The Message (feat. Melle Mel & Duke Bootee)

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
 Broken glass everywhere
 People pissing on the stage
 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
 broke dudes in the back
 Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat
 I tried to get away
 but I couldn't get far
 Cause the man with the tow truck
 repossessed my car
 Don't push me
 Cause I'm close to the edge
 I'm tryin' not to lose my head
 It's like a jungle sometimes
 It makes me wonder
 how I keep from going under
 Standing on the front stool
 hanging out the window
 Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
 A crazy lady, livin' in the bag
 eating out of garbage pales
 used to be a fag
 Searchin' has to tangle, skip the life and dangle
 'Cause you're gon' print to sing they lost us so soon
 Down at the peep show, 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 dizzy
 She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own
 Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
 I'm tryin' not to lose my head
 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
 My brother's doin' best on 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 that ring my phone
 And scare my wife when I'm not home
 Got a flunk 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
 Mid-range migraine, cancered membranes
 Sometimes I think I'm goin' insane, I swear I might hijack a plane
 Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
 I'm tryin' not to lose my head
 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
 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
 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've got to have a car 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 an outlaw, broke my last last jaw
 Hear them say: "You want some more?" Living on a see-saw
 Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
 I'm tryin' not to lose my head
 Say what?
 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
 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
 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 gon' do
 You'll 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 alleyway
 You'll admire all the number booktakers
 Those pencil pushers and the big moneymakers
 Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
 And you wanna grow up to be just like them
 Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
 Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers
 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 and void
 Walking 'round like you're pretty boy Floyd
 Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did
 God sent up for an eight year bid
 Now your man who mistook in you, and make time
 Spend the next two years as an undercover fag
 Being used and abused to serve like hell
 'Til one day you will find him dead in a cell
 It was plain to see that your life was lost
 'Cause you was cold and your body swung back and forth
 But now yeah, I sing the sad, sad song
 Of how you live so fast and die so young
 So don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
 I'm tryin' not to lose my head
 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
 Yo Mel, you see that girl there? (Yeah man)
 Yo, that sound like cowboy man, that's not cool
 Yo, wassup money? (Yo)
 Where's fieldin' and right here, man
 They upstairs coolin' out
 So what's up for the night, y'all?
 Yo, we could go down the field
 Let's go check out Juniper, man
 Hey yo, do you know that girl Betty? (Yeah man)
 Her mom's got robbed, man (what, not again?)
 I heard (when did this happen, when did this happen?)
 Alright freeze, don't nobody move nothin', y'all know what this is
 Get 'em up man (we're Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, man)
 Shut up, I don't wanna hear y'all now
 Officer, officer, what's the problem?
 You the problem
 Yo, you ain't gotta push him, man
 Get in the car, get in the- guys, I said get in the car