Lyrics for The Message as interpreted by H-bomb

The Message Lyrics
Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just
don't care
I can't take the smell, I 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
Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car

Chorus:
Don't push me, cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to loose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

Standing on the front stoop, hangin' out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady, livin' in a bag
Eating out of garbage piles, used to be a fag-hag
Search and test a tango, skips the life and then go
To search a prince to see the last of senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so so so ditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her
own

Chorus:
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from goin' under

My brother's doing fast on my mother's T.V.
Says she watches too much, is just not healthy
All my children in the daytime, Dallas at night
Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
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
Me on King Kong standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
Midrange, migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm going insane, I swear I might
hijack a plane!

Chorus:

My son said daddy I don't wanna go to school
Cause 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
I dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause 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 push that girl in front of a train
Took her to a doctor, sewed the arm on again
Stabbed that man, right in his heart
Gave him a transplant before a brand new start
I can't walk through the park, cause it's crazy after the dark
Keep my hand on the gun, cause they got me on the run
I feel like an outlaw, broke my last fast jaw
Hear them say you want some more, livin' on a seesaw

Chorus:

A child was born, with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he's frowning too
Cause only god knows what you go through
You grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
You'll admire all the number book takers
thugs, pimps, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers
You say I'm cool, I'm no fool
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you're unemployed, all null 'n' void
Walking around like you're Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you done did
Got send up for a eight year bid
Now your man is took and you're a May tag
Spend the next two years as an undercover fag
Being used and abused, and served like hell
Till one day you was found hung dead in a 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

Chorus:

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  • 15 Comments
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toxicgeek
04-29-2002

Rated 0 
the greatest rap song of all time bar none.

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KetchupMan36
05-06-2002

Rated 0 
one of the few rap songs I like, and possibly the best rap song of all time. excellent.

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maryyy
08-15-2002

Rated 0 
woo hoo! yay for grandmaster flash..

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CPFitz14
06-18-2003

Rated 0 
any other artists that are similar to Grandmaster?

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buckeyeandrew
11-17-2004

Rated 0 
the breaks by kurtis flow has the same sort of vibe

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JoE][BoXeR
12-18-2004

Rated 0 
CpFitz, listen to Black Star, their a great hip/hop rap group, Tupac also has a pretty good amount of similiar songs, all great.

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insignificant2all_5
12-21-2004

Rated 0 
Probably a hip hop anthem for every person in the ghetto's of New York and Los Angeles. Grandmaster Flash is one of the original masters of Hip Hop, a great beat maker and an awesome MC.

For me, this song tells of how people so easily turn into "pimps, pushers, smugglers and burglars" in places like the Bronx and Compton. When you have such a shitty neighbourhood to live in, with crime, rape, murder, prostitution, parents that don't care and a school system that's totally fucked, it can be all too simple to lose your way. This follows the life of one person for the second half of the rhyme and tells of his fast life as a pimp/pusher/scrambler right up to his death in prison after leading a terrible life of unhappiness.

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CEREAL
02-17-2006

Rated 0 
Grandmaster Flash is the godfather of DJing. maybe francis grasso too. I haven't heard a truly original hip hop record since 2pac died, but I think I would have to agree this is the greatest hiphop record ever.

The music is simple yet effective, the rap skillfully depicts the hopelessness of life in a poor urban area. No escape you can see,people preying on each other. The explanation of why people turn to crime, but condemnation of this at the same time is the crowning moment though. Still as relevant today as it was back then, if not more so, this is Hip hop as it should be, a scathing political and social commentary with something to say and a story to tell. The rubbish about bitches and crews made for the pop charts, middle class white girls and rammed down our throats has nothing on this. A true classic.

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paul_f
08-30-2006

Rated 0 
Sorry insignificant2all_5 but Flash isn't/wasn't an MC - he is a DJ. The Message features just 2 MCs - The Furious Five's Melle Mel and a session percussionist known as Duke Bootee.

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kickstart71
04-16-2007

Rated 0 
Great song. I remember back in the day, this song wound up on a K-Tel compilation record (anyone remember THOSE?), and it was the first time a heard a rap song, or anything like it, really. I can't believe how few posts there are on this song. Anyone else surprised these guys just ogt indiucted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame?! Pretty much based on this song. That's how cool it is. Although, quite a few messed-up lyrics above.

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Bluewaves
05-08-2007

Rated -1 
I hate most rap, but I love Grandmaster Flash. This song is intelligent (something most gangsta rap is definitely not). It does not glorify or revel in the violence and squalor of inner-city gang life. It depicts it for what it is -- sad and unbearable -- and something to try to get OUT of, if only there was a way. Somewhere along the way after this, rap seriously lost its way. Now you just have a bunch of total morons bragging about their bling and ho's.

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Lakeman
11-10-2007

Rated 0 
what a song...

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trivium_crusader666
02-29-2008

Rated 0 
My favorite song hands down.

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drpoundsign
03-30-2008

Rated 0 
An uptempo version of Marvin Gaye's inner city blues, n'est ce pas? Really a condemnation of Reaganism and Capitalism more than racism.

Fascinating bit of trivia..They did a show on C-Span a couple years ago about politics in music Bob Dylan to M &M or something like that. Featured THIS song and also "Play dat funky music" by wild cherry to spice up a nerdy politician (maybe Al Gore's) campaign?

Flash is a Genius

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andher
09-16-2009

Rated 0 
"so so so ditty" >> social security

i think this song illustrates the warped perception one has when being raised within the ghetto environment, and the mindset that opportunity just isn't there. it's much less available than it is to the middle class, certainly, but it is possible to escape. the ghetto's greatest detriment is its effect on one's identity, with so little exposure to "positive" influences. so, on its surface, the song is about being overwhelmed by negativity. but, taking it further, that negativity has a profound effect on self perception, and will breed ignorance of potential.

of course, this all stems from my limited understanding of the American ghetto and i'm not giving it as dogma. i might even be stating the obvious, idk

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