No Pigeons is the best-known single by Sporty Thievz. It came out in 1998 as a reply to TLC’s hit No Scrubs, and it remains the song the group is most often connected with.

The concept

Where No Scrubs was sung from a woman’s point of view, No Pigeons answered from the perspective of men. The group was already known for frank, humorous songs about relationships, so the idea suited them. King Kirk wrote that the term “pigeon” was slang he used in Yonkers, and that the name made the concept straightforward.

Setting the record straight

King Kirk’s own account says that stories of a legal dispute with TLC were only a rumour. He added that the two camps had at one stage discussed touring together. This is the artist’s recollection and has not been independently verified.

The remix

For mixtapes and street DJs, the group also made an underground remix that fewer people heard. It was listed among the free tracks on the group’s former site, as described on the free tracks page.

Where it sits in the catalogue

Why it endures

Answer records have a long tradition in popular music, and this one stands out because the reply is itself a character study, built like a short film. That is the approach the group adopted for the whole of Street Cinema. The single’s title also supplied imagery used across the group’s artwork and merchandise, including the pigeon-in-a-prohibition-sign cover and the No Birdz T-shirt designs described on the merchandise page.

No Pigeons belongs to the 1998 album Street Cinema and to the later Sporty Classics Greatest Hits set. See the group page for more songs, and the King Kirk profile for how the storytelling style began.