Where the Ladies At?

Where my ladies at?
they ain\'t here
they\'re struggling
to make ends meet
where ends don\'t meet
struggling to stand on their own two feet
without homes
and cash
with babies and without babies dads
I say again
where my ladies at?
they\'re stuck
in an economic prison
where welfare is gobbled
by the greedy
instead of being consumed
by the needy.
stuck in aplace
where they turn tricks
for love and sell their souls
for affection
looking for love
in all the wrong places
endin up in the basements
of our cities
where the only way out
is up
but it\'s too dark to find the way up
so like i said
they\'re stuck.
Where my ladies at?
crammed into clinics
medicaid up
gettin\' penicillin
cuz they caught that stuff
when in reality what they got
can\'t be cleared up.
More deadly than the crack and STDs
is that glass ceiling
built my miseducation and uneducation
and did I mention Bush\'s policies?
So where my ladies at?
holding down single-parent homes
and two-parent responsibilities
receiving no help and
neglectin themselves.
They\'re tired
of borrowing from Peter
just to pay Paul
and puttin\' on fronts
just to stand tall.
Tired of living in a world
where they are ignored
and the rich are the only people
that get sh*t for free
and poor black women get told
f*ck You, Pay Me.
Where my ladies at?
stuck on corners
addicted to crack
dying from AIDS
and being held back
So where my ladies at?
pushed to the bottom
of a bottomless pit
they\'re struggling
they\'re stuck
they\'re sick
they\'re tired
Where my ladies at?
they\'re not here
they\'re dying