People pissin' 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
'Cuz a man with a tow truck repossessed my car
Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Uh huh ha ha ha
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Standin' on the front stoop hangin' out the window
Watchin' all the cars go by roarin' as the breezes blow
Crazy lady livin' in a bag
Eatin' outta 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 watchin' 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
Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Uh huh ha ha ha
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 doin' 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 standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around broke my sacroiliac
A mid-range migraine cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm goin' insane
I swear I might hijack a plane
Don't push me 'cuz 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 goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
My son said Daddy I don't wanna go to school
'Cuz 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
'Cuz 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 'cuz it's crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun 'cuz they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say 'You want some more '
Livin' on a see-saw
Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Say what
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
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 is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smilin' on you but he's frownin' too
Because only God knows what you'll go through
You'll grow in the ghetto livin' 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
Drivin' big cars spendin' 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 droppin' outta high school
Now you're unemployed all non-void
Walkin' 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
Bein' 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
Don't push me 'cuz I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
Uh huh huh huh huh
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Huh uh huh huh huh huh
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
Huh uh huh huh huh huh
歌曲鑑賞
《The Message》結構和形式相對單調，但開創了說唱里反映黑人生活現狀、傳遞社會信息的先河。20世紀80年代，嘻哈歌曲都集中在歡鬧的派對氣氛上，很少觸及街頭生活的冷酷現實。《The Message》首次觸及了街頭生活的冷酷現實，把它比喻成“弱肉強食”的叢林。這首歌的製作也絲毫不遜色於歌詞，電子音樂、R&B等元素的融入幾乎吸引了每個聽眾的耳朵。
單曲LP唱片
《The Message》部分歌詞里使用了尾韻和對韻的技巧，使得歌曲流暢而富有美感，刻畫出貧民區惡劣的生活條件和黑人青年的心理掙扎。此外，部分歌詞還用到了頭韻的技巧，使得整首說唱既活潑又流暢，反映出在黑人貧民區成長的青年不容樂觀的就業前景。在結構層面上，說唱歌手們在歌中反覆吟唱：“lt's like a jungle sometimes/lt makes me wonder how l keep from goin’underlt's like a jungle sometimes/lt makes me wonder how l keep from goin’under.”這兩句貫穿整首歌曲，反覆出現，反映了嘻哈青年對城市生活的困惑和迷茫。
《The Message》是“說唱樂”的“分水嶺”作品，它在很大範圍內所產生的影響，使“說唱樂”從此不再是被人們忽略的小種類音樂，而且關於黑人和少數民族的社會評論和報導也開始更加直接和正面。
歌曲MV
《The Message》MV的主要內容是Grandmaster Flash和The Furious Five在美國城市的街頭說唱，同時穿插了城市裡的點點滴滴，在展現城市繁華的同時，也記錄了一些流露街頭無家可歸的人。MV末尾，警察無緣無故的將在街頭聚集的Melle Mel等人抓到了車上。
