Gotta check out, the avenue
Got, ta, check out the avenue
Gotta check out, the avenue
Got, ta, check out the avenue
Livin in the big city, not just New York, every hometown
has a place where things are known for goin down
Where you can learn a lot of things that you shouldn't know
It's a place where people tell ya that ya shouldn't go
All the kids that go dere they end up misled
Cause of a hardhead, some of 'em turn up dead
Mothers cry as they identify their child y'know
In the morgue wearin a tag on their big toe
I'm sayin listen you should go to school and learn
But fast cash and respect is what you wanna earn
So you stand for days and days on the ave
To make enough to get the things that you didn't have
Gettin five for the vial, some two for seven
But losin out on your childhood's what you're really gettin
But if that's the way you get respect I pity you
Checkin out the avenue
Gotta check out, the avenue
Got, ta, check out the avenue
Gotta check out, the avenue
Got, ta, check out the avenue
Second verse y'all, I'll catch you on the go around
Livin in the big city, the big city is where I come from
Not the slums but where poor is many more than none
A young man grows up and then grows to rump
with the girls wild now got a child and he's stuck
Dirt poor hits the block he's sellin the rock
Gets nabbed by the cops, hits the cell block
Listenin to Lou Rawls while lookin at the blue walls
of a jail cell, cause he tried life and he failed
So now the hardest job is keepin a smile
Stay in line for survival in the penile
This is your worst nightmare, how cheery it isn't
None of your family or friends don't even come to visit
So you're forced into a line of behavior
Cause you don't wanna catch scars from a razor
And it's your fault you couldn't make it, I pity you
Checkin out the avenue
Gotta check out, the avenue
Got, ta, check out the avenue
Checkin out the avenue
Checkin out the avenue check it out
The city never sleeps I stay awake 24/7 days a week
Thinkin bout all the things that I consider deep
Literally ladies live life lonely, singin the blues
And to make matters worse, the eye witness news
From anything to everything that's under the sun
What's next A mother usin her son for sex
Bad lives, battered wives hidin they black eyes
And then they decide their husband has got to die
She's on trial, there goes another broken family
Unless she gets off on temporary insanity
Then there's a single mother, her man deserted her
Two year old grows up to be a mass murderer
There ain't nobody around that's left to raise 'em straight
There ain't nothin we can do but sit back and wait
A sad life to live, some pity me too
Checkin out the avenue
Gotta check out, the avenue
Got, ta, check out the avenue
Gotta check out, the avenue
Got, ta, check out the avenue