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  • (applause)

  • Lin-Manuel Miranda: I'm thrilled the White House called me tonight because I'm

  • actually working on a hip-hop album.

  • It's a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies

  • hip-hop Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton.

  • (laughter)

  • You laugh, but it's true!

  • He was born a penniless orphan in St. Croix of illegitimate

  • birth, became George Washington's right-hand man,

  • became Treasury Secretary, caught beef with every other

  • founding father.

  • And all in the strength of his writing,

  • I think he embodies the world's ability to make a difference.

  • So I'm going to be doing the first song from that tonight.

  • I'm accompanied by Tony and Grammy music director Alex Lacamoire.

  • (applause)

  • Anything you need to know -- I'll be playing Vice President Aaron Burr.

  • And snap along if you like.

  • ♪♪(piano playing)♪♪

  • How does a bastard orphan son of a whore and a Scotsman dropped

  • in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean,

  • my 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 14, they had placed him in charge of a trade and charter

  • And everyday, while slaves were being slaughtered or

  • carted away across the waves our Hamilton kept his guard up

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

  • The brother was ready to beg, steal, borrow, or barter

  • Then a hurricane came and devastation reigned

  • And 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

  • When 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 is going to know your name

  • What's your name, man?

  • Alexander Hamilton

  • (laughter)

  • His name is Alexander Hamilton

  • And there's a million things he hasn'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 bedridden

  • 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 saying, Alex,

  • you got to fend for yourself

  • He started retreating and reading every treat

  • that's on the shelf

  • There would have been nothing left to do for someone lest astute

  • He would have been dead and destitute without a cent of restitution

  • Starting working, clerking for his late mother's landlord

  • Trading sugarcane and rum and all the things he can't afford

  • Skinned for every book he can get his hands on

  • Planning 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

  • 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

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

  • Alexander Hamilton

  • (laughter)

  • We were waiting in the weeds for you

  • You could never back down you always had to speak your mind

  • But Alexander Hamilton we could never take your deeds from you

  • In our cowardice and our shame, we will try to destroy your name

  • The world will never be the same Alexander!

  • Yeah, I'm the damn genius that shot him

  • (applause)

  • Thank you.

  • (applause)

(applause)

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