Oh

Yo, pretty ladies around the world
Got a weird thing to show you
So tell all the boys and girls
Tell your brother, your sister
And your mama too
'Cause we're about to throw down
And you'll know just what to do
Wave your hands in the air like you don't care
Glide by the people as they start to look and stare
Do your dance, do your dance
Do your dance quick, mama
Come on, baby, tell me what's the word

Oh, word up
Everybody say when you hear the call
You've got to get it underway
Word up, it's the code word
No matter where you say it
You'll know that you'll be heard

Now all you sucker DJs
Who think you're fly
There's got to be a reason
And we know the reason why
You try to put on those Airs and you act real cool
But you got to realize that you're acting like fools
Give us music, we can use it
We need to dance
We don't have the time for psychological romance
No romance, no romance
No romance for me, mama
Come on, baby, tell me what's the word

Oh, word up
Everybody say when you hear the call
You've got to get it underway, ow

Oh
Dial "L" for low

Come on, all you people sing
W-O-R-D up, W-O-R-D up
W-O-R-D up, W-O-R-D up (woo)

W-O-R-D up
W-O-R-D up


Lyrics submitted by AbFab

Word Up Lyrics as written by Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Word Up song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

15 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment

    Amazingly fun song. Love it.

    rawr_hillaryon May 30, 2008   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Hey Jealousy
Gin Blossoms
My Interpretation on this is that the narrator in the song used to be with a girl that he loved so much and but during that time he was one of the cool guys at school that lived freely(partying and alcohol, etc.) and he wasn't really able to get over his former glory. on the other hand, his girlfriend/ex matured, and started thinking about their future and got a job/career. and since he became much like an alcoholic bum of a sort, he got jealous with the girl having to work all the time having no time for him so didn't felt like "he mattered to her". somewhere in there, they broke up. so one night he went to her place all drunk so he's got this "too drunk to drive" excuse to stay. Trying to somehow patch things between them by telling her that she was "the best he ever had" and that he's really sorry for having "blew up" their relationship years ago, or else they'd still be together. On the second verse he was trying to tell her that all he really want is to be with her and that he has somehow improved that if she'd take him back, he'd no longer drink and sleep around and if she'll accept that he's still in the process of picking himself up and not to expect a great make over, then she might not be let down. The chorus is his way of telling her that they can still do what they used to find exiting or an adrenaline rush and that by doing so, even if the past is gone, they might still be able to pick-up some of the pieces of their past and replace their past failures with a renewed love to take it's place. The last part he says, "she took my heart", means he never got over her and probably never will. The line "there's only one thing I couldn't start", means that he couldn't actually start the conversation with her because he was too drunk to think straight and all of these words were just running inside his head and these were all the things he wanted to tell her.
Album art
Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in "There was a time you opened up every doorway you didn't mind if everything wasn't your way" then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else, "Don't pull away that goes against what you told me I look in your eyes I realize what you've sold me is love in a vacuum" so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it, "I think you've changed but you insist that that's not true" quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum", "You look so strange, so distant that you're hardly you Now I can see how you have been acting different You say it's me but I know that it isn't it's love in a vacuum" but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines "You will be lonely if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have, "Love in a vacuum and that's not enough love in a vacuum You will be lonely you'll be the only one who feels this way You will be lonely if you leave me alone You will be lonely you'll be the only one who feels this way it's just not enough" you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment, "You will be lonely you'll be the only one who feels this way it's just not enough and just wait you will be lonely Love in a vacuum Love in a vacuum and that's not enough Love in a vacuum". 'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song. Quintessential Aimee Mann.
Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines: "Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet" So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other: "I had all and then most of you" Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart "Some and now none of you" Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship. This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Album art
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.