DON'T PUSH ME 'CAUSE I'M CLOSE TO THE EDGE

1 luglio 1982

Ecco che dalle casse comincia a pompare una canzone, dal ritmo serrato e dal testo che fa centro, a cominciare dalle prime parole cantate nel microfono:

“It’s a jungle sometimes / It makes me wonder how I keep from going under”

“Qualche volta è come una giungla / Mi domando come poter evitare di sprofondare”.

Sono strofe che raccontano senza mezzi termini quello che succede nella contemporaneità di quegli anni a New York, che danno una visione inflessibile dei pericoli e delle ansietà, delle preoccupazioni e dei problemi della metropoli americana. Secondo il magazine “Rolling Stones”, che nel 2012 ha classificato “The Message” dei Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five come la miglior canzone hip hop di tutti i tempi, è la prima composizione a raccontare, con la ritmica e la forza vocale tipiche di questa corrente, la verità riguardo alla moderna vita in America. In circa sette minuti di musica vengono tracciate scene di lotta e decadenza: spaccio e utilizzo di droga, prostituzione, prigione e quasi la premonizione di una morte prematura.

La principale causa della catastrofica situazione è che “it’s all about money”: spacciatori e creatori di soldi, drogati che aspettano nei vicoli con la mazza da baseball, papponi, teppisti, arrampicatori sociali, ladri, giocatori d’azzardo… E sopravvivere è dura, si vive spesso di contraddizioni: si prova a scappare, a sottrarsi da questa malsana vita che fa divenire folli, ma nello stesso tempo sembra non esserci via d’uscita e l’unica soluzione appare quella di crescere come gli altri, come fuori legge. È questo l’avvertimento, dove ogni parola è pronunciata come un colpo di pistola:

"Don't push me, 'cause I'm close to the edge / I'm trying not to lose my head"

“Non spingermi, perché sono vicino al limite / Sto cercando di non perdere la testa”.

http://musicthatspeaks.tumblr.com/post/143437171275/the-message

 

La canzone, scritta e composta da Grandmaster Melle Mel e Ed ‘Duke Bootee’ Fletcher, a dispetto dei timori per le reazioni alla crudeltà delle taglienti parole, diventa subito un’acclamata hit, dal grande potenziale commerciale.

I Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five diventano portavoce della verità sociale che si trova sotto gli occhi di tutti, ma che in pochi scelgono di vedere e descrivere; come MCs diventano voce della comunità senza privilegi, e cominciano a muovere i primi passi come celebrità nel mondo della musica. Si impongono anche dal punto di vista stilistico, ispirando le generazioni a venire: giacche di pelle e bomber dai colori più disparati, eccentriche tutine aderenti, bandane tra i capelli, borchie sui polsi o al collo.

http://classichiphop.tumblr.com/post/10836433453/grandmaster-flash-and-the-furious-five

 

http://lysergicfunk.tumblr.com/post/116410031943

 

 

THE MESSAGE
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing 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
Cause a man with a tow truck repossessed my car

Don't push me ’cause 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 going under

Standing on the front stoop hanging out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady, living in a bag
Eating out of 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 watching 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

My brother's doing 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 standing on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
A mid-range migraine, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm going insane
I swear I might hijack a plane!

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
Or 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 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 ’cause it's crazy after dark
Keep my hand on my gun ’cause they got me on the run
I feel like a outlaw, broke my last glass jaw
Hear them say "You want some more?"
Living on a see-saw

God is smiling on you but he's frowning too
Because only God knows what you'll go through
You'll grow in the ghetto living 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
Driving big cars, spending 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 dropping outta 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
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
Being 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.

Fonti:

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=25993

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-50-greatest-hip-hop-songs-of-all-time-20121205/grandmaster-flash-and-the-furious-five-the-message-19691231