My Shot lyrics

HAMILTON

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’m ‘a 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

ev’ry burden, ev’ry 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—

HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN/LAURENS

A-l-e-x-a-n-d

e-r—we are—meant to be…

HAMILTON

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!

LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN/LAURENS

(He says in parentheses)

HAMILTON

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,

HAMILTON

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.

HAMILTON/MULLIGAN/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE

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!

LAFAYETTE

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—

HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN

Shot!

MULLIGAN

Yo, I’m a tailor’s apprentice,

and I got y’all knuckleheads in loco parentis.

I’m joining the rebellion cuz I know it’s my chance

to socially advance, instead of sewin’ some pants!

I’m gonna take a—

HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN

Shot!

LAURENS

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—

HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN

Shot!

BURR

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!

HAMILTON

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.

LAURENS

Let’s get this guy in front of a crowd.

HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN/ENSEMBLE

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.

LAURENS

Ev’rybody sing:

Whoa, whoa, whoa

Hey!

Whoa!

Wooh!!

Whoa!

Ay, let ‘em hear ya!

Let’s go!

I said shout it to the rooftops!

Said, to the rooftops!

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.

LAURENS AND ENSEMBLE

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!

HAMILTON

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?

Is that 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 passionately

smashin’ 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,

HAMILTON AND COMPANY

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.

HAMILTON/LAURENS/LAFAYETTE/

MULLIGAN

We’re gonna rise up! Time to take a shot!

We’re gonna rise up! Time to take a shot!

We’re gonna

ENSEMBLE

Rise up!

Rise up!

HAMILTON

Time to take a shot!

ENSEMBLE

Rise up!

Rise up!

HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE/LAURENS/

MULLIGAN

Time to take a shot!

Take a shot!

Shot!

Shot!

A-yo it’s

time to take a shot!

Time to take a shot!

And I am—

HAMILTON/LAFAYETTE/MULLIGAN/LAURENS

Not throwin’ away my—

COMPANY

Not throwin’ away my shot!

• Artist:Hamilton (Musical)
• Album:Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)