Melle Mel’s verses continue to cover topics of poverty and homelessness due to mental illness with bars creating images of a “Crazy lady, livin’ in a bag eatin’ outta garbage pails” makes clear that Melle Mel was on the front lines of poverty in the 1970s. The hook almost sings as a warning to people unaware of the realities of street life, pleading people to not “push” you off the edge in a means to preserve your own mental sanity. Mel continues on the hook, “Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge, I’m trying not to lose my head,” which encompasses the song’s central message: life in the inner city is hard and the stresses constantly build up. Then, on the verse is Melle Mel depicting the struggles of a poor black man who is on his last ounce of hope after repeating a cycle of despair desperate to escape. The intro delivered by Duke Bootee sets the scene, “It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.” Comparing life in the inner city Bronx to life in a literal jungle reiterates the hardships faced by the black community, struggling for survival and contemplating the will and self-determination that urge for survival takes.
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