In the Ghetto

"In the Ghetto" (originally titled "The Vicious Circle") is a song written by Mac Davis and made famous by Elvis Presley, who had a major comeback hit with it in 1969. It was released in 1969 as a 45 rpm single with "Any Day Now" as the flip side.

Song information

It is a narrative of generational poverty: a boy is born to a mother who already has more children than she can feed in the ghetto of Chicago. The boy grows up hungry, steals and fights, purchases a gun and steals a car, attempts to run, but is shot and killed just as his own child is born. The song implies that the newborn will meet the same fate, continuing the cycle of poverty and violence. The feeling of an inescapable circle is created by the structure of the song, with its simple, stark phrasing; by the repetition of the phrase "in the ghetto" as the close of every fourth line; and finally by the repetition of the first verse's "and his mama cries" just before the beginning and as the close of the last verse.

In the Ghetto (album)

In the Ghetto is a Reggae album by Maiko Zulu. The album was produced in 2001 with the hit song In The Ghetto.

All lyrics written by Maiko Zulu, all music composed by Maiko Zulu.

See also

In the Ghetto (disambiguation)

In the Ghetto is a song written by Mac Davis and popularized by Elvis Presley.

In the Ghetto may also refer to:

Ghetto (disambiguation)

Ghetto refers to a portion of a city in which members of a minority group live.

Ghetto may also refer to:

Drama

Music

Musicians

See also

The Ghetto (Donny Hathaway song)

"The Ghetto" is a socially conscious, mostly instrumental Jazz/Latin Jazz flavored anthem, released as the first single off American soul singer Donny Hathaway's debut album, Everything Is Everything, released as a single in 1970 on Atlantic Records.

The song was co-written by Hathaway and Leroy Hutson. The song was a 6 minute and 50 second workout which built upon a cinematic feel with its lengthy instrumental though it did feature vocal ad-libs from Hathaway, who played electric piano on the song, and constant chants of the song, which had a distinguished Afro-Cuban sound with congas.

The song also featured additional backgrounds, dialogue from what sound like men talking on a street corner and a baby crying before Hathaway ended the song with frenetic hand claps.

When originally released in 1970, the song became a modest charted single, peaking at number 87 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 23 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.

The song was also featured on Hathaway's revered Live album in which Hathaway and his musicians played a faster version of the song and later featured Hathaway getting the audience into it singing the final chorus.

The Ghetto (Too Short song)

"The Ghetto" is a 1990 single by Oakland rapper Too Short from his album Short Dog's in the House. The song was featured on the fictional radio station Radio Los Santos in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the animated television series Sabrina, the Animated Series. {citation needed} The instrumental was based on the Donny Hathaway song of the same name. The song discusses the struggles of living in the ghetto and the difficulty of getting out of the ghetto to live a more successful life. It also discusses issues such as drug abuse and racial pride. Too Short is mostly known for his raps relating to sex and women, however he did have some songs with a deeper message and serious economic and social commentary, "The Ghetto" being an example of this. The song charted at number one for several weeks, and has since sold over 2,785,000 copies.

On the cassette version of the album Short Dog's in the House, "The Ghetto" is extended to 5:58, which features a segment of one of the Last Poets' speeches "Die Nigga". After Too Short's 4th verse, he says "For all you brothas runnin' around here usin' that "n-word", lets the original rappers kick the last verse", for which then the segment comes in.