Mean Streets portrays the world of organized crime in NYC. We are sucked into the world of these gangsters and it becomes apparent that money is a central theme in their life. Friends, enemies are decided based on money and the crimes committed are somehow related to money. It’s interesting though that this film does not romanticize nor condemn their lifestyle. It just takes us into their day to day life and shows it to us specifically through Charlie and following his life.

However, Ghostface Killah raps about a specific crime.  We get a glimpse into criminal life in NYC but in Harlem – a very different culture than in Mean Streets. Furthermore, the crime he raps about  seems quite dramatic and out of the ordinary whereas in Mean Streets their criminal lives are portrayed in a no  big deal kind of way.  This  is probably because in a short song it is impossible to comprehensively portray the crime scene in Harlem so Ghostface chose to rap about a specific event which taken out of context seems very intense. In conclusion, since Mean Steets is a film and “Shakey Dog” is a short rap , the realities perceived when watching/listening to them are very different though both relate to crime.