Both Martin Scorsese’s  Mean Streets and Ghostface Killah’s “Shakey Dog” provide images of the lives of members involved in organize crime. They have some similarities and some differences. Mean Streets gives a broad view of mafia life, while “Shakey Dog” describes a more specific incident, an armed robbery by the gang.

Both the mafia in Mean Streets and the gang in “Shakey Dog” exhibit extreme loyalty to each other. In Mean Streets, Charlie is very loyal to his family, collecting money for his uncle, and even his girlfriend’s family, protecting her cousin and his friend Johnny. In “Shakey Dog”, Ghostface Killah describes the teamwork of the robbery and how him and Frank worked together.

Another similarity between the mafia and the gang are their usages of violence to get what they want. In Mean Streets, many of Charlie’s collections turn violent, sometimes containing gunshots. In “Shakey Dog” there is also a lot of violence and gunshots, especially done by Frank, who “put two holes in the doorman’s Sassoon” and “show the skinny dude.”

The movie and song diverge in their characterizations of the mafia members and gang members. Scorsese provides a fuller image of the mafia members, showing how they are violent and flawed, but also have consciences, especially Charlie. Charlie is very conflicted about his lifestyle because he is religious and wants to atone for his sins, but does not want to change his actions. He tries to make up for his sins a little bit by protecting Johnny, but is still restless. On the otherhand, Ghostface Killah does not make any attempt to redeem the violent robbers in the eyes of the listeners. He even seems proud of their ruthlessness. This may be due to the nature of a movie, versus the nature a song, since a movie is significantly longer than a song. It may also be due to the artists’ purposes. Scorsese intends to give a holistic view of the mafia, showing the good and bad parts of it; Ghostface Killah, intends to show one incident and maybe even intimidate others so they know to watch out for him and his friends.