'The hardest thing to learn is the pelvic motion. Here's a description written in 1939 by a middle-class white man who went into a Black neighborhood in Philadelphia to try to learn the jitterbug: And giving suburban kids a new form of rebellion. 'Freaking'-a dance form which, it should clearly be acknowledged, is popular across races-has caused a lot of alarm for parental types in the 21st century.īut back in the inter-war era, it was the jitterbug, a dance that originated in Black parts of Philadelphia, that was giving parents alarm. No one ever knows for sure with the Abstract Poet-that's Q-Tip's nickname-but it sure is a cool line. It could also be a double entendre suggesting that A Tribe Called Quest are the new funk police, 'the fuzz' of Afrocentric music. 'Funk fuzz' probably refers to that form of distortion used in funk music that involves a 'fuzzbox,' an old-school instrument that creates a heavy, fuzzy sound, so distorted you almost can't hear the notes.

'Wipe your feet on the rhythm rug' might be an innocent metaphor for dancing or just a fun figure of speech, but it also suggests that the people being addressed are trampling their musical predecessors, wiping their muddy feet on the rhythms of the past. Over the years, many Black artists have pointed out the origins of rock and roll in Black communities and bemoaned the fact that by the 1960s, all the most popular rockers were white, with Black artists re-segregated into the broad 'R&B' category. In these lines, Q-Tip invokes rock and roll, the prodigal son of the blues that became a major site for white artists to imitate styles and beats that originated in Black communities. 'Can I Kick It?' is shaped around a mixing of samples from funk, soul, and rock and roll records from the 1970s, beginning and ending with a recognizable sample from Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side.' A Tribe Called Quest uses samples and wordplay to poke fun at Reed's appropriation of African-American music and culture.

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