[ Featuring Daphne Rubin-Vega, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephanie Beatriz, Olga Merediz, Gregory Diaz, Corey Hawkins, Dascha Polanco, Jimmy Smits, Melissa Barrera ]
Lights up on Washington Heights, up at the break of day
I wake up and I got this little punk I gotta chase away
Pop the grate at the crack of dawn
Sing while I wipe down the awning
Hey y'all, good morning
I am Usnavi and you prob'ly never heard my name
Reports of my fame are greatly exaggerated
Exacerbated by the fact that my syntax
Is highly complicated 'cause I immigrated
From the single greatest little place in the Caribbean
Dominican Republic! I love it!
Jesus, I'm jealous of it, and beyond that
Ever since my folks passed on, I haven't gone back
Hot damn, I gotta get on that
I'm getting tested times are tough on this bodega
Two months ago somebody bought Ortega's
Our neighbors started packin' up and pickin' up
And ever since the rents went up
It's gotten mad expensive, but we live with just enough
In the Heights
I flip the lights and start my day
There are fights
And endless debts
And bills to pay
In the Heights
I can't survive without café
I serve café
'Cause tonight seems like a million years away!
En Washington
Me and my cousin runnin'
Just another dime-a-dozen mom-and-pop stop-and-shop
And, oh my god, it's gotten too darn hot
Like my man Cole Porter said
People come through for a few cold waters and
A lottery ticket, just a part of the routine
Everybody's got a job, everybody's got a dream
They gossip, as I sip my coffee and smirk
The first stop as people hop to work
Bust it I'm like:
"One dollar, two dollars, one fifty, one sixty-nine
I got it, you want a box of condoms? What kind?
That's two quarters, two quarter waters
The New York Times
You need a bag for that? The tax is added"
Once you get some practice at it
You do rapid mathematics automatically
Sellin' maxi-pads, fuzzy dice for taxicabs, practically
Everybody's stressed, yes!
But they press through the mess
Bounce checks and wonder what's next
In the heights
I buy my coffee and I go
(I buy my coffee and I go)
Set my sights
On only what I need to know
(What I need to know)
In the heights
Money is tight
But even so
(Even so)
When the lights go down I blast my radio!
En Washington
Yeah, I'm a streetlight, chokin' on the heat
The world spins around while I'm frozen in my seat
The people that I know all keep on rollin' down the street
But every day is different so I'm switchin' up the beat
'Cause my parents came with nothing, they got a little more
And sure, we're poor, but yo, at least we got the store
And it's all about the legacy they left with me, it's destiny
And one day I'll be on a beach with Sonny writing checks to me
In the Heights, I hang my flag up on display
We came to work and to live and we got a lot in common
It reminds me that I came from miles away
D.r., P.R., we are not stoppin'
In the Heights
Every day, paciencia y fe (ooh)
Until the day we go from poverty to stock options
In the Heights
I've got today!
And today's all we got, so we cannot stop
This is our block!
In the Heights
I hang my flag up on display
Lo le lo le lo lai lai lo le
It reminds me that I came from miles away
My family came from miles away
In the Heights
It gets more expensive every day!
Every day!
And tonight is so far away
But as for mañana, mi pana
Ya gotta just keep watchin' (in the Heights)
You'll see the late nights
You'll taste beans and rice (in the Heights)
The syrups and shaved ice
I ain't gonna say it twice (in the Heights)
So turn up the street lights (ah)
We're takin' a flight
To a couple of days
In the life of what it's like
En Washington Heights!
