original text pronunciation

95.7 11.05

[Verse 1-1: Q-Tip]

  • [00:11.05] Back in the days when I was a teenager / Be-
  • [00:13.55] fore I had status and before I had a pager
  • [00:16.06] You could find the Abstract listening to hip hop / My
  • [00:18.57] pops used to say, it reminded him of Bebop / I

[Verse 1-2: Q-Tip]

  • [00:21.08] said, “Well, daddy don't you know that things go in cycles
  • [00:23.58] Way that Bobby Brown is just amping like Michael”
  • [00:26.09] It's all expected, things are for the looking
  • [00:28.6] If you got the money, Quest is for the booking

[Verse 1-3: Q-Tip]

  • [00:31.11] Come on everybody, let's get with the fly mode
  • [00:33.62] Still got room on the truckload of black boom
  • [00:36.12] Listen to the rhymes, then get a mental picture
  • [00:38.63] Of this black man, and black woman fixture

[Verse 1-4: Q-Tip]

  • [00:41.14] Why do I say that, cos I gotta speak the truth, man
  • [00:43.65] Doing what we feel for the music is the proof and
  • [00:46.15] Planted on the ground, the act is so together
  • [00:48.66] Bona fide strong, you need leverage to sever / The
    • bona fide = (adv) 真実に、真正に

[Verse 1-5: Q-Tip]

  • [00:51.17] unit, yes the unit, yes the unit called the jazz is
  • [00:53.68] Delivering each year an LP filled with street goods
  • [00:56.19] You can find it on your rack in your record store
  • [00:58.69] If you get the record, say your thoughts are adored / And

[Verse 1-6: Q-Tip]

  • [01:01.2] appreciated, cos we're ever so glad we
  • [01:03.71] made it / We work hard, so we gotta thank God
  • [01:06.22] Dishing out the plastic, do the dance till you're spastic
    • dish out = 食べ物を盛りつける、分配する
    • spastic = けいれん性の
  • [01:08.73] If you diss… it gets drastic

[Verse 1-7: Q-Tip]

  • [01:11.23] Listen to the rhyme, cos it's time to make gravy
    • make gravy = (v) Erotic self stimulation, resulting in a large explosion of fluid at or around the penis. Often, a large quantity of alcohol is involved. (Urban Dictionary: make gravy)
      • もともとは肉汁みたいな意味っぽい
  • [01:13.74] If it moves your booty, then shake, shake it baby
  • [01:16.25] All the way to Africa aka The Motherland
    • booty = ケツ
  • [01:18.76] Stick out the left, then I'll ask for the other hand

[Verse 1-8: Q-Tip]

[Verse 1-9: Q-Tip]

  • [01:31.3] Get in the zone of positivity, not nega-
  • [01:33.8] tivity / Cos we gotta strive for longevity
    • strive = 努力する
    • longevity = 長生き、長寿
  • [01:36.31] If you botch up, what's in that [ass] / (What?)
    • botch = ～をやり損なう
  • [01:38.82] A pair of Nikes size ten-and-a-half

[Hook]

[Interlude]

[Verse 2-1: Q-Tip]

  • [02:21.45] We gotta be a winner all the time / Can't fall
  • [02:23.96] prey to a hip hop crime / With the dope
    • prey = 犠牲者
    • fall = (たぶんこの用法)〔+補語〕〈…の状態・関係に〉なる，陥る. fall sick [ill] 病気になる.
  • [02:26.47] raps and dope tracks we move blocks / From the fly
  • [02:28.98] girlies to the hardest of the rocks / Musically the

[Verse 2-2: Q-Tip]

  • [02:31.48] Quest, is on the rise / We on these ex-
  • [02:33.99] cursions so you must realize / That continua-
  • [02:36.5] lly, I pop my Zulu [shit] / If you don't
  • [02:39.01] like it, get off the Zulu tip / So what can you

[Verse 2-3: Q-Tip]

  • [02:41.52] do in the times which exist / You can't fake
  • [02:44.02] moves on your brother or your sis / But if your sis is a
  • [02:46.53] [bitch], brother is a jerk / Leave 'em both
  • [02:49.04] alone and continue with your work / Whatever it may

[Verse 2-4: Q-Tip]

  • [02:51.55] be in today's society / Everything is
  • [02:54.05] fair, least that's how it seems to me / You must be
  • [02:56.56] honest and true to the next / Don't be
  • [02:59.07] phony and expect one not to flex / Especially if you
    • flex = 収縮する

[Verse 2-5: Q-Tip]

  • [03:01.58] rhyme, you have to live by the pen / Your man is your
  • [03:04.09] man, then treat him like your friend / All it
  • [03:06.59] is, is the code of the streets / So listen to the
  • [03:09.1] knowledge being dropped over beats / Beats that are

[Verse 2-6: Q-Tip]

  • [03:11.61] hard, beats that are funky / They could get you
  • [03:14.12] hooked like a crackhead junkie / What you gotta
  • [03:16.62] do is know the Tribe is in the sphere / The Abstract
  • [03:19.13] Poet, prominent like Shakespeare / (Or Edgar Allan

Hook

  • [03:21.64] Poe or Langston Hughes) (Come on, come on) We gotta make moves
  • [03:24.15] Never, ever, ever could we fake moves
  • [03:26.66] (Come on, come on) We gotta make moves
  • [03:29.16] Never, ever, ever could we fake moves
  • [03:31.67] (Come on, come on) We gotta make moves
  • [03:34.18] Never, ever, ever could we fake moves
  • [03:36.69] (Come on, come on) We gotta make moves
  • [03:39.2] Never, ever, ever could we fake moves

[Outro]

  • [03:41.7] Time is running out on black power advocates in the day
  • [03:44.21] And white thigh supporters at night Every time /
  • [03:46.72] you see them they're chasing some white woman / With their tongue hanging
  • [03:49.23] out / Time is running and passing, passing
  • [03:51.73] and running / Running and passing, passing and running…