Artist: Focus... f/ Chaundon, Tanya Morgan
Album:  Pay Homage
Song:   Homage to Ali Shaheed
Typed by: kirenamloh@msn.com

[Intro] {in style of "Midnight Marauders Tour Guide"}
Wel-come to.. the "Homage" for Ali Shaheed Muhammad
Remember... sound with-out Focus... is just.. noise.
Keep bouncin!

[Von Pea]
Yeah... Ay Focus... man
It's what it is man... ye-yeah!
TM... Aiyyo, listen...

I be hatin sucka emcees, and sucka producers
I never tried to make a beat until I heard The Ummah
Five mics twice and that wasn't even they best
+Midnight Marauderin+ 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 hearin 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 shit
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

[Chorus: cuts and scratches]
"The rave of the town to your foes and your friends" <- Q-Tip

[Donwill]
+Oh My God+, yes, +Oh My God+!
Every time the Tribe dropped, that shit 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 shittin on anything
The fact he fuckin 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, bass 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

[Chorus]

[Chaundon]
On 11/9/93, that's when I decided that I would MC
+Maraudin+ 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'ma be on +Award Tours+ abroad goin berzerk
Aiyyo I ain't +Buggin' Out+, I'm payin' homage to a legend
Who set the tone of every +Rhime+ that Tip and Phife was +Checkin+
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 classics, 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'ma keep payin homage
Can I get whatever from +Mr. Muhammad+?

[Chorus]