A Tribe Called Quest - Excursions lyrics

Back in the days when I was a teenager
Before I had status and before I had a pager
You could find the Abstract
Listenin' to hip-hop
My pops used to say, it reminded him of Bebop
I said, "Well, Daddy
Don't you know that things go in cycles?
Way that Bobby Brown is
Just amping like Michael"
It's all expected
Things are for the lookin'
If you got the money
Quest is for the bookin' come on everybody
Let's get with the fly mode
Still got room on the truckload of black boom
Listen to the rhymes
Then get a mental picture
Of this black man, and black woman fixture
Why do I say that? 'Cause
I gotta speak the truth, man
Doin' 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 your
Rack in your record 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
Dishin' out the plastic
Do the dance till you're 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, AKA the Motherland
Stick out the left
Then I'll ask for the other hand
That's the right hand, Black man
Only if you are noted as my 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

(What?) A pair of Nikes, size ten-and-a half

We gotta make moves (words)
Never, ever, ever could we fake moves
(come on, come on)
We gotta make moves (words)
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)

"Time, time is a ship on a merciless sea
Drifting toward an abyss of nothingness
Until it can be recharted
For it's own destiny
Time is an inanimate object paying and paying
And paying for no justification for belief
Time is dancing
Boogalooing-away all memories of past "

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

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

Leave 'em both alone and
Continue with your work
Whatever it may be in today's society
Everything is fair
Least that's how it seems to me
You must be honest and true to the next
Don't be 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 the
Tribe is in the sphere
The Abstract Poet, prominent like Shakespeare
(Or Edgar Allan Poe, or Langston Hughes, or)

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 moves
(come on, come on)

" time is running out on
Black power advocates in
The day and white thighed supporters at night
Every time you see them
They're chasin' some white woman with
Their tongue hangin' out
Time is running and passing, passing
And running, running and passing
Passing and running " excursions