* vocal interludes sampled from "Time is Running Out" by The Last Poets  [Q-Tip]  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  The way that Bobby Brown is just ampin like Michael  Its 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 modes  Still got room on the truck, load the back boom  Listen to the rhyme, to get a mental picture  of this black man, through black woman victim  Why do I say that, cuz 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  Bonafied strong, you need leverage to sever  The unit, yes, the unit, yes, the unit called the jazz is  deliberatley cheered LP filled with streeet goods  You can find it on the rack in your record store (store)  If you get the record, then 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 spastic  If you dis... it gets drastic  Listen to the rhymes, cuz its 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'll think I deserve it   If you fake moves, don't fix your mouth to word it  Get in the zone of positivity, not negativity  Cuz we gotta strive for longevity  If you botch up, what's in that (ass) (what?)  A pair of Nikes, size ten-and-a-half (come on, come on)  Chorus:  We gotta make moves  Never, ever, ever could we fake moves (come on, come on) (4X)  "Time.. time is a ship on a merciless sea   Drifting toward an average of nothingness   Until it can be retarded for it's own destiny   TIME is an inanimate object   Praying and praying and praying for ??   Time is DANCING, moving lingering all memories of past.."  -> The Last Poets  You gotta be a winner all the time  Can't fall prey to a hip hop crime  With the dope raps and dope tracks for you for 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 could you do in the times which exist  You can't fake moves on your brother or your sis  But if your sis is a (bitch), brother is a jerk  Leave 'em both alone and continue with your work  Whatever it may be in today's society  Everything is fair, at least that 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 bein dropped over beats  Beats that are hard, beats that are funky  It could get you hooked like a crackhead junkie  What you gotta do to is know that the Tribe is in the sphere  The Abstract Poet, prominent like Shakespeare  Chorus  Edgar Allan Poe, it don't stop (uh!)  "Time is running out on black power Africans today   and whites blacks and reporters at night   Everytime you see them ?? with their tongues hangin out   Time is running and past and passing and running   Running and past and passing and running (excursions)"