Joe Budden - Who? Part 2 lyrics

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 n***as 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 n***as 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 motherf**ers really live!" Or, was it when Lauryn Hill dropped a cla**ic? So did the Fugees, till Wyclef tapped it Songs don't do it no more, the sh**'s shocking Seen it when "Lean Back" had the whole world rocking Now it's "f** your bars!" if your hook is fly So we look at Crooked I with a crooked eye Dope a** rappers ain't seeing no dough If everything's commercial, where the f** 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 n***as at the majors, they literally threw up To some, it ain't fun no more You know it's f**ed up when DMC don't talk to Run no more Too many egos, like we ain't one no more sh**'s predictable, n***as ain't stunned no more We starting to see sh** 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 sh** 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 d**h, 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 k**ing this sh**? Is it a group effort? Are we alive and well or barely surviving? Is it R&B's fault? Them n***as 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 bullsh** album So they share albums with each other Was it Master P with them ugly a** album covers? Or when we started appearing in the news? Timberland said they didn't want black n***as 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 sh** 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 f**ing with them trends Our stupid a**es wasted a hundred grand on sh** 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 n***as 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 f**ing rich Supahead caked off by just s**ing 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 n***as want to sit around and complain about I rather an*lyze, 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 a** n***as Grabbed the remote, tired of looking at n***as But that let a n***a 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 n***a+ 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 s** 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 n***as with sk**? Seen it happen when D-12 put out +Purple Pills+ And while the whole hood laughed, them n***as sold a mil Some of us ain't prepared for something so lucrative I just heard Yung Berg say some stupid sh** 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 f** up the spirit With negative remarks about everybody's lyrics? Spend all this time dissing us n***a you 95-years old, motherf**er shouldn't be a listener Lost Jam Master, who was +Tougher Than Leather+ Or did it start when Treach started f**ing 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 f**ed up when producers found a way to cheat? Signing unknown n***as to start making their beats If you sell your own sh** 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 sh** with our own eyes? Rico Suave, Hammer, and Vanilla Ice Everybody want in the game so in return You got label executives f**ing their interns And anybody looking at that new Vibe bracket Should see that they don't know a thing about this rap sh** 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 Ka** But f** 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 f** 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 f**ed 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 sh** 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 n***a rich, with n***a money? While j**s keep laughin, "Look at these n***a 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 k**ed it?" tell them "we did"