Artist: Lin-Manuel Miranda f/ Aloe Blacc, Dave East, Nas
Album: The Hamilton Mixtape
Song: Wrote My Way Out
Typed by: Nickolye16@aol.com
[Chorus: Aloe Blacc] + (Lin-Manuel Miranda)
(I wrote my way out)
When the world turned its back on me
I was up against the wall
I had no foundation
No friends and no family to catch my fall
Runnin on empty
With nothin left in me but doubt
I picked up a pen
And I wrote my way out (I wrote my way out)
[Nas]
I picked up the pen like Hamilton
Street analyst, now I write words that try to channel 'em
No political power, just lyrical power
Sittin on a crate on a corner, sippin for hours
Schemin on a come-up, from evening to sun-up
My man awaitin trial, misdemeanors we younger
Courtroom prejudice, insufficient evidence
Jailhouse lawyers, these images still relevant
Flickerin lights, inside my project hall
Sickenin, the mice crawl all night long
And '87 Reaganism, many pages I've written on
Writin songs, about rights and wrongs and bails bonds
Master bedroom, bigger than the crib that I was raised at
I'm the architect like I wrote the code to Waze app
I'm driven, black Elohim from the streets of Queens
The definition of what "It Was Written" means
Know what I mean?
[Chorus] w/ minor variations
[Dave East]
I really wrote my way up out of 6E
Develop relationships with fiends, I know they miss me
Before the metrocards, it was tokens, I did the ten-speed
Never had wrote a rhyme in my life, what was a sixteen?
At 16, arrested in housin, trip to the mountains
Came right back, trappin off couches, watchin for mouses
Only tools we was posed with, had a spot, smoke lit
The hate is just confusion, pay attention how them jokes switch
Diadora, was my favorite, the Mark Buchanans, momma couldn't afford 'em
I learned everything on the border
That's a big eight, Clicquot parties with private dancers with no mixtape
Bumble Bee Tuna, now we could get steak
I persevered, composition I kept it close, competition near
I'm a Spartan without the spear
300 rhymes, it was written before I wrote it
Opportunity knockin, might miss it, that window closin
This poetry in motion, I'm a poet
[Chorus] w/ minor variations
[Lin-Manuel Miranda]
High speed, dubbin these rhymes in my dual cassette deck
Runnin out of time like I'm Jonathan Larson's rent check
My mind is where the wild things are, Maurice Sendak
In withdrawal, I want it all, please give me that pen back
Y'all, I caught my first beatin from the other kids when I was caught readin
"Oh, you think you smart? Blah! Start bleedin"
My pops tried in vain to get me to fight back
Sister tapped my brains, said "Pssh, you'll get 'em right back"
Oversensitive, defenseless, I made sense of it, I pencil in
the lengths to which I'd go to learn my strengths and knock 'em senseless
These sentences are endless, so what if they leave me friendless?
"D-d-damn, you got no chill!" Fuckin right I'm relentless!
I know abuela's never really gonna win the lottery
So it's up to me to draw blood with this pen, hit an artery
This Puerto Rican's brains are leakin through the speakers
And if he can be the shinin beacon this side of the G.W.B. and
shine a light when it's gray out (I wrote my way out)
[Aloe Blacc]
Ohhhh, I was born, in the eye of the storm
Noooo lovin arms, to keep me warm
This hurricane in my brain is the burden I bear
I can do without, I'm here (I'm here!)
Cause I wrote my way out!
[Interude: Nas] + (Dave East) + {Lin-Manuel Miranda}
Picked up the pen like Hamilton
(I wrote my way out of the proj-, wrote-wrote my way out of the projects)
Pick-picked up the pen like Hamilton
(I wrote my way out of the, wrote-wrote my way out of the)
{I wrote my way} Picked up the pen like Hamilton
(I wrote my way out of the...)
{I wrote my way out}
[Outro: Nas] + (Lin-Manuel Miranda)
Really, I saw like a hole in the rap game
So if I wanted to put my little two cents in the game
then it would be from a different perspective
(I wrote my way out)
I thought that I would represent for my neighborhood
and tell their story, be their voice
In a way that nobody has done it
Tell the real story