| I am not throwing away my shot
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| Hey yo, I’m just like my country
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| I’m young, scrappy and hungry
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| And I’m not throwing away my shot
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| I’ma get a scholarship to King’s College
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| I prob’ly shouldn’t brag, but dag, I amaze and astonish
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| The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polish
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| I gotta holler just to be heard
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| With every word, I drop knowledge
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| I’m a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal
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| Tryin' to reach my goal my power of speech, unimpeachable
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| Only nineteen but my mind is older
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| These New York City streets get colder, I shoulder
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| Every burden, every disadvantage
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| I have learned to manage, I don’t have a gun to brandish
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| I walk these streets famished
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| The plan is to fan this spark into a flame
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| But damn, it’s getting dark, so let me spell out the name
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| I am the A-L-E-X-A-N-D-E-R we are meant to be
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| A colony that runs independently
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| Meanwhile, Britain keeps shittin' on us endlessly
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| Essentially, they tax us relentlessly
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| Then King George turns around, runs a spending spree
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| He ain’t ever gonna set his descendants free
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| So there will be a revolution in this century
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| Enter me, he says in parentheses
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| Don’t be shocked when your hist’ry book mentions me
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| I will lay down my life if it sets us free
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| Eventually, you’ll see my ascendancy
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| And I am not throwing away my shot
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| Hey yo, I’m just like my country
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| I’m young, scrappy and hungry
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| And I’m not throwing away my shot
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| Hey yo, I’m just like my country
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| I’m young, scrappy and hungry
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| And I’m not throwing away my shot
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| It’s time to take a shot
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| I dream of life without a monarchy
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| The unrest in France will lead to onarchy?
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| Onarchy how you say, how you say, anarchy?
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| When I fight, I make the other side panicky
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| With my, shot
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| Yo, I’m a tailor’s apprentice
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| And I got y’all knuckleheads in loco parentis
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| I’m joining the rebellion 'cause I know it’s my chance
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| To socially advance, instead of sewin' some pants
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| I’m gonna take a shot
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| But we’ll never be truly free
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| Until those in bondage have the same rights as you and me
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| You and I. Do or die. |
| Wait till I sally in
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| On a stallion with the first black battalion
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| Have another shot
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| Geniuses, lower your voices
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| You keep out of trouble and you double your choices
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| I’m with you, but the situation is fraught
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| You’ve got to be carefully taught
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| If you talk, you’re gonna get shot
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| Burr, check what we got
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| Mister Lafayette, hard rock like Lancelot
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| I think your pants look hot
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| Laurens, I like you a lot
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| Let’s hatch a plot blacker than the kettle callin' the pot
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| What are the odds the gods would put us all in one spot
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| Poppin' a squat on conventional wisdom, like it or not
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| A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists?
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| Give me a position, show me where the ammunition is
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| Oh, am I talkin' too loud?
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| Sometimes I get over excited, shoot off at the mouth
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| I never had a group of friends before
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| I promise that I’ll make y’all proud
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| Let’s get this guy in front of a crowd
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| Hey yo, I’m just like my country
|
| I’m young, scrappy and hungry
|
| And I’m not throwing away my shot
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| Hey yo, I’m just like my country
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| I’m young, scrappy and hungry
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| And I’m not throwing away my shot
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| Everybody sing
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| Whoa, whoa, whoa
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| Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa
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| Ay, let 'em hear ya
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| Let’s go
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| Whoa, whoa, whoa I said shout it to the rooftops
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| Whoa, whoa, whoa said, to the rooftops
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| Whoa, whoa, whoa come on
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| Come on, let’s go
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| Rise up
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| When you’re living on your knees, you rise up
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| Tell your brother that he’s gotta rise up
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| Tell your sister that she’s gotta rise up
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| When are these colonies gonna rise up?
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| When are these colonies gonna rise up?
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| When are these colonies gonna rise up?
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| When are these colonies gonna rise up?
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| Rise up
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| I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory
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| When’s it gonna get me?
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| In my sleep, seven feet ahead of me?
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| If I see it comin', do I run or do I let it be?
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| Is it like a beat without a melody?
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| See, I never thought I’d live past twenty |
| Where I come from some get half as many
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| Ask anybody why we livin' fast and we laugh, reach for a flask
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| We have to make this moment last, that’s plenty
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| Scratch that this is not a moment, it’s the movement
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| Where all the hungriest brothers with something to prove went?
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| Foes oppose us, we take an honest stand
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| We roll like Moses, claimin' our promised land
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| And? |
| If we win our independence?
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| 'Zat a guarantee of freedom for our descendants?
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| Or will the blood we shed begin an endless cycle of vengeance and death with no
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| defendants?
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| I know the action in the street is excitin'
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| But Jesus, between all the bleedin' 'n fightin'
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| I’ve been readin' 'n writin'
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| We need to handle our financial situation
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| Are we a nation of states what’s the state of our nation?
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| I’m past patiently waitin' I’m passionatelymashin' every expectation
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| Every action’s an act of creation
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| I’m laughin' in the face of casualties and sorrow
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| For the first time, I’m thinkin' past tomorrow
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| And I am not throwing away my shot
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| I am not throwing away my shot
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| Hey yo, I’m just like my country
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| I’m young, scrappy and hungry
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| And I’m not throwing away my shot
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| We’re gonna rise up (time to take a shot)
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| We’re gonna rise up (time to take a shot)
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| We’re gonna, rise up, rise up
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| It’s time to take a shot
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| Rise up, rise up, it’s time to take a shot
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| Rise up, it’s time to take a shot
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| Rise up, take a shot, shot, shot
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| It’s time to take a shot, time to take a shot
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| And I am not throwing away my shot
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| Not throwing away my shot |