New York, New York - Grandmaster Flash
At first, before we actually heard the song, we just looked at title which is “New York, New York”. From that title we know that the song is about New York, or at least set in New York. The song is by Grandmaster Flash who is known for generally singing reality rap, and it’s about the struggles of being poor. When we first listened to the song, the thing that instantly grabbed our attention and got stuck in our minds was the synthesizer and the lyrics of the chorus: “Too much, too many people, too much (aha-ha) Too much, too many people, too much, Raaah!” These elements are very much the hook of the song. The chorus describes the environment in New York very well - how the streets are always crowded, and how you sometimes can get enough of it all. The song itself is very typical 80’s oldschool hip-hop, which can’t really surprise anyone since Grandmaster Flash is seen as one of the first to bring hip-hop to the mainstream. The protagonist of the song is Grandmaster Flash himself, and the lyrics of the song is done like he’s telling speaking from his own point of view, he explains how he sees New York and how it makes him feel. The song shows that the speaker (Grandmaster Flash) has a lot of experience from the ghettoes of New York himself. As I said earlier the song is done in a very narrative way, from his own point of view. This is of course what gives us, the reader/listener, the feeling that the speaker draws from personal experiences. The title refers to New York City and its people, more precisely the poor, struggling, black people of New York City anno somewhere in the 1980’s, which is very typical Grandmaster Flash, so in this song the settings are very significant to the song, and the lyrics have a big role in describing it. The fact that the song handles a very serious subject makes a great contrast to the sound of the song, which is very typical 80’s hip hop. The composition of the song is built pretty much on a simple A/B-form, with long verses that are up to 32 lines, but with a few breaks like the stanza that consists of only “huh hee huh” and the the end of the song, which is just Grandmaster Flash talking over the music. |
New York New York, big city of dreams And everything in New York ain't always what it seems You might get fooled if you come from out of town But I'm down by law and I know my way around The whole song has a big focus on the poor peoples way to live, and how they aren’t noticed by the upper class in new york. One of the most characteristic of Grandmaster Flash is his way to tell the world that New York is much more than a city of dreams. In the song you can feel that this really is something that upset him. The general theme of the song is poverty and social criticism New York, in the sense that Grandmaster Flash thinks that New York is fake, that the fact it is the “city of dreams”, as he says in the chorus, is a facade that fools people from out of town. Grandmaster Flash introduces us to the real new york. He invites us into the life in the ghetto, this is reality rap at its bests. ‘’You might get fooled if you come from out of town But I’m down by law and i know my way around’’ This is theme for the whole song. How New York to the world is the city of dreams, but when you live there in the ghetto, you live a dangerous life. Again in the first chorus grandmaster flash tells us how there is a big difference between the rich and poor, and how new york to people from out of town is the dream place to be with castles in the sky (the skyscrapers). A castle in the sky, one mile high Built to shelter the rich and greedy Rows of eyes, disguised as windows Looking down on the poor and the needy Miles of people, marching up the avenue Doin’ what they gotta do, just to get by I'm living in the land of plenty and many But I'm damn sure poor and I don't know why Grandmaster Flash represents the poor people from the ghetto. He is rapping the most of the song, and the song is song from the view of the ghetto environment It is interesting to compare it to another song about New York, for example Frank Sinatras song of the same name. Not only are the two songs musically very, very different, one being swing, and the other being old school hip-hop, but also lyrically. Frank Sinatras song is about how great New York is, and how he desperately wants to be a part of it. While Grandmaster Flashs song is about the how he feels New York is a facade, covering the poverty and the pain of life in the ghettoes of New York. |