Songfacts®:

• This funky track finds Lenny Kravitz singing about urban blight. The lyrics were written by Kravitz's then-wife, Cosby Show actress Lisa Bonet. She also co-wrote the lyrics for another Let Love Rule song, "Rosemary" and was said to be the inspiration for most of the album.
• When Kravitz was laying down the drum track for this song, he broke a drumstick which flew into his eye and injured his cornea. Kravitz didn't stop playing and was only rushed to the emergency room once he'd finished.
• This appears on Kravitz's debut album, Let Love Rule. After struggling to secure a record deal for years, Kravitz found himself in the middle of a bidding war among five major labels, including the ultimate winner, Virgin Records. Unlike the other labels, Virgin didn't try to convince him to change his retro sound, which blends funk, old-school R&B, and psychedelic rock. "They didn't categorize me," he told The Los Angeles Times. "They wanted me to do the music I wanted."
• The album was a hit in Europe but it took a while for grunge-focused Americans to warm up to the singer. It peaked at #61 on the albums chart and eventually - after he had a few more albums under his belt - earned a Gold certification for 500,000 copies sold in the US.