Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five / Grandmaster Melle Mel The Message Lyrics

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 doing fast on my mother's T.V.
Says she watches to 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 b__ 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
Midrange, migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm going insane, I swear I might hijack a plane!

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 was born, with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he's frownin 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
Dogpitchers, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them
Smugglers, scrambles, 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 f__
Being used and abused, and served like hell
Till one day you was find 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

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