CORPORATE LADDER

[Intro: Illmac]
Yeah
Dirty Air Maxes on ya’ bitch’s couch
Uh-huh

[Verse: Illmac]
Ain’t like the hand I was dealt, so I drew some cards
I got love for where I grew up but we grew apart
We never let another’s decisions influence ours
Promise the moon and stars, all we got was wounds and scars
Walk in a label, let me talk to who’s in charge
Before you even see a dollar we recouping ours
A lot of y’all do anything to be a superstar
Try to tell ‘em it’s not what you do, it’s who you are
Whoever gassed ‘еm up got ‘em supercharged
But I’m wit’ all thе smoke, shit I’m posted at the hookah bar
Brush painting pictures like Juilliard school of arts
Toolie spark, have ‘em bloodbathing in a pool of sharks
They’ll never find a crack in my character
Before they called me the GOAT, I was the man in my area
I watched 8 Mile and laughed at the characters
I thought Lotto got robbed, and now Papa Doc’s Captain America, funny
I wrote this when I borrowed a car to drive
To go to a show, which goes to show all my borrowed time
End my night wit’ an agenda titled ‘Tomorrow’s Mine’
Writing goals down’s a roadmap for the conscious mind
Stay guarded and peep the snakes in the garden vines
When they change up, Ace of Base plays, I saw the sign
From the gutter the corporate ladder, start to climb
A lot of billion-dollar industries that start wit’ crime
So if I fall off I’m ready for the harsh decline
Shit ain’t let nobody pull my card when it was card declined
They say money changes people, nah that’s hearts and minds
Financial freedom just lets ‘em be who they are inside
Never flashing cash I can’t invest
They gotta pay me bands to be battle-rapped to death
Not the cats scrapping at events
The same cat that lose a fight one day, and then ran it back the next
Yeah I grew up from it, hardheaded, used to beef in class
If I let somebody beat my ass, pops’ll beat my ass
But if I think my life in danger then that thing’ll flash
And it won’t matter who swung first if I’m swinging last
But I’d rather let it go like these things’ll pass
Had to remind myself of that in the recent past
They blinded by their own weaknesses they see me as
Throw a stone and hide their hand like their secret stash
St. Johns, from a block we had to scrape for crumbs
Where they’ll shoot you in the back so it ain’t safe to run
Learned to shoot but pray I’ll never have to raise a gun
This mag only holds eight, but all it takes is one
Lil’ boy don’t raise your voice if you can’t make her come
I’m wit’ my Trini bitch drinking Jamaican rum
And if you playing games then I ain’t the one
But don’t let that confuse you like I ain’t the one
I was taught if you work hard your day’ll come and luck is when opportunity meets preparation huh?
All I hear’s complaints from lazy bums
I’m tryna be every successful person that they player-hate and won
This a game of intelligence, they just playing dumb
Crack whip and fragrance stung, nostrils in my face is numb
Desperado, strap in a guitar case he brung
Shoot you for a band join a band then he play the drums
I’m Dirty Harry saying ‘try making my day’
Turn ya’ block into Pompeii, have SWAT making blockades
Ain’t wit’ the blasé-blasé
Got fam having ups and downs wit’ the rock, like Beyoncé and Kanye
From, shopping at Target, mobbing a Hyundai
To taking shots at the bar of the finest agave
Bumping Shady and Conway, grinding Friday to Friday
At home on the road, feel like the highway’s my driveway
Riding, squad coming through, bust a money move
Fuck a bitch doggystyle bumping Snoop, then I chuck a deuce
Pouring screw, mind’s coming loose
Anyone that knows me know I ain’t killed nobody but down to try something new
Coldest killers, heart frozen no emotions in us
Keep enemies at the closest distance, don’t really trust ‘em
Told them bitches there’s people on this earth I would kill for
Others I would kill for nothing, know the difference
Give me the run-around I cut ‘em out at once I go above ‘em now
What’s a plug without his plugs?
Murder rats, stuff their mouth with crumbs
Grab a pill, bust it out, crush it down to dust
Backhand a ho like Mac and roll at the courts, cussing out the judge
Hundred pounds busting out the trunk
Portland police run around shutting down the clubs
No good cops come around to trust
So we deal our own justice out, fuck around wit’ us
Only time we count on five O’s when the money counter does a hundred thousand plus
That’s word to Richie Rich
I’m tryna get these chips ‘til I’m counting on six O’s, like a 60s Crip
That’s a million in my feelings yelling Nipsey RIP
Penmanship pistol grip, pump dump extended clips
More drive than dealerships
Whip the whip Indigenous city slicker wit’ a pretty bitch, throwing hissy fits
Yeah I never lose, I either win or learn a lesson
Then improve, I give credit where credit’s due
If you blame everybody for failures except for you
You gotta give credit to somebody else for your successes too
But what’s life if you take away the challenges?
It’s not the situation, it’s what you take away and balance it
I embraced the hardship and made the pain my catalyst
Just remember nobody ever blamed they way to happiness, Ill

[Outro: *Alan Watts sample*]
“Praise and blame. We play the game that says, ‘that’s not my fault, that’s your fault’. And so we go around apportioning faults to everybody. ‘Cause if we’re going to apportion praise for what good things people do, you can’t make praise mean anything unless you also go around blaming. Praise and blame, go together. Supposing everybody was acting in a praiseworthy way, and we praised everybody for everything, they’d get tired of it. They wouldn’t even notice it anymore. So, so long as you’re going to get a kick out of being praised, you’ve got to go around blaming too. It’s very simple. But if you see the folly in that, that praising and blaming are just, haha, creating each other, then you don’t praise and you don’t blame. You just dig the whole thing.”