The Message

Hip hop music is a form of communication between hip hop artists and their audiences. Rap artists reflect the problems and terrible living conditions in black neighborhoods and express their anger and hopelessness through rap lyrics. Hip Hop music first arose from block parties in the South Bronx section of New York City in the early 1970s. Old school hip hop is the first kind of hip hop music to obtain popularity. A well-known example of old school hip hop is “The Message” (1982) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. According to the Wikipedia, the group was really famous for their masterful and talented raps during the old school rap era from 1970 to 1985 and “The Message” is one of the skillful raps that they are recognized for. “The Message” is a revolutionary hip hop song in the 1980s because it is one of the first rap song to address the terrifying problems in poor black neighborhoods in order to raise the audiences’ awareness of the hopeless situation that working class blacks are in.

There are three kinds of impulses in hip hop music that are common to all African American music forms. They are the gospel impulse, the blues impulse, and the jazz impulse. “The gospel impulse is the belief that life’s burdens can be transformed into hope, salvation, the promise of redemption” (Werner, 1). But the blue impulse is only about finding the strength to make it to another day. The difference between the gospel impulse and the blues impulse is that the gospel impulse not only seeks the energy to move on but also promises things will change for the better as opposed to the blues impulse’s resignation.

“The Message” contains both the gospel impulse and the blues impulse and that could be referred to as the spiritual blues impulse as defined by Cornel West. The song’s chorus, “Don’t push me ‘cuz I’m close to the edge” and “It makes me wonder how I keep from goin’ under”, clearly show that things are going really bad for the artist and he needs the strength to move on. That represents the typical blues impulse throughout the entire song. However, the song’s lyric, “A child is born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind” and “God is smilin’ on you but he’s frownin’ too”, show that even though things are going so bad, the artist still sees hope from God and thinks that things will change to be better. That reveals the gospel impulse.

“The Message” powerfully addresses the struggles, poverty, and hopelessness of living in the ghetto in the 1980s. The first verse of the lyric talks about “broken glass is everywhere”, “people pissing on the stairs”, and the artist having no choice but to put up with it. That addresses the unbearably bad living condition and the instability in the black community. The third verse of the lyrics talks about a crazy lady “living in a bag”, “eating out of garbage pails”, living on social security, and being a prostitute. This part of the lyric addresses the poverty of the black community. African Americans mentioned in the rap song have no shelter and food and possibly a sense of hopelessness. African American females living in poverty have to depend on social security and work on the street as prostitutes. The eighth verse of the song talks about how the artist’s son doesn’t want to go to school because his teacher is a jerk and his classmates are doing drugs. So he just wants to get a job as a street sweeper or to join the creeps. That reveals the destitute education system in black community. Since African American children could not attain an adequate education, they often drop out of schools and become involved in gangs. Moreover, the song also talks about the unemployment and crimes in the black community.

The song is so compelling that it presents stereotypes and the other side of the stereotypes to further emphasize the struggles that