Phife Dawg does some of the most incredible lyric/rhyme/ballad work in this song. I love the things that Tribe came up with. Besides being a great story, the rhymes are all really really good and Tribe has an incredible talent at making the lyrical structure and the backbeat operate as one unit. The beat doesn't simply pump away in the back. See the beginning of the second verse: "Just last week my girl was stressing me/Now her best friend be undressing me." It's the first time in the entire song that Phife reduces his syllables to fit simplistically to match the beat. Otherwise he's all over the place. Hard to believe that this song was done so early in A Tribe Called Quest's career, as they already have it together, in some ways better than anything on Beats, Rhymes and Life.
Phife Dawg does some of the most incredible lyric/rhyme/ballad work in this song. I love the things that Tribe came up with. Besides being a great story, the rhymes are all really really good and Tribe has an incredible talent at making the lyrical structure and the backbeat operate as one unit. The beat doesn't simply pump away in the back. See the beginning of the second verse: "Just last week my girl was stressing me/Now her best friend be undressing me." It's the first time in the entire song that Phife reduces his syllables to fit simplistically to match the beat. Otherwise he's all over the place. Hard to believe that this song was done so early in A Tribe Called Quest's career, as they already have it together, in some ways better than anything on Beats, Rhymes and Life.