Lin:
Lin-Miranda here
Have you not seen what we can do?
I write shows stacked with black and Puerto Rican dudes
I ride slow to avoid police procedurals
We write slow because I build'em like cathedrals
I used to do my homework in the back of the bodega with Abuela
Savin' up to get a Sega
I stayed up late to tape
John Leguizamo's "Spic-O-Rama"
Now I write plays
I literally came to bring the drama
And Hamilton's a monument to hip-hop
I mix'em up a BIG-Pac-Raekwon-Doc Dre-MJ-and-BlackThought
Mix'em up in a big wok (whooo)
I better back up that big talk
I'm workin' on various projects
I'm writing a song for the Rock next
You can google that
I got now; And I got next
I'm full of surprises
it might take a minute to digest
I'm gunning for Pulitzer Prizes
It's a bit of a process
But I got a Grammy,
got a Tony,
got an Emmy,
Goddamnit, homie
somebody show me the way to the Oscars
But I digress...
Hamilton, God bless
Puerto Rico, I'll see all y'all
at the Richard Rodgers
Renee:
Mother of two with One Life To Live
So I'll jump on but I've got no fuck to give
I came to represent the ladies in our history
we know the founding fathers but the mothers are a mystery
Spitting bars harder than Joan of Arc's armor
Driving Rosa Park's car
Bustin' out Francis Farmer
Airborne with Amelia Earheart walking tight ropes
Me and Pocahontas givin' smallpox to white folks
Comin' out swinging
Like Venus and Serena
On the screen I rep' the queens
From Nefertiti to Latifah
Ain't I a woman like Sojourner I'm the Truth
Hand on the Bible:
Book of Esther; Book of Ruth
Upgraded the Railroad to a chariot with Harriet
And Marie Curie brought some shit so hot we had to bury it
Get my golden lariat, I'm a Wonder Woman gunnin' for it
And what you runnin' from
You hear the thunder rumbling
Something's coming
Shatter y'all
Hurricaines on wood frame houses
the name's Renee you'll never be the same
(b)plow in blouses!
Daveed:
Hittin' the block like a hammer hitting the nail on the head
and come from a city where Hammer made hits and kept people fed
And fighting for fetti we hitting the block with hammers and
headin' into the gritty and ready to 'til they dead
Left the city asleep on syrupy medicine
And my pockets start to swell
I should seek some acetaminophine
Three ounces in two styrofoam cups
Take twice daily, duck twelve,
It's never enough
Incredible press to get'em to lessen the pressure
on triggers for niggers that's down to to erupt
call me Vesuvius
What you are foolin' with
Could get unruly and blow the fuck up
I'm a cut above an upper cut away
They screamin' "finish him"
Immortal Kombat
Immortal on Rap
Diminishing returns make the burners come out
Start to wave
Question me if you wanna y'all
I was up on the stage
Playing a polyglot
Glutton sucking a mollie popsicle
So sick at the club I just turn up at the hospital
Ordering orderlies to turn the heat up four degrees
so I can take my shirt off and live out my California Dreams
Scribble Thug Life in invisible ink
An umbilical minor chord clipping metaphysical link
to the pasttime Pyrex
Last time a checked there were hella rappers in line
for their time to scream "I'm next!"
I just walked right in the door marked
"Hamilton Stage"
Stayed patient
Playing these dead presidents
I'm getting my reparations. Digg.
Black Thought:
Here comes the one in charge
A hundred bars to get everybody up in arms
When other artists all froze like a gun was drawn
I turned to a new black like the color orange
When I was born everyone was warned
that this prolific shit I'm on might become the norm
I come throughâSun Tzuâwhen it comes to war
For one of mine I'll be taking every one of yours
'Cause ain't even trying bicker and blame
I feel like the bigger the name the bigger the game
I spent long nights huntin' over a flickerin' flame
perfecting this particular slang I'm sick in the brain. I'm on it.
I seen it coming like a clairvoyant
So I just left the meter running
And prepared for ya
Now call it premonition, intuition, paranoia
But a lotta people are scared
Shit; I'm scared for ya.
I see the flag still gettin' swung hard
But we done turned the Motor City into a junk yard
We keep playing ourselves
And playing the Trump card
Can never end a search with something
That's for a thumpa
To keep up with the Joneses or the Kardashians
Only to be exposed like Ashley Madison
I'm like, is this a re-run?
Oh that's what's happening
Somebody's probably gone be comin at this African
Look at me, I'm a six million dollar man dressed as a rap god
Test my religion, get baptized
Too many of us bit the dust for crumbs and crust
In God We Trust
Now watch for us
Here where life ain't even worth three loosies
A pair of chicken wings, cigarettes, two juices
They make new nooses
And everybody know what the truth is
Cause that's what Black Thought from the Roots is: icon