2 Steps Forward

Hook:
I take 2 steps forward, Five steps back
Lately I been lazy like the way Mase rappin'
Or lazy like the way Johnny Cash used to sing
Maybe lately that's the reason cash ain't be comin' in

Verse 1:
No excuses I'm learning how to lose
Because that's the only way to fine-tune and make improvements
Critics keep on chipping in their two cents
But they got their record for free, shoot!
Nowadays, music's like sewage, nasty and polluted
Oversaturated I don't want nothin' to do with it
So when they ask the question who my influence is
I go back to the nineties and tell em Brand Nubian
Gave radio a shot, but got fooled again
All it is is a bunch of hootin' hollerin' hooligans
Crying like babies, acting like their two again
Pardon my rudeness, but you ruin my mood
I don't just do this for food, there's more to it than the music
So I got to be intuitive to use this gift
It's like fluid when it oozes
But writers block like gridlock will leave you clueless
My ambitions to use and not abuse
Get me without grooves it's like mechanic's without their toolkits
(Can't work without my tools man)

Hook

Verse 2:
Industry tried to play me, left me with some roses
Must've thought I was stupider than the three stooges
They tried to hang me, I slipped out of their nooses
So I pulled a Chris Brown, I'm throwing up my deuces
Downsized like Rice to Couscous
Put that lightweight, bullet proof truth in the booth
Cooped up for months trying to spit fire they can ride to
Go up to that drive-thru, tell 'em it's that new B. Reith dude
True, can I even get more clear
Make it *boom* so hard shake your rear view mirror
Unless you got car speakers like the ones I own
Had to pan them to the left, because the right one was blown
You're riding on chrome, I'm riding on plastic
Two of them got cracked, becaus I hit a curb distracted
But ain't no big deal
May not have a nice whip, but I still got whip appeal

Hook

Bridge:
(Instrumental)
2 steps forward, 5 steps back
2 steps forward, 5 steps back
2 steps forward, 5 steps back
5 steps back, 5 steps back (Alright, Alright, Alright)

Verse 3:
I raps for a living, perhaps I've been given
A gift that is envied by Mathematicians
But are we that different, we both work in labs
While they dissect formulas, I dissect rhythms
But I don't get paid much, that'll keep you humble son
Radio won't play me much, that's causing me troublesome
People wanna neigh say, play me like a dummy dumb
Tried to shut me down, so I Dikembe Mitumbo'd them
Backhanded right back at 'em like Wimbledon
That's for trying to tell me what I shouldn't have or should've done
Anyways, my time it'll come
I can smell it from a mile away like Cinnabon