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