Q-Tip

Released: November 30, 1999

Songwriter: Q-Tip J Dilla

Producer: J Dilla Q-Tip

[Hook]
Take you (higher)
Hit you (higher)
Make you (higher)
Hit you (higher)
Take you (higher)

[Verse 1]
I don't know what to make of this
Funny brothers on my nerves type ridiculous
I guess I really gotta do it
Put my game down
Hold the game, fucking blew it
Put my name down
And it seems you fucked up like a drug deal gone wrong
Made it out alive, you won't be that way long
Plus, you niggas is bush leaguers
And I bet y'all ain't get no bush neither
My hood dogs sing songs of rejection and pain
If we get sunshine, it's followed up by rain
Like to lay your chick down and get a blessing of brains
My man ski know you soft so he stressing your chain
We see the 'morrow through the shades of it might not come
Got to get it all now cause we might be done
Matrix, nigga (nigga...), you looking at The One
Fortified with a bonafide blastin' of a gun
We in the space for positionin'
Money and eliciting
Living out our lives while certain cats just lookin' in
We bewildered off the sacks and the green
Whether the bay, L.A., or Chicago or Queens
You better raise your game
They comin' at you high
You better raise your game
Don't ask no questions why, nigga
Then speak figuratively, I mean this shit
And speak literally, you in some shit

[Hook]

[Verse 2]
I dominate flows
I dominate shows
And, in the nightime our dominance grows
And, you could see from the posture I'm holding
Yo, I'm re-ing up while the rest is folding
A hip hop cat who's flown world wide and
Experience, adventures like poseidon
Bump heads with R&B chicks
Give 'em one hit joint and they lookin' for the remix
The shit that I spit like plain clothes days
Surprised you legit make your whole team freeze
I'm so irregular
Ear on the cellular
Let's celebrate cause your man is a hell of a
Fillin' the blank with a good thing to fill in
We hold it still cause we walkin' with steel Chins
Blindsided up in your own reality
While we in the heat of the moment, fuck morality
I really wanna see you rise to my joint ma (ma)
I'm lookin' straight don't see your eyes get my point ma (ma)
However you do it, I'm doing you back
Yo, don't misconstrue it, cause I'm screwing it back
Yo, rappers better count my presence as they down time
I gotta move around, don't have no fuck around time
So, you better just get on back
Just (incoherent scats) abst'act

[Hook]

[Interlude]
Uh, uh...higher......we gettin' higher
Yeah.....higher......
Yo, one more time

[Verse 3]
I don't know what to make of this
Funny brothers on my nerves type ridiculous
I guess I really gotta do it
Put my game down
Hold the game, fucking blew it
Put my name down
And it seems you fucked up like a drug deal gone wrong
Made it out alive, you won't be that way long
Plus, you niggas is bush leaguers
And I bet y'all ain't get no bush neither
And I bet y'all ain't gettin' no a-hoop either
(Ad libs)

Jonathan Davis (born April 10, 1970), aka Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, aka Q-Tip is a rapper and producer known as a member of A Tribe Called Quest, the hip-hop group responsible for helping popularize “jazz rap” and releasing classics such as “Bonita Applebum,” “Scenario,” and “Electric Relaxation.” After Tribe released their fifth album in 1998, Q-Tip launched his solo career, releasing three albums and popular singles such as “Vivrant Thing” and “Breathe and Stop” before reuniting with Tribe in 2016 to release the group’s final album following the death of his rhyme partner Phife Dawg.

Q-Tip also produced on a number of other projects during his time with Tribe, most notably for Queens representatives Nas and Mobb Deep on their classic albums Illmatic and The Infamous respectively. In 1995, he connected with producer Jay Dee aka J Dilla and Tribe’s DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad to form the production crew The Ummah, and the trio produced and remixed tracks for Busta Rhymes, Janet Jackson, and Michael Jackson. Tip also produced for Run-DMC, The Roots, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and he also worked with both Jay-Z and Kanye West on their Watch the Throne album.

Q-Tip currently has his own Abstract Radio show on Apple Music’s Beats 1 station.

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