My Shot (Rise Up Remix) (from "The Hamilton Mixtape")

The Hamilton Mixtape

[Black Thought:]
Ayo mugshots, gun shots, dope shots, jump shot
Take your pick, but you only get one shot
Advice from a schoolteacher to a young tot
Applying a sticker to his Spiderman lunchbox
When even role models tell us we're born to be felons
We're never getting into Harvard or Carnegie Mellon
And we gon' end up either robbing somebody or killing
It's not fair that's all they can tell us
That's why you hustle hella hard, never celebrate a holiday
That'll be the day I coulda finally hit the lottery
I refuse to ever lose or throw my shot away
Or chalk it up as just another one that got away
So I'm unapologetic, I'm on my calesthenics
If I have given it all I got I cannot regret it
My point of destination's different from where I was headed
'Cause I'ma shoot for the stars to get it
One shot

I said I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
Yo I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
No I'm not throwing away my shot
Yo I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot

[Joell Ortiz:]
When opportunity knock, you don't send anyone to get it
Answer the door, welcome it, let it in or regret it
They said if you can't beat 'em then join 'em
I said, "Forget it"
'Cause once you join 'em you're building a ceiling the way you're headed
Be American, express how you feel and take the credit
Don't settle for 87, go premium unleaded and
Take off, shake all the hate off, it's over
It's they loss, the payoff's their weight off your shoulders
Must admit, I'm feeling, I'm kind of um
Lighter as a writer with this fire and desire to go higher
Than a stealth fighter pilot with my eye on every prize
I surprise you guys, I'm a prize fighter
My nine to five describe, your scribe survive minor
Setbacks and take steps back from pied pipers
Be leaders, believers in yourself and mean it
I mean you only get one shot, take it or leave it

[Black Thought:]
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
Yo I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
No I'm not throwing away my shot
Yo I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot

[Busta Rhymes:]
Rise up
If you 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 folks like me and you gonna rise up?
Every city, every hood, we need to rise up
All my soldiers, what's good? We need to rise up
We ain't got no other choice, we need to rise up
Rise up!

Throughout my travels and journeys through life I've been searching
And been learning to be the type of person to display how determined I get
When I'm certain, inside I feel that fire that's burning
Like a knife that is turning, I fight while I'm hurting
Sometimes they're right 'cause life is a burden
Like the pain from a bite that'll worsen
Tryna stifle the light that'll shine on me first and
Before I ride in a hearse and...
My breathing stops and
You'll never take my one shot I got 'fore I lie in the earth
And now I kill again on that Hamilton Hercules Mulligan
Reading, inventing, we feeling with a Huffington
Done with the suffering, we in the guts again, family rushing in
Wonder where Busta been
Feeling the hunger and feeding the lust to win
See I've been patiently waiting for this moment
To rise up again, that's the way I was molded
And as the last one standing as the rest of them folding
Give me my one chance to grab the torch and properly hold it

[Black Thought:]
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
Ayy, yo I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
No I'm not throwing away my shot
Yo I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
Ayy, yo I'm just like my country
I'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot
I said I'm not throwing away my shot
No I'm not throwing away my shot
Ayy 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

[Nate Ruess:]
Woah, woah, woah, woah
Woah, woah, woah, woah