**FELIX THE CAT** *(East Oakland, 1954–1986)* **Hook** Sixty-ninth Avenue raised him, San Antonio brick Felix Wayne Mitchell Jr., they called him the Cat Heroin winter on the Town, gold on a high-school dropout’s back Life in ’85 — Leavenworth steel — he never made it back **Verse 1** August ’54, East Oakland dirt 69 Ville — projects first, last, and worst Dropped the books, built a crew, called it MOB My Other Brother — 6-9 — that’s the job Not a movie don from Harlem with a hat and a truce Bay Area heroin, L.A. ties, Detroit in the loop Mickey Moore’s family, Funktown in the way Firebombs and drive-bys they named a war for a day Seven dead in 1980 when the Town caught flame Judge Patel later called it terror by a name **Verse 2** Candy for the kids and a church on Sunday Rolls through the Ville like the check cleared Monday Told probation straight, no poem, no speech: *I like money, jewelry, cars — that American reach* Feds didn’t need a myth. They built a case Tax, conspiracy, CCE — they closed the place June 4, ’85, San Francisco marble and wood Life without the door. The Town understood Fourteen months in Kansas. Two days shy of thirty-two August 21, cell, steel, ten holes — the story came through FBI said personal, not a contract hit A $10 beef in some tellings. Docket never wrote it **Verse 3** Then Oakland did the thing that made the whole country look Horse and glass carriage, bronze box, dollar-sign flowers they took Huey in the pews. Councilman calling it worship of a thug A thousand in the street like the Town had lost a judge Not King. Not a mayor. A man who sold the block its winter And still the cortege crawled eight miles and wouldn’t splinter Some lined up from love. Some lined up from fear Some lined up because the Ville don’t get a king but once a year **Outro** Hollow win in ’87 when the circuit wiped the sheet Dead man can’t appeal. The house and the ice still feel the heat That’s the history, not the hymn: A project, a mob, a federal hymn A funeral bigger than the life he spent Felix the Cat — Oakland’s monument and Oakland’s debt Same street that cheered the carriage still paying for what the carriage meant.
