letter that you never actually get to see on your report card.

So, more than likely, you drop out of school -

But when you’re poor and from Baltimore...

 - and a dropout,

“Drug dealer” and “car thief” are the only jobs in the classified...

So more than likely, you go to jail...

A lot.

And in there, you get plenty of time to philosophize

Over just what it means to be poisoned

Then you get out and it’s back

To the streets with all its angels and demons.

Until one day you actually meet one in the flesh -

Who on your behalf, sues the State over its paint.

And you win and get a check as compensation,

For what you carry in your blood

Now, more than likely, you’re going to get the hell out of B-more.. 

Maybe go to Art School...

But first you gonna hit the corner store to buy you some food.

When you’re poor and from Baltimore -and you got poisoned blood -

Well, those are the very reasons the cops pull you over.

This time though, you got a check in your pocket

But more than likely the police,

Don’t appreciate your newfound attitude

So, when you talk back, they tackle you

Into a bicycle rack, cuff you and throw you in the back

Now you’re just a can of soda pop in a paddy wagon

That’s waiting to be shaken -

As they laugh and drive more fast

When you’re poor and from Baltimore

More than likely you didn’t pay attention in Science class -

But now Newton and his 3 laws of motion are rattling around

Inside of your head as you bounce around inside the back of the van

And soon your spinal cord snaps, giving away

To a very heavy truth:

That when you’re poor and from Baltimore

Lead is most likely the thing that’s going to kill you.

As you’re wheeled away with your body strapped onto the gurney -

Your lead check falls heavily out of your pocket

Floating away down Fulton Street

Down to where nobody can really know

Because when you’re poor and from a place like Baltimore,

Nobody Can Really Know

Is exactly where your dreams go…

did you know that lead poisoning is a leading health issue among low-income people of color living in old neighborhoods where lead based paint was used because it was cheap? This was the case throughout Baltimore - Freddy himself suffered from lead poisoning - and subsequent behavior problems. This explains his run-ins with police and their propensity to harass him (and others)...leading to his tragic demise - Taj