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“The Message” Lyrics and Video

Musical Analysis of “The Message”

Before the first verse of the song starts, someone says, “It’s like a jungle sometimes. It makes me wonder how I keep from goin’ under”. This statement sets the ominous tone of the song right off the bat and is repeated throughout the song. This lyric is as simile and it explains the way that New York is viewed to the people living in the streets. A jungle is a very dense, large area with overgrowth filled with wildlife and tangled vegetation. It almost impossible to find a way out of a jungle and survive for a long period of time and that is how New York feels to people in the inner city. New York, to them, is full of hazards and the environment is almost unbearable to live in but they are stuck there because they can’t find a way out. Another repetitive lyric heard in the song is, “Don’t push me ’cause I’m close to the edge”. This lyric points to the way that this unbearable environment mentally affects the people living there. Throughout the song, they talk about sounds and smells that get to them, crimes that they witness,  and things like rats that they run into on a daily basis. Having to encounter these things on a daily basis can start to create some hopelessness and because of this, they feel like they are going to lose their mind. It took a lot out of them to stay on a straight path and not become a part of the violence and crimes that were happening around all around them. They felt like they were close to being consumed by this environment and fall into the trap and get nabbed by the police. In between lyrics, one of them makes a sound similar yet somewhat different from a laugh and it seems to serve more as a  rhythmic break in the song. This sound is eerie because it’s very dry and too deep to be an actual laugh, it seems to be more of a sarcastic laugh. This lifestyle they are describing in the song is nowhere near funny and by laughing, it makes it seem like he is closer to the edge than he thinks he is. In the song, non-instrumental sounds are heard like glass breaking and towards the end, there are sounds like a train, honking cars, people talking, and the screeching of a police car that seems to drown out the beat. This helps symbolize the chaotic and loud nature of these inner-city parts. The lyrics and sounds heard in “The Message” all serve their part in symbolizing and representing the lifestyle of the rundown inner-city and they help emphasize the draining and precarious nature of it all. 

 

Video Analysis

Along with the lyrics of “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the music video also portrays a social commentary about the reality of the struggles of inner-city poverty. 

 

The video for “The Message” begins with two of the group members walking towards the camera up the sidewalk. Immediately you can see the outside surroundings which seem to be a poor city environment. The sidewalk has cracks with overgrown weeds and the grass is not maintained on either side. This shows the viewer that maintaining the natural scenery may not be a priority to the residents of the community, and the government may not prioritize it either because it is a poor area. This is significant because in wealthier areas, the environment is expected to be neat and clean at all times.

 

At 0:43 in the video when Melle Mel begins his first verse, along with him commenting on it, glass is being shattered on the ground and left there. Melle Mel is also standing in front of an old looking building with what looks like multiple articles of trash surrounding his feet. The purpose of this scene is to once again show what the environment looks like in an inner-city community that struggles with poverty. As expressed in the song as well, the city is not clean and throughout the entire video, litter is seen on the ground almost everywhere. 

 

The next significant shot in the video is at 1:23 when the camera focuses on an elderly woman sitting against a building. We assume that she is homeless because she has items sitting on her lap which could be her belongings. She is wearing very baggy clothes and her hair does not look to be maintained. This shows the reality of homelessnes in impoverished areas in cities. What makes it worse is that elderly people experience this at high rates as well as younger individuals. Also in the video a similar scene happens with an elderly looking man at 2:22. He is lying against the wall most likely because he has no home to go relax at. He also has a couple articles of clothing next to him which could be all he has to wear. 

 

Another quick and interesting shot in the video happens at 3:04. A woman is seen playing with two hand puppets. However it is very common for people to resort to some kind of performance on the city street to try and earn money. 

 

The next important scene happens at 3:23. Another homeless person is seen laying on the sidewalk against a building in a public area. However this time a police officer is standing over him. Most likely the police officer is trying to get the homeless person to move. The problem with this is that because homelessness is so common in these poor inner-city communities, if the man gets up he has to go find somewhere else to sit because he has nowhere else to go. And that does not solve the issue that the police officer is trying to take care of. Unfortunately this can lead to things like police brutality towards homeless people, or just simple rudeness towards them. 

 

Next, at 3:51 the first children are seen in the video. This shot is an intentional set up for the next shot that shows a large alleyway with what looks like metal structures that children play on or around. The scene is blurry, but it looks like what could be monkey bars. The surroundings are all concrete rather than in a wealthy community where a park that children would play in has green grass, mulch, or sand. This scene shows the struggle that children have that are raised in poor inner-city areas. Rather than safe playgrounds with safe equipment, the kids in those communities use what they have which could be dangerous to their safety. 

 

The last major scene in the video which begins at around 5:16 speaks on one of the harshest realities of  poor inner-city areas. The whole group is seen greeting each other on a street corner in broad daylight. They are heard catching up and talking about what their plans are for that night. Suddenly, a police car comes into view and brakes suddenly and stops by the group members. The police officers quickly hop out of their patrol car with their weapons already in hand. They start pushing the members into the police car while the members question the officers about the arrest. As seen in this shot, the group members were just grouped together and having a conversation, however, they all happen to be black men. In communities like poor inner-city areas, this is an everyday reality that balck men have to face. Because of the color of their skin, they are automatically subject to prejudice and assumed guilty. This scene is intentionally placed at the end so it resonates with viewers the longest since it is one of the most common and major issues that communities like this face everyday.