Can I Kick It?

When the royalties were counted, A Tribe Called Quest came away with nothing. Phife Dawg later explained that because "Can I Kick It?" borrowed from Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side", Reed claimed the profits from the single, which Jive Records had released in October 1990 as the third single from the group's debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. The four members had recorded the track in 1989, when they were still teenagers, and built it from a stack of samples that also included Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sergei Prokofiev and Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band.

The call and response chorus became one of the group's signature moments, with Q-Tip asking the title question and the chorus answering in the affirmative. Phife Dawg used his verse to address David Dinkins, New York City's first African-American mayor, with the line "Mr. Dinkins, would you please be my mayor?" The song had been recorded before Dinkins was elected to office.

Jim Swaffield directed the music video, filmed in New York City on a film set, a park under the Williamsburg Bridge and a construction site. Participants kicked the word "it" and threw drumsticks onto drums, while a flying record player played the Reed sample. The video also features De La Soul, and the audio throughout is the Spirit Mix, which uses a different beat. A DJ Premier and Samara Cyn cover followed in July 2026 for a Major League Soccer promotion.