Shabazz (We’ve Got)
a moan for A Tribe Called Quest
and for Malcolm X
and for Charles Mingus
(00:00)
(00:18 - Q-Tip)
I am a resident
of the alien part
of the firmament
born in the ghetto
between planets
and yet
you can still consider me
heaven-sent
(00:36 - Q-Tip)
spied on
by the
Celestial Policemen
who call
me asteroid
call me
too small
to avoid
the discrimin-
ation
employed
to track
my kind
in the void
(00:54 - Phife Dawg)
in a universe full
of infinite wonder
they don’t give me a name
just a number
I blunder
among major and minor
collisions
bound by the laws
of physics
asking the elders
is there something more
and the reply comes:
just
this
(1:12 - Q-Tip)
imprisoned
by gravity
I will never be
a master-
piece
I read
every surface
like a surah
I self-educate
in between
the times I bleed
dust
I self-educate
because I can’t trust
Jupiter and his moons
to teach me
(1:28 - Phife Dawg)
and in the chaos
of rocks
on rocks
on rocks
on rocks
leaving welts
leaving bruises
I am shook loose
from the belt
I am heaving
towards where the Big Blue is
I’ve graduated the school
of hard knocks
(1:46 - Q-Tip)
this might be my first moment
of peace
submission
to the vast reach
of space
I need a moment to appre-
ciate
am I finally free?
is this my reward for faith?
(2:04 - Q-Tip)
I am out floating
alone
rolling
moaning
a solitary stone
still
it makes me sad you don’t have this
view of the stars and planets
a clarity found only
in such blackness
(2:22 - Q-Tip)
Earth
I’m picking up your broadcasts
which propose
to stick a probe
nine feet in my back
and I’ve gotta say
whoa
it’s not a knife
but if you wanted to learn
my present and past
didn’t you think to just
ask
you don’t trust me
so I don’t trust you
and we
we’re at an impasse
across these millions of miles
in a staring contest
I hear you tell yourself
that beings like me
we’re destined to crash
(3:32 - Phife Dawg)
I hear you measuring my diameter
classifying me granular
avoiding the vernacular
as if an objective examiner
but it’s not just you
wondering what I do
and I’ve got the right
to describe me, too
an admittedly violent manner
but only in the matter
of how I’ve been relegated
to the sky’s scrapyard
you treat me
hostilely
you’d make me
a self-fulling
prophecy
(4:41 - Q-Tip)
this
pilgrimage
makes me
feel timeless
makes me
yearn
for a redress
make for
two minds
I possess
a split soul
anticipating
incandesce
I pause
and consider
all this
(5:16 Phife Dawg)
I am righteous
I am hateful
I am right
I am faithful
I am the right hand
I am baleful
I am enlightened
I am a tale full
of varied morals
(5:50 - Q-Tip)
I am on an excursion
exploring which version
of myself
will arrive at your doorstep:
cool bop or burning?
of which me
are you deserving?
(6:25 - Phife Dawg)
I reach the atmosphere
I am the ifrit in the tower
descending
your five hundred megaton reckoning
but I choose
instead of murder-su-
icide to sing
I will be the most beautiful
shooting star you’ve ever seen
I am the wish on the future
to change what we both have been
(7:17 - Q-Tip)
I decide
I disperse
over the whole of the Earth
I am become breath
I am become breath
I am become breath
I am become breath
I am become breath
I am become breath
I am become breath
I am become breath
I am become breath
(7:58 - Q-Tip)
deployer of words
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JEFF STUMPO’s hip hop works have appeared or are forthcoming in places including Rattle, The Rumpus, ANMLY, HAD, Maintenant, and Sunspot Lit. His debut full-length poetry collection, these are the waterfalls in my head, won the 2026 Granite State Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Yas Press (U of New Hampshire). He’s a regular at Slam Free or Die.