An Introduction to America’s Music

CHAPTER 20 | HIP-HOP 511

timing section text comments

0:00 introduction After 2 bars of drum machine, 16 bars of

synthesized texture establish a groove that

is sustained throughout the song. In lieu of

harmonic motion, a rising and falling pentatonic

melody creates a sense of question-and-answer.

0:43 chorus

(partial)

It’s like a jungle

sometimes...

0:52 vamp Staccato repeated chords create an expectant

mood for the beginning of the rap, ushered in by

the sound of breaking glass.

1:02 verse 1 Broken glass

everywhere...

Melle Mel describes intolerable ghetto

conditions.

1:21 chorus Don’t push me... The emphatic delivery creates a triple-meter

polyrhythm against the beat.

1:30 It’s like a jungle... Only one statement.

1:35 verse 2 Standing on the front

stoop...

The story of a woman who descends from dancer

to prostitute to street person.

1:59 chorus Don’t push me...

2:09 It’s like a jungle... Two statements.

2:18 verse 3 My brother’s doing bad on

my mother’s TV...

A lighter story about too much television

progressively darkens with references to debt,

drug addiction, and insanity.

2:47 chorus Don’t push me...

2:57 It’s like a jungle... Two statements.

3:06 vamp 8 bars of the repeated chords, marking the

halfway point.

songwriters: Sylvia Robinson, Ed Fletcher,

and Melvin Glover

date: 1982

performers: Duke Bootee (Ed Fletcher) and

Melle Mel (Melvin Glover)

genre: rap

meter: duple

form: verse and chorus, with vamps and

interlude

Listening Guide 20.2

“The Message” GRANDMASTER FLASH AND

CD 4.7 THE FURIOUS FIVE

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• use of synthesizer and drum machine


• rhythmic, intoned speech (rapping)
  instead of singing


• socially conscious lyrics about ills of
  ghetto life

(continued)

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