The Message

The Message - Grandmaster Flash

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Broken glass everywhere

People pissin' on the stairs, you know they just don't care

I can't take the smell, can't take the noise

Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice

Rats in the front room, roaches in the back

Junkies in the alley with a baseball bat

I tried to get away but I couldn't get far

'cuz a man with a tow truck repossessed my car

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge

I'm trying not to lose my head

Uh huh ha ha ha

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Standin' on the front stoop hangin' out the window

Watchin' all the cars go by, roarin' as the breezes blow

Crazy lady, livin' in a bag

Eatin' outta garbage pails, used to be a fag hag

Said she'll dance the tango, skip the light fandango

A Zircon princess seemed to lost her senses

Down at the peep show watchin' all the creeps

So she can tell her stories to the girls back home

She went to the city and got social security

She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge

I'm trying not to lose my head

huh ha Uh ha ha

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

My brother's doin' bad, stole my mother's TV

Says she watches too much, it's just not healthy

"All My Children" in the daytime, "Dallas" at night

Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight

The bill collectors, they ring my phone

and scare my wife when I'm not home

Got a bum education, double-digit inflation

Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station

Neon King Kong standin' on my back

Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac

A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane

Sometimes I think I'm goin' insane

I swear I might hijack a plane!

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge

I'm trying not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

My son said, Daddy, I don't wanna go to school

'cuz the teacher's a jerk, he must think I'm a fool

And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it'd be cheaper

if I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper

Or dance to the beat, shuffle my feet

Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps

'cuz it's all about money, ain't a damn thing funny

You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey

They pushed that girl in front of the train

Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again

Stabbed that man right in his heart

Gave him a transplant for a brand new start

I can't walk through the park 'cuz it's crazy after dark

Keep my hand on my gun 'cuz they got me on the run

I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw

Hear them say "You want some more?"

Livin' on a see-saw

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge

I'm trying not to lose my head

Say what?

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

A child is born with no state of mind

Blind to the ways of mankind

God is smilin' on you but he's frownin' too

Because only God knows what you'll go through

You'll grow in the ghetto livin' second-rate

And your eyes will sing a song called deep hate

The places you play and where you stay

Looks like one great big alleyway

You'll admire all the number-book takers

Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money-makers

Drivin' big cars, spendin' twenties and tens

And you'll wanna grow up to be just like them, huh

Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers

Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers

You say I'm cool, huh, I'm no fool

But then you wind up droppin' outta high school

Now you're unemployed, all non-void

Walkin' round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd

Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did

Got sent up for a eight-year bid

Now your manhood is took and you're a Maytag

Spend the next two years as a undercover fag

Bein' used and abused to serve like hell

'til one day, you was found hung dead in the cell

It was plain to see that your life was lost

You was cold and your body swung back and forth

But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song

Of how you lived so fast and died so young so...

Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge

I'm trying not to lose my head

Uh huh huh huh huh

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Huh, uh huh huh huh huh

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Huh, uh huh huh huh huh