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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five

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[Intro]
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

[Verse 1]
Broken glass everywhere
People pissing 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
’Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car

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In the highlighted section above, we see the rapper in this verse is discussing about the issues he's dealing with, especially with money. Because he "got no money to move out"

Because he has no money to leave the place he's currently living in and even gets his car repossessed, would imply that he is either in the Working Poor or the Underclass Social Class.

These are both products that stem from Social Stratification is the creation of layers (or strata) of people who possess unequal shares of scarce resources. The most important of these are income, wealth, power and prestige.

Power is ability the to control the behavior of the others, even against their will. Individuals of groups who possess power are able to use it to enhance their own interest, often- but not necessarily-at the expense of society.

Prestige is recognition, respect, and admiration attached to social positions.

The wealthier people are, the more power and prestige they gain from the overall public.

Social Class is a group of society members that hold similar amounts of resources and share values, norms, and a identifiable lifestyle. These social classes are also determined by Income and Wealth. Income is the amount of money one person or a group of people make over time, while Wealth is the total economic resources held by one person or a group or people. To be more brief, your income is your paycheck, and your wealth is what you own. To show the social stratification better, I’ll showcase each class in the American class structure, including their typical occupations and typical income as well as how much of the population they make up (As of 2003).

The Upper Class makes up about 1% of the total population. Income: $2 Million. Occ: Heirs, chief executive officers.

The Upper Middle Class makes up 14% of the total population. Income: $120,000. Occ: Upper level managers, professionals.

The Middle Class makes up 30% of the total population. Income: $55,000. Occ: Lower-level managers, semiprofessionals.

The Working Class makes up 30% of the total population. Income: $35,000. Occ: Low-paid Manual worker, retail sales worker.

The Working Poor makes up 13% of the total population. Income: $22,000. Occ: Lowest paid manual workers, service & retail workers.

The Underclass makes up 12% of the total population. Income: $12,000. Occ: Unemployed people, People receiving public assistance.

The Working poor are a social class that for the most part have people who are employed in low-skilled jobs and get paid minimum wage, not making enough to rise above the poverty line. The Underclass on the other hand is typically unemployed who came from families who have been poor for generations.

Because of the aforementioned highlighted section, I think this shows, based off the information in the book that this person must suffer with issues relating to both low income and wealth as well as having lower power and prestige. The fact that he says within a matter of fact manner that “I got no money, I guess I got no choice” knowing that he can’t do much with this situation and this is only added onto the over-standing debt on his car to point of it being taken away by the bank shows that he now has less of a means of escaping his current life style.

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five (Continued)

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five (Continued)

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[Hook]
Don't push me, ’cause 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 going under

[Verse 2]
Standing on the front stoop, hanging out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady, living in a bag
Eating out of 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 watching 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

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In the highlighted section above, We see another one of the rapper's perspective and seeing a women, informing us of how her life used to be. A Zircon, is often known as a faux diamond because of how it appears, so this suggest he sees her as a faux princess and perhaps she sees herself that with the line 'Seemed to lost her senses'. Zircon’s can fall between $75 to $125 dollars per carat, meaning that Zircons can be sold for quiet a pretty penny. Although it may not be valued or praised as a diamond or perhaps the 1%, It’s still very well liked and well off like per say the Upper middle class. So that’s my connection to Zircon and her idea of her class and life style and  I believe that this relates to class consciousness, or the identification with goals and interests of a social class and false consciousness, or the adoption of the ideas. I think that in this women's head, she perceives herself in a higher class that she is, as well as adopting some ideals of people within a higher contain and presents that to others, even if it is not the reality of things.

The next highlighted line, says that when she seemingly had a more positive perspective on life in the city and somehow even got Social Security. Social Security is a monetary system in order to assist those who have inadequate and little income. This line however, seems to be contradicted at the very end of the verse because 'she couldn't make it on her own' and had to get a pimp and go into prostitution in order to sustain a living. This section in general deeply reflects on the feminization of poverty, or a trend in the U.S. where women and children make up a sizable population of those who are poor.

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five (Continued)

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five (Continued)

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[Hook]
Don't push me, ’cause 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 going under

[Verse 3]
My brother's doing 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 standing on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A mid-ranged migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm going insane,
I swear I might hijack a plane!

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In the highlighted section above, With "The Bill collectors, they ring my phone and scare my wife when I'm not home." Implies that they're in some sort of debt, the state of when something is owed or do which is usually more often than not being money.

