[Verse] Brother, when you been broke Back against the rope And tryna hang onto hope This the last ounce of it 2 steps back Ain’t the way to go What frustration feel like UK Emmy White Chris don’t know When you overqualified Talking KPIs Got the Business tryna grow And they tryna stunt you Man, they used to hunt you Now they playin wit ya dough Tryna tell me bout myself Strength and weaknesses Got me soundin like a fool Stealing ideas Using ebonics When they present They slideshows Product removed from culture Leave a boardroom Of vultures tryna call me bro No [Chorus] R-E S-P E-C T Me B-O S-S U-P Boss up R-E S-P E-C T Me P-A Y U-P Pay up [Verse 2] Maybe if I code switched They’d promote me To CMO and sumo shit Maybe if I played nice And Unclench my fist I just might be mo rich Make yo business cool Bring the profits through Then them layoffs come hit Targeting the black folks And the brown folks As the kink in the ship They Lie ‘bout decisions and data ‘Scuse my grammar Forget you, haters Who ignorant to systemic Glass ceilings And wanna repeat the chapters Funny how the corporate life Is like corpse life How can a brother Really live life When they either gon End your life Or idea The only way to make things right [Chorus] R-E S-P E-C T Me B-O S-S U-P Boss up R-E S-P E-C T Me P-A Y U-P Pay up [Verse 3] Hustler, entrepreneur Businessman Show you what the difference is Husslas survive By any means Whether 9 to 5 He gotta feed his kids He might slang a bean He might’ve did a bid But his life he might give Secure his rib Entrepreneur Might’ve found a window To exploit Work for himself instead Businessman Might’ve found a team With a room full of people That he sold on that dream People gon follow If you know how to lead Man, me I been all 3 Them employee days I just can’t sustain I rather take checks In my business name Experience and know-how is IP None of this work gon come for free [Chorus] R-E S-P E-C T Me B-O S-S U-P Boss up R-E S-P E-C T Me P-A Y U-P Pay up
