Joe Budden - Who (Part 2) lyrics

rate me

It's a business; we got less fans and more critics

Maybe we at a cross

Canibus made one of the dopest diss records but some still say he lost

And I ain't believe my ears when niggas tried to tell me

That KRS-One had a rap beef with Nelly

If rap was alive, we'd be trying to be the best rappers ever

Not the best rapper alive

But you won't get accepted at all if you ain't street tough

Onyx was the hardest 'til Sticky got beat up

Now 'I'm A Thug' is how I got to behave

If I want to be paid, if I want to see praise

You know something's wrong when niggas are getting shot

And you got to sit and wonder if the whole thing's staged

It ain't real no more

Or did we just expand on our audience, maybe we appeal to more

Or, do we just think ya'll are just getting dumber?

We tried to make getting older getting younger

Did we lose our hunger? Something's got to give

Did we outgrow ourselves? Is hip-hop for kids?

If it is, they turn on MTV Cribs

And think, "That's where these motherfuckers really live! "

Or, was it when Lauryn Hill dropped a classic?

So did the Fugees, till Wyclef tapped it

Songs don't do it no more, the shit's shocking

Seen it when "Lean Back" had the whole world rocking

Now it's "Fuck your bars! " if your hook is fly

So we look at Crooked I with a crooked eye

Dope ass rappers ain't seeing no dough

If everything's commercial, where the fuck is the show?

But anybody making a dime, see, I'm a wish well

Still we took a big L losing Big L

Or was it when YouTube came in the game?

Now nobodys from their living room can make a name

Or when Indies like Koch came and blew up

Niggas at the majors, they literally threw up

To some, it ain't fun no more

You know it's fucked up when DMC don't talk to Run no more

Too many egos, like we ain't one no more

Shit's predictable, niggas ain't stunned no more

We starting to see shit we never seen before

At one point, we even had the magazines at war

Or, was it street DVD's like Smack

Showed you just how stupid your favorite rapper would act?

This shit get lifeless

When MTV made a list of the hottest and ignored the nicest

Changed the whole steelo

I mean the averaged fan never heard of Goodie Mob or a Cee Lo

But they heard of Gnarls Barkley

And Dr. Carter still say we got a heartbeat

I ain't going to lie, I was scared to death, straight up

I started to hear rumors of an OutKast breakup

I was like, "That ain't true, it sounds desperate"

Then started to see Big Boi and 3K separate

Had periods where it was drier than a desert

Are we all killing this shit? Is it a group effort?

Are we alive and well or barely surviving?

Is it R&B's fault? Them niggas is thriving

Then a lot of people go and blame LimeWire

I don't think it's downloading dog, the line's tired

Did the fans just get tired of the outcome?

One dope single and a bullshit album

So they share albums with each other

Was it Master P with them ugly ass album covers?

Or when we started appearing in the news?

Timberland said they didn't want black niggas wearing they boots

I mean, I know it got foggy, at least blurry

When the label dude got knocked out by Keith Murray

Or was it when we became obsessed with the brand names?

Had the kids trying to buy shit they can't name

And some think the evidence is ample

Did it start when Puff took advantage of the sample?

Is it all watered down with no fire?

If you had enough money you can buy a ghostwriter

Or the Diamond District, Jacob the Jeweler

Had to buy his watch to be looked at as cooler

Fucking with them trends

Our stupid asses wasted a hundred grand on shit that ain't even in

Look, is the game now as bad as it's ever been?

It's not ringtones, just the songs that they represent

I heard all of them

The sad part I wouldn't recognize most these niggas if I saw them

I can't explain it, I don't know what to tell you

Now going Gold is look at as a failure

Maybe old heads in charge just weren't able

DJ's is spinning now with no turntable

Maybe the fans are just bored of us

Or maybe there ain't enough room for all of us

It's like even a friendship will stop at a point

Mike Jones went platinum off of Slim Thug's joint

But there's so many ways to get fucking rich

Supahead caked off by just sucking dick

Did we sell out just to get in demand more?

Did we go against everything we used to stand for?

Both are likely

There's two sides to a coin, who you rolling with: Souljah Boy or Ice-T?

Some niggas want to sit around and complain about

I rather analyze, seek how it came about

If we could rewind the world

We wouldn't have to watch Flava Flav try to find his girl

Look, today it's all about marketing and promo

I remember VH1 was just for old folks

But no ma'am

If I ain't know better, I would think that mix show is now programmed

We let the power of the dollar annihilate us

Now the size of our chain going to validate us

It's too simple; they can't think we're really deep

I just heard Chris Brown on the A Millie beat

Seen a video, it's called looking ass niggas

Grabbed the remote, tired of looking at niggas

But that let a nigga know if we ain't dead

Then we just half alive, maybe brain dead

Did it start when Capone left Nore?