And with the part saying 'they scare my wife when I'm not home' may imply that perhaps that these may be loan-sharks and or illegitimate sources of money and they scare her by perhaps insinuating that they would do him or his wife harm..

A double-digit inflation means a general increase in the price of goods and services, which means that because things are becoming more expensive he can afford less of the needed resources like food or water. Then, the rapper says he also has a 'Bum education' which may imply he's in the working poor because of this line and the next one after this "Can't take the train to the job' because he most likely because he can't afford a car so he must take a subway instead.

This may also cause Social mobility shift within his life, or the movement of individuals or groups between social classes. And there’s three different kinds of Social Mobility, and they are called vertical mobility, horizontal, and integrational mobility. Horizontal mobility is a change in occupation within of the same social class. Vertical Mobility is a change upward or downward in occupational status or social class. And finally, Intergenerational mobility is a change in status or class from one generation to the next. Although he may have a job within the Working class (Which we can assume)  or higher, because of the high inflation rate that is currently happening, he may have vertical mobility downward in the class structure because of the lack of things or resources he can now acquire.

The second part of the line informs us that there's a strike at the local station, which would imply, although we don't exactly know that cause of it is most likely that it's over pay disputes within the union.

I felt that I needed to add the last two lines in, because this again shows how stressful these situations can be for someone living with money issues and in a generally poor area.

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five (Continued)

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five (Continued)

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[Verse 4]
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
Or 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 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, ’cause it's crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun, ’cause they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say "You want some more?", living on a see-saw

[Hook]
Don't push me, ’cause 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 going under

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In the Highlighted section above, we’re introduced to a conversation between a father and a son. Specifically the line “I think it'd be cheaper If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper”. Although finishing mandatory HS school and seeking out higher education increases the type of occupations and move up his class, he rather quit school and get a job now. This I believes relates to their theoretical perspectives and their views on Socialization, especially that of functionalism.   Functionalism focus of the relationship between job and performance pay, and the expected result would be your pay levels increase with your job performance. This Son probably thinks that if he just works hard at a generally lower paying job, he’ll eventually get more money. The next two lines “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” Implying that he knows how important money is especially in this area and that he would also be willing to con others in order to benefit himself even if that means taking advantage of others.

Although I don't talk about it much, the last highlighted line is the last in a descriptive scene of a dangerous city life and specifically on how it makes him feel. I think the last line "Living on a see-saw" holds a double meaning, possibly referring to the hectic city life and as well as his economic woes.

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five (Continued)

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"The Message" By Grand-master Flash and The Furious Five (Continued)

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[Verse 5]
A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you, but he's frowning too
Because only God knows what you'll go through
You'll grow in the ghetto living 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
Driving big cars, spending 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 dropping outta high school
Now you're unemployed, all null and void
Walking '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
Being 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...

[Hook]
Don't push me, ’cause 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 going under

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From the aforementioned few of the theoretical perspectives in sociology in my verse 4 analyzation, I would like to take the time to one of the other ones. Symbolic interactionism through social stratification looks though the link between social class and self-esteem. An expected result of this is that people within higher social classes tend to overall have better self- esteem then the people in the class below them. I think this is shown clearly in lines “You'll grow in the ghetto living 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.”

I say this because these few lines show what someone within a lower class and class conscience, or being aware of other classes combined with symbolic interactionism may view their surroundings. The fact that the word ghetto, and ‘living second-rate’ not only shows us that they know that they’re living in a poor place but they’re also upset about it too, comparing their homes and fond places to a giant alleyway.

The next part of this very long highlighted section goes into how young people will go onto praise people who make money illegally and bad ways and how they’ll admire them and give them unneeded prestige as well as bad role model even through if they could, they could be “spending twenties and tens”.

After then to describe even more ways or ‘occupations’ you could take inspiration from in a place like this before “you wind up dropping outta high school, Now you’re unemployed, all null and void”. Which means that they lost their chance at a better job or movement upwards in class because of the simple fact he dropped out.

The last section mentions a “Pretty Boy Floyd”, which is the name of a infamous Great Depression era robber, who was well liked for earning in such a trying economic time, but the next line refers to “an eight year bid” or other words an eight year jail sentence. Which shows what could happen if you follow a lifestyle like that or even worse, perhaps even death. I Believe this also touches on the last kind of the theoretical perspective is conflict theory, the expected result is that crime and the rate of prosecution lowers the higher the social class you are in. This is because of his low wealth and income in his social class, he feels the need to steal and job his way to success which leads to his eight year sentence.