You’d be surprised at what a stranger will share with someone who is willing to listen. We know it’s a tough environment down here and we just want to offer friendship and positive conversation.” “We’re just a group of friends who come down every week to hang out. “Are you getting school credit? Are you a social worker? Are you from an organization?” “Why are you here?” people have asked me many times since that first night. We also talked about broken families, addiction, pain and struggle. And we talked about the weather, the Blue Jays, and music. We stayed, chatting for the next two hours or so. We made our way to the shelter and we gave out hot chocolate and sandwiches. How did she do basic things like shower, or shave her legs? Perhaps she didn’t. I remember wondering how her life would have been. She was living there with two other people, she told us. As we peered in, we saw that there were blankets inside and a couple bags. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, I just didn’t know what to do.Īs we quietly made our way under the overpass, we noticed that someone had set up a make shift shelter in a small opening between the walls. I had always walked by, perhaps reading their cardboard sign but mostly just avoiding eye contact.
Since moving to Toronto, my only experiences with homeless or street involved people had been the occasional panhandler. I had never done something like this before. Our group headed into the dark overpass area under the Gardiner expressway near the Air Canada Centre.
Instead of getting off at the closest subway station, our leader had us get off early so that we could walk part of the way, looking for anyone who might be sleeping on the streets. It was a Friday night and I had agreed to go with some friends to distribute sandwiches outside a homeless shelter. By the time "Sister Good Game's Testimony" snarls all the weak and meek out of the trap house, it seems Jeezy's "Pastor Young" character comes with the toughest brand of love, but "I Feel Ya" ("You put your fam on your back, boy I feel ya/You put your hood on the map, boy I feel ya") is a sympathetic cut that broadens the album's spectrum.I remember the first time I ever spoke to a person living on the streets. The title cut is also the LP's key cut as it bangs along with twerking Zaytoven production, and offers the album's main message for anyone caught in the drug game: "If you see another day, then just say 'Hallelujah!'" The track "Lost Souls" is a heavy triumph, sampling a bit of the movie Street Life before the lyrics declare that any time spent in jail is time spent breeding another monster, while later, the woozy and hooky banger "Scared of the Dark" skewers flashy gangsters for their unwillingness to do life's dirty work. Dropping the Young from his name and turning on the full Jeezy, Church in These Streets finds the veteran Atlanta MC tackling the concept album while playing the role of an inner-city preacher.
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