Featured In
Similar Songs
Credits
PERFORMING ARTISTS
Ali Shaheed Jones-Muhammad
DJ
Q-Tip
Vocals
The Last Poets
Sampled Artist
COMPOSITION & LYRICS
Kamaal Fareed
Songwriter
A Tribe Called Quest
Arranger
PRODUCTION & ENGINEERING
A Tribe Called Quest
Producer
Bob Power
Mixing Engineer
Tom Coyne
Mastering Engineer
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Back in the days when I was a teenager
Before I had status and before I had a pager
You could find the Abstract listening to hip-hop
My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop
I said, "Well, daddy, don't you know that things go in cycles?"
Way that Bobby Brown is just ampin' like Michael
It's all expected, things are for the looking
If you got the money, Quest is for the booking
Come on everybody, let's get with the fly modes
Still got room on the truckload of black boom
Listen to the rhyme, then get a mental picture
Of this black man through black woman fixture
Why do I say that? 'Cause I gotta speak the truth, man
Doing what we feel for the music is the proof, and
Planted on the ground, the act is so together
Bona fide strong, you need leverage to sever
The unit, yes, the unit, yes, the unit, called the jazz is
Delivering each year an LP filled with street goods
You can find it on the rack in your record store (Store)
If you get the record, say your thoughts are adored and appreciated
'Cause we're ever so glad we made it
We work hard, so we gotta thank God
Dishing out the plastic, do the dance till you spastic
If you diss, it gets drastic
Listen to the rhyme, 'cause it's time to make gravy
If it moves your booty, then shake, shake it, baby
All the way to Africa, A.K.A. The Motherland (Uh)
Stick out the left, then I'll ask for the other hand
That's the right hand, black man (Man)
Only if you was noted as my man (Man)
If I get the credit, then I think I deserve it
If you fake moves, don't fix your mouth to word it
Get in the zone of positivity, not negativity
'Cause we gotta strive for longevity
If you botch up, what's in that, ****? (What?)
A pair of Nikes, size ten-and-a-half (Come on, come on)
[Chorus]
Yeah, we gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make rhymes
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake the moves
[Verse 2]
We gotta be a winner all the time
Can't fall prey to a hip-hop crime
With the dope raps and dope tracks, we move blocks
From the fly girlies to the hardest of the rocks
Musically, the Quest is on the rise
We on these excursions, so you must realize
That continually, I pop my Zulu ****
If you don't like it, get off the Zulu tip
So what can you do in the times which exist?
You can't fake moves on your brother or your sis
But if you sis is a ****, brother is a jerk
Leave 'em both alone and continue with your work
Whatever it may be into this society
Everything is fair, 'least that's how it seems to me
You must be honest and true to the next
Don't be a phony and expect one not to flex
Especially if you rhyme, you have to live by the pen
Your man is your man, then treat him like your friend
All it is, is the code of the streets
So listen to the knowledge being dropped over beats
Beats that are hard, beats that are funky
They could get you hooked like a crackhead junkie
What you gotta do is know that the Tribe is in the sphere
That Abstract Poet, prominent like Shakespeare (And Edgar Allan Poe)
And don't stop (And Langston Hughes)
[Chorus]
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (Come on, come on)
We gotta make moves
Never, ever, ever could we fake the moves
[Outro]
Excursions, excursions
Excursions, excursions
Excursions, excursions
Excursions, excursions
Excursions, excursions
Written by: Kamaal Fareed