["","","","Never rock the mic with the panty hose","All fucked up and I wanna, so I'm gonna","Oh, when you can't, you won't and you don't stop","","I strap on my ear goggles and I'm ready to go","Like Ma Bell, I've got the ill communications","I want to offer my love and respect to the end","Hurricane will cross fade on your ass and bust your ear drums","Because","I'm on like Dr. John, yea Mr. Zu Zu","Top notch is my stock on the soap box","And I've got mad hits like I was Rod Crew","Pull up at the function and you know I'm Kojak","Because you can't, you won't and you don't stop","Take a piece of the pie, why not, I'm not quitting","","The disrespect to women has got to be through","I'm a newlywed, oh, not a divorcee","Ad rock, come and rock the sure shot","I've got a hole in my head and there's no one to fix it","Listen everybody 'cause I'm shifting gears, I'm","Well, I'm, I'm that kid in the corner","Oh, 'cause you can't, you won't and you don't","On rock the microphone and then I'm gone","To all the mothers and sisters and the wives and friends","I want to say a little something that's long overdue","You know you can't, you won't and you don't stop","I'm like Lee Perry, I'm very","I've got to straighten my thoughts, I'm thinking too much sick shit","","Because you can't, you won't and you don't stop","Timing like a clock when I rock the hip hop","Fresh like Dougie when I set my specs and","Because you can't, you won't and you don't stop","But I'm working harder than ever and you could call it macking","","","Because you can't, you won't and you don't stop","I've got more action than my man John Woo","I've got more rhymes than I've got grey hairs","To all the party people that are on my bozak","","Beause you can't, you won't and you don't stop","I keep it on and on, it's never quitting time and","","And everything I do is funky like Lee Dorsey","","To send my rhymes out to all nations","MCA come and rock the sure shot","Well, you say I'm twenty something and I should be slacking","I'm still listening to wax, I'm not using the CD","So that's a lot because I've got my share","Everyone just takes and takes, takes, takes, takes","Tonin' and rockin' the sure shot","","'Cause at the boards is the man they call the Mario","","Think I'm gonna change up my style just to fit in","I've got the savior faire with the unique rhyme and","I use a bullshit mic that's made out of plastic","'Cause you can't, you won't and you don't","","I've got to step back, I've got to contemplate","","Because","Strictly hand held is the style I go","If you want a doo the rhyme then come see me","Beause you can't, you won't and you don't stop","I've got the brand new doo-doo guaranteed like yoo hoo","I'm like Vaughn Bode, I'm a cheech wizard","Never quitting, so won't you listen","On the microphone, I come correct","Mike D, come on and rock the sure shot","So I'm supposed to sit upon my couch, watching my T.V","I keep my underwear up with a piece of elastic","Oh yes, indeed, it's fun time","Oh, when you can't, you won't and you don't stop","Well, it's a taking off the Pelham, one, two, three","","","Oh, when you can't, you won't and you don't stop"]
Performed by: Beastie Boys Written by: Mario Caldato Jr.; Michael Diamond; Wendell T. Fite; Adam Horovitz; Jeremy Steig; Adam Nathaniel Yauch
Credits: Caldato Jr., Mario (Songwriter); Diamond, Michael (Songwriter); Fite, Wendell T. (Songwriter); Horovitz, Adam (Songwriter); Steig, Jeremy (Songwriter); Yauch, Adam Nathaniel (Songwriter); BROOKLYN DUST MUSIC (Publisher); DESHON MUSIC INC (Publisher); EMI APRIL MUSIC INC. (Publisher); GRAND ROYAL MUSIC (Publisher); POLYGRAM INT. PUBL., INC. (Publisher)
"Sure Shot" is a single from the Beastie Boys' 1994 album Ill Communication. The single was released a few days after the release of the album, on May 31st, 1994 (see 1994 in music). The CD and cassette maxi single (with a total of 7 tracks) features three remixes of the title track, one by Large Professor, one by Mike Nardone and Dred Scott, and a third by The Prunes.
It also features 3 new songs, "Mullet Head" (a punk rock style song; the title is a reference to the much-ridiculed mullet hair-style), "Son Of Neck Bone" (an instrumental track) and "The Vibes", a more traditional rap song in the manner of "Sure Shot".
The driving force of the track "Sure Shot" is the fluteriff (sampled from Jeremy Steig's "Howlin' for Judy") and hardcore beat. In the booklet for the Beastie Boys Anthology, The Sounds of Science (1999), Adrock writes of the "Sure Shot":
I like this cut a lot. Just straight up hip hop. Like a lot of our songs, it's arranged like a hardcore [punk] song. Mathematical. Intro - verse - chorus - verse - chorus - break - chorus - verse - chorus - end. Nice. The flute line is from the elusive Jeremy Steig. Off the SP1200 it sounds nice.
The Beastie Boys had laid down most of the song, and had put together many of the lyrics, but they were missing a chorus (or hook) for the song. They called DJ Hurricane over the phone to see if he had any ideas, and out of his sleep, over the phone, Hurricane improvised the chorus[1] which would become:
"Because you can't, you won't, and you don't stop
When you can't, you won't, and you don't stop
You know you can't, you won't, and you don't stop
[name of a Beastie Boy] .... come and rock the Sure Shot"
"Sure Shot" was one of the songs deemed inappropriate to play by Clear Channel Communications in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks; the refrain "Sure Shot" in the song was considered inappropriate, since it could recall the passenger planes flying into the WTC.
