Released: September 29, 1998

Featuring: Busta Rhymes Redman

Songwriter: Q-Tip Phife Dawg Redman Busta Rhymes Ali Shaheed Muhammad J Dilla

Producer: The Ummah

[Intro: Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, & Redman]
Phiiiiiife Dawg (Yo Kamaal)
Reggie Noble (Up in ya!)
Yo Busta Bus, yo it's time to step up

[Verse 1: Busta Rhymes]
You know I plas-ter, the little bas-tard and mastered
The real way you slap the bitchest niggas backwards
Hah! Uh-oh, aiyyo, whenever Busta Rhymes say so (Mhm!)
When we move, yes (Mhm!)
Sometimes we lay low (Mhm!), aiyyo (Yo)
Big up my little nigga Pedro
Make you after the L like turkey, cheese and to-ma-to ('-to)
Fuck is that? Especially for niggas that will pay no
Attention to instructions, like they still wan' disobey y'all
Wonder Twin powers activate real quick
So that I could grow about five feet more with an extra dick
One dick to hold in my hand when I'm rockin the mic
The extra dick to blow up the pussy for the rest of the night
Then I return with more lyrics like a bunch of rough niggas
They tough niggas that snuff niggas (Hah)
I know the club got enough niggas (Huh!)
To slap your face, expert
Who the next jerk to make me exert heat?
Fuck it, let me network!

[Interlude: Q-Tip, Redman, & Busta Rhymes]
Ha-hah! (Yo Reggie Noble) Feel me!
Yo, Bus-a-Bus (What up?)
Yo Phife Dawg, yo, it's time to step up

[Verse 2: Phife Dawg & Q-Tip]
Yo what the fuck, ungh!
Check it here, peep the four-man transaction (Action)
Phife Diggy-Dawg, we on some Todd Shaw macking (Macking)
You know my stee', there's no time for relaxin (Relaxing)
Yo, word to Reggie (Phife Dawg) yo, it's time for some action
Girl swing yo' ass, I can feel you climaxin (Climaxin)
Don't even front, you know you wanna make it happen (Make it happen)
Yo Busta Bus, do you hear Violator faxing? (Mad faxing)
Eighty Gs for one show (Eighty Gs yo), that's satisfaction (Satisfaction)
Now which emcee feel like he fucking with this here? (This here)
Word to Queens, I keep shit hot like a knish, yeah ('Nish yeah!)
Malik is back, I'm here to make you look foolish (Foolish)
My roughest niggas than the afro on Coolidge (Afro, Coolidge)
Remember White Shadow? My click stay sharper than an arrow (C'mon)
Plus in Trinidad, I'm treated like the Mighty Sparrow (Uh-huh)
Freestyling son, like there was no tomorrow
(Fuck it up, nigga, fuck it up)
Hence the reason why your bitch ass would love to follow (What?)
Two different toasters in your chest will make your shit hollow
How's about them apples, oh is it too hard to swallow?
Push your wig back, word to Big Moot and Bolo
Billy Razor, Fudge Lover, on down to Sha and Litro (Love Movement)
Yo Bootsy takes this mic from this fool see, make him run it
Five-foot invasion son, you can't run from it

[Interlude: Busta Rhymes, Phife Dawg, & Redman]
Yo Reggie Noble! (Blaoowww)
(Yo, Phife Diggy!) What up?
Yo, yo, Kamaal it's your time to step up!

[Verse 3: Q-Tip]
Check it out, the original, shit, we makin it
Takin it, to the extremes, we breakin it
When we get, inside a zone then you feel that it's good
All you jelly cats stop marinatin my wood
Niggas, grab the mic with loads of malarky
I bring the knowledge and wield the anarchy
Put it on pooh-butts who's unsettled with ignorance
Give the last sentence with poignance and diligence
Eighteen wheelin through niggas like truckers
Breakin ankles, put it on like we at the ruckus
Guaranteein that shorty can move it around
In the place that gets you hot but leaves you here on the ground
Contenders don't you even think to challenge the crown
Of these brothers who so elequently hold the beat down
Fuck the rigamarole, we vyin for the control
We the musical equation of the whole entire nation

[Interlude: Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, & Busta Rhymes]
Yo Phife Dawg! (Yes Kamaal)
Bus-a-Bus (What up?)
Yo Reggie Noble yo it's time to step up

[Verse 4: Redman]
Yo, yo! I'm just a ill nigga who don't got it all upstairs
Riding dick, get the balls til they come in pairs
Oh yeah, throw the goggles on these engineers
Cause it might, get kinda wet when I spit this here
Yo, I'm six-foot-one with a big ass gun
To carry it you'd need a waistline the size of Big Pun
But I move crowds without a gun
Like if... (The New York State Lottery is ninety-nine million!!)
Hah-hah, yo, when it's time to flow, I suprise and blow
Five hundred thousand units off a dime a trow
Forty below, I'm thorough when it's time to throw
The caboose, I'm even hard to be touched by a masseuse
Whoo-whoo! Funk Doc gets the money
And best believe I went through more trees than Sonny
Me, Kamaal, Bus-a-Bus, Phife Dawg
Shittin, pussy niggas get Lysol! Heh heh heh heh

A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest is to Hip Hop what Pink Floyd is to Rock ‘n’ Roll. With humble beginnings in Queens, New York, the group blossomed from the friendship of Jonathan Davis (Q-Tip) and Malik Taylor (Phife Dawg). Along with acts like Jungle Brothers and De La Soul—their comrades in the Native Tongues rap collective—they vitalized East Coast Hip Hop, setting the stage for the rise of mainstream and alternative hip hop alike.

Their style, a synthesis of avant-garde production and authentic lyricism, paved the way for the conscious and jazz rap movements. Alongside other upbeat artists like Digable Planets, Us3, and Guru, ATCQ opened up the world of afrocentrism to a wider audience.

MEMBERS