Song · A Tribe Called Quest
“I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” by A Tribe Called Quest
From the album People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990)
“I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” by A Tribe Called Quest appears on 6 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 2010 and 2023. It was first released in 1990 on the album People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Its best result is #81 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #6,607 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (TribeCalledQuestVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" was A Tribe Called Quest's debut single, put out by Jive in 1990 and taken from their first album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, and it announced a crew more interested in wit than bluster. Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad wrote it, and the main hook is lifted from the Chambers Brothers' "Funky", a loose, lazy groove for a shaggy-dog tale.
Q-Tip narrates an ill-fated road trip in precise, deadpan detail. Rolling Stone later put it among the group's 20 essential songs, noting he was barely out of his teens and rapping about a place he knew mostly as a running gag on Sanford and Son. The video keeps up the storytelling, with the whole thing narrated and the group landing in a police station, where Q-Tip starts to spin his yarn.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 310 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Ultimate Road Trip Songs (2010) | 885 |
| 2020 | 1463 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2021 | 879 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s | 908 |
| 2022 | 859 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s | 900 |
| 2023 | 504 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s | 893 |
| 2023 | 81 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
Also listed as: I Left My Wallet in El Segundo.
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