“Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest

"Can I Kick It?" comes off A Tribe Called Quest's 1990 debut, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, and it was cut back in 1989, when the group were all 18 or 19. It's a crate-digger's collage built on a sample of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side", with bits of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Prokofiev and Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band folded in, and a call-and-response hook that turns every crowd into a chorus.

That Reed sample came at a price: Phife Dawg said the group never made a dime off the single, with Reed claiming the profits, and Reed shares the writing credit with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Jim Swaffield shot the video in New York City, with De La Soul dropping in, and NME later ranked it 90th among the best songs of the '90s.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.