Nah, he went to jail, that's a whole different story

Or, maybe something's really wrong with our ears

Obie Trice got dropped, so much for +Cheers+

Female emcees, they don't ever hit the target

Somebody said they saw Amil working in a Target

The sad part is we already lost Remy

Or did we go wrong when E-v-e got skinny?

What's up with Jacki-O, Rah Digga? That I can't figure

And Trina ain't been the same since +Nan Nigga+

I know it had to do something to his heart beat

When Lady of Rage started doing Steve Harvey

I know we caught a little trauma

Somewhere between Yo Yo, Boss, and Lil Mama

Lot of females found another way to extort

Most of our video models have turned escort

Do anything to see dough

So they'll exchange sex with an artist or director for a lead role

Or should we get back to basics?

Where's the Rakims or the Master Aces?

The Big Daddy Kanes, or did we never recover

From Dre not being on the side of Ed Lover

Or when rap dude started signing their friends

Instead of going out and trying to find niggas with skill?

Seen it happen when D-12 put out +Purple Pills+

And while the whole hood laughed, them niggas sold a mil

Some of us ain't prepared for something so lucrative

I just heard Yung Berg say some stupid shit

Like we almost caught one in the torso

When each Bone Thugs member took they own crossroads

Some disagree, some got to see the same

Or maybe Hip-Hop died on Aailyah's plane

If it relocated where did it move to?

I still Love H.E.R. the way Common used to

Or did Bill O' Reilly come fuck up the spirit

With negative remarks about everybody's lyrics?

Spend all this time dissing us

Nigga you 95-years old, motherfucker shouldn't be a listener

Lost Jam Master, who was +Tougher Than Leather+

Or did it start when Treach started fucking Pepa?

As our jeans got tighter and our tee's got longer

I'm trying to figure which age group do we belong to

Or did we all go astray the second Dr. Dre left N.W.A.?

I mean in my opinion we was on easy street

When he was beefing with Eazy-E

Or did we get fucked up when producers found a way to cheat?

Signing unknown niggas to start making their beats

If you sell your own shit it got to go for cheap

Put my name on it so the price increase

Or, is it cause everybody's so self-centered?

Is that the reason Hip Hop itself ain't centered?

Or have we already seen this shit with our own eyes?

Rico Suave, Hammer, and Vanilla Ice

Everybody want in the game so in return

You got label executives fucking their interns

And anybody looking at that new Vibe bracket

Should see that they don't know a thing about this rap shit

Or maybe we should of stopped being proud

When there was no more Rawkus and no more Loud

Tried to get conscious around Vote or Die

So they made it look like all our votes was lies

As the years go on it's like we keep getting more voids

We got lost when we lost one of the Lost Boys

I knew we was impersonating a fraud

When Kay-Slay smacked my man at the awards

Regardless, it's our fault as artists

Running with entourages who act like they ain't never left the projects

Who do we want to target

Will they put an Uncle Murda CD in a Wal-Mart or a Target

We got the nerve to not want to hear Ras Kass

But fuck with V.I.C. "Get Silly" and that trash

I felt ashamed

When J-Kwon told me he ain't like Raekwon cause he stole his name

Was back when everybody in the club got +Tipsy+

Now every contract got to be 360

So fuck eating better scrape the plate

Now every beat got to at least have an 808

Did the lights get dim when we first heard Mims

And said "Another New York rapper on the South tip"?

Is it overcrowded?

They keep saying, "If it's so fucked up, then do something about it"

I doubt it, there's just one thing they don't understand

That job is way bigger then just one man

Or maybe all of these pleas that it's deceased

Is false and it's right where it needs to be?

Maybe we built on something that'll last forever

See 'Face and Geto Boys just got back together

Maybe no one can stop us, even other genre's now jock us

We even doing songs with the rockers

How is that the feeling?

Kanye's +Amazing+, Wayne just sold a Million

We closer to a ceiling

How are we in a coma

When we the only business you can excel without a diploma?

Technology changed, made everything simple

MySpace is now a dude's bio slash demo

Aside from this rap we generating more money

We took it global and penetrated other countries

So let's celebrate, sip some Cris

Some more shit we embrace just to end up dissed

Go and buy the bar out so we can all get bent

Let's go and cop a bunch of cars just to still pay rent

Or here's another bright idea to entertain

Let's go and put our face on the bottom of a chain

Are some of us just nigga rich, with nigga money?

While jews keep laughin, "Look at these nigga dummies"

Should Hip Hop be a stepping stool

Till we find another role we can step into?

Some of us doing movies as a matter of fact

And some never stopped to plan life after rap

I mean, as a whole did we stop moving further

Around the time Snoop Dogg went on trial for murder?

Or was it Scarface creating these clonies?

30 years later everybody's still Tony

Maybe anybody complaining is deranged

Can you expect something to grow and not change?

We're socially accepted, deviated our old route

To simplify the term we all sold out

I think I figured out who's to blame

Started out Obama, ended up McCain

So we Kurt Cobained ourself and we're defeated

So next time they ask "who killed it? " tell them "we did"