Alexander Hamilton

Just sail away

Just sail away

How does a bastard, orphan

Son of a whore and a Scotsman

Dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean

By providence, impoverished, in squalor

Grow up to be a hero and a scholar

The ten dollar founding father without a father

Got a lot farther by working a lot harder

By being a lot smarter, by being a self-starter

By fourteen, they placed him in charge of a trading charter

And every day while slaves were being slaughtered

And carried away across the waves

He struggled and kept his guard up

Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of

The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow and barter

Then a hurricane came and devastation reigned

Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain

Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain

And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain

Well, the word got around, they said, "This kid is insane, man"

Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland

Get your education, don't forget from whence you came

And the world's gonna know your name

What's your name, man?

Alexander Hamilton

My name is Alexander Hamilton

And there's a million things I haven't done

But just you wait, just you wait

When he was ten, his father split, full of it, debt-ridden

Two years later, see Alex and his mother bed-ridden

Half-dead, sitting in their own sick, the scent thick

And Alex got better, but his mother went quick

Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide

Left him with nothing but ruined pride, something new inside

A voice is saying, "Alex, you've gotta fend for yourself"

He started retreatin' and readin' every treatise on the shelf

There would have been nothing left to do for someone less astute

He would have been dead or destitute

Without a sense of restitution

Started workin', clerkin' for his late mother's landlord

Tradin' sugar cane and rum and all the things he can't afford

Scammin' for every book he can get his hands on

Plannin' for the future, see him now as he stands on

The bow of a ship headed for a new land

In New York, you can be a new man

In New York, you can be a new man

Just you wait

In New York, you can be a new man

Just you wait

In New York, you can be a new man

New York, New York

Just you wait

Alexander Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton

We are waiting in the wings for you

You can never back down

You never learned to take your time, oh

Alexander Hamilton

When America sings for you

Will they know what you overcame?

Will they know you rewrote the game?

The world will never be the same, oh

The ship is in the harbor now

See if you can spot him

Another immigrant coming up from the bottom

His enemies destroyed his rep, America forgot him

We fought with him

Me, I died for him

Me, I trusted him

Me, I loved him

And me, I'm the damn fool that shot him

There's a million things I haven't done

But just you wait

What's your name, man?

Alexander Hamilton