DP.com Poetry Minute…

warsaw ghetto

Dedicated to all the ghetto children across the world…

A child is born with no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
God is smiling on you but he’s frowning too
Because only God knows what you’ll go through
You’ll grow up in the ghetto, live as second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of 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, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them
Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers even panhandlers
You say: “I’m cool, and I’m no fool!”
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you’re unemployed, all non-void
Walking around like you’re Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you’ve 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 an undercover fag
Being used and abused and serve like hell
‘Til one day you was found hung dead in a cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
So now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young

-Melvin Glover

19 Responses to “DP.com Poetry Minute…”

  1. dmitry aka brooklyn jew says:

    DP is dis from Grandmaster flash’s- the message?

  2. Lion XL says:

    ^^^ Melvin Glover aka Melle Mel aka Muscle Simmons aka the Original Hip Hop Lyricist

  3. VEe! says:

    Reading these lyrics out loud made me really appreciate how dope these lyrics are.

  4. Jaislayer says:

    That right there, is the truth.

  5. the_dallas says:

    VeE,
    I was reading Amadeo’s TWits and he quoted a few lines which made me TWit the entire verse.

    Reading this verse is like studying beautiful, sad, glorious poetry.

  6. $yk! says:

    True meaning of classic. Man is still living this script.

  7. Tony Grands says:

    I was striking poses until I stopped reading.

  8. getthesenets says:

    pre-rakim era this might have been the best verse ever written in hip hop

    respect the architects….

    the Melle verse is SO HARD……that when I saw the video again about 10 years ago..I totally forgot about the other dude rapping on it…

    ==================================

    Yo…WHERE were you when you FIRST heard this verse?

    I was playing basketball in West Side Park….dude with the big radio(no raheem)…..played it and we stopped briefly..and went back to our game….

  9. $yk! says:

    ^ My cuzzo came over with the JVC 2-sided boom box with the shoulder strap. We went to the record store on B’way by McD’s and Graham Ave to cop the vinyl, we were gonna make a mix tape that night, heard it there. We copped the Message, the UFO and Impeach the President white labels to spin also, EZ Wider and 2 40’s for the job at hand. adidas suits w/shell toe stylee. Lovely days I tell ya.

  10. Tony Grands says:

    “Yo…WHERE were you when you FIRST heard this verse”

    ^^I was listening to KDAY, late as shit one night/morning.

    The next day, I COULD NOT stop singing the hook.

    “Don’t push me ‘cuz I’m close to the, edge, I’m try-in not to lose my head,
    A huh huh, huh, huh, it’s like a jungle some times, makes me wonda how I keep from going under…”

    One of the few videos from back then I still will stop & watch. While I vogue in real time.

  11. BIGNAT says:

    if it came out before september i was still in my mom’s belly hahahaha

  12. BIGNAT says:

    september of 82 of course

  13. RTHSTN says:

    Dope post…. Most artist’s today do not have a message. They need to take notes and stop tryin to come up with a new dance

  14. quimby says:

    Incredible still after all these years. On a similar note, I saw Raheim from the Furious Five yesterday at Lord Finesse X Rakim show. Dude kicked some bars acapulco & was nice with it. Dude said he was 47. Him & Doug E Fresh must drink from the same fountain of youth.

  15. Lion XL says:

    ^^^ dude said acupulco…LOL!!!

  16. BIGNAT says:

    acupulco mwhahahah

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