Focus... - Homage to Ali Shaheed lyrics

[Intro] Welcome to the "Homage" for Ali Shaheed Muhammad Remember sound with-out Focus is just noise Keep bouncin! [Von Pea] I be hatin s**a emcees, and s**a producers I never tried to make a beat until I heard The Ummah Five mics twice and that wasn't even they best Midnight maraudering women wear painted breast Every rapper at the time came through for the cover And the music was tougher, it influenced none other than Brothers that wasn't into hearing coke and Colombians Or the rage, Ali was a legend by my age Was awoken out of my sleep the day Tribe called quits Yeah, it was heartbreaking, but I knew it was more sh** When Phife wanted to bone Dawn from En Vouge Sha did something iller, started a group with her Yeah before Ms. Morgan, there was a Ms. Pearl And then he started rappin, son is out of this world A creator on the boards or the fader It's him like Betsy Boggs, let me tell you who's the raw, it's Shaheed [Hook] "The rave of the town to your foes and your friends" [Donwill] Oh my god, yes, oh my god Every time the Tribe dropped, that sh** was so damn hard Ali Shaheed, on the beat, on repeat, in my iPod It's all Tribe everything, all I'd ever need Whole damn discography is sh**ting on anything The fact he f**in with us still is hard to believe It ain't alleged he a legend, check the back of your records (Take a second, read the credits) Yeah yeah, but check his method Find the dope loop, flip it, ba** line filtered Kick drum kickin and he cuttin to the rhythm My peoples is instinctive, so my movement is love And we don't loot for loot, it's the ears we maraud Socially I'm not a name, Don-Don got game Said we need to do a jam and Focus... got bangs So it bump like a tumor, and shout out to The Ummah Thank you Jay Dee, Q-Tip, and Ali Shaheed [Hook] [Chaundon] On 11/9/93, that's when I decided that I would MC Marauding every ear I see in front of me (Chaun', you got fat) Yeah, I know it look pathetic Ali Shaheed Muhammad got me doin calisthenics And he said it ain't genetics, so I gotta put in work If I'mma be on award tours abroad going berzerk Ayo I ain't buggin' out, I'm payin' homage to a legend Who set the tone of every rhyme that Tip and Phife was checking My turn to kick it, where the I-T at? Like an oversize man, P, my rhyme be fat Thank Allah for Shaheed droppin needles on the record Makin nothin but the cla**ics, every night I would request it A Tribe Called Quest paved the way for me to rock I can be who I am and don't pretend who I'm not While he could still smell the roses I'mma keep payin homage Can I get whatever from Mr. Muhammad? [Hook]