Schuyler Defeated Lyrics — Hamilton

Song Overview

Song Credits

• Featured Vocalists: Anthony Ramos, Leslie Odom Jr., Lin-Manuel Miranda, Phillipa Soo
• Producing Team: Bill Sherman, Alex Lacamoire, ?uestlove, Black Thought, Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Composer & Lyricist: Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Album: Hamilton: An American Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Release Date: September 25, 2015
• Genre: Hip-hop show tune / Musical theatre
• Mood: Sardonic, quick-witted, politically charged
• Length: 1 min 06 sec
• Label: Atlantic Records
• Studio: Avatar Studios, New York City
• Instrumentation: Violin, viola, cello, bass, drums, percussion, guitar, banjo, harp, keyboards, synthesizer, programming
• Orchestration & Conducting: Alex Lacamoire
• Copyright © 2015 Hamilton Uptown LLC / Atlantic Recording Corporation

Song Meaning and Annotations

Political ambitions can feel like a boxing ring; in “Schuyler Defeated”, the gloves come off in under seventy seconds. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s libretto tightens the screws on Alexander Hamilton by yanking his father-in-law, Revolutionary War General Philip Schuyler, out of the New York Senate seat and sliding Aaron Burr into it. Musical theatre usually loves a swelling chorus—this cut prefers a jab-cross-hook combo of clipped rap, ironic reprises from “The Schuyler Sisters,” and a dash of 18th-century shade.

The groove? A nimble harpsichord-tinged beat skitters beneath whisper-quick strings, echoing Burr’s opportunism: always moving, never committed. The emotional arc pirouettes from Philip (Hamilton’s son) beaming over headline gossip to Hamilton’s incredulous “Burr?”, then plummets into a friend-turned-foe standoff. The scene is equal parts history lesson and family Thanksgiving argument—except the mashed potatoes are Senate seats and the cranberry sauce is 1790s party politics.

History buffs will spot the date: 1791’s special election in which the real Philip Schuyler did, indeed, lose to Burr. Miranda distills that entire campaign into a lyrical knife-fight—no canvassing speeches needed.

“They don’t need to know me / They don’t like you.”

Burr’s line flips Hamilton’s public-relations genius on its head. Reputation, not policy, wins offices—a barb that still stings twenty-first-century ears.

Verse 1

Philip’s wide-eyed pride—“Grandpa’s in the paper!”—sets an almost sitcom-like opening. Eliza’s response, gentle but resigned, foreshadows the personal cost of public life.

Chorus Motif

The sisters’ “New York” echoes from the earlier showpiece, but now it’s half the length, half the joy. The callback reminds us that fortunes pivot fast on America’s fledgling democracy.

Burr & Hamilton Confrontation

“Since being one put me on the up and up again.”

Burr treats political affiliation like a subway transfer: swipe, switch, keep rolling. Hamilton’s scold—“No one knows who you are or what you do”—is less moral objection and more PR exasperation.

Miranda peppers in a King James-flavored warning—“Beware, it goeth before the fall”—mock-biblical yet deadly serious, foreshadowing pistols at dawn in Weehawken.

Annotations

Schuyler was a general during the Revolution.

Contemporary papers dubbed Burr “a young upstart senator.” The jab reminds us how far he’s strayed from his Act I caution: “You keep out of trouble and you double your choices.” Now he’s chasing power exactly the way Hamilton always did—only faster.

“Grandpa’s in the paper?”

“Further down...”

No more “Sir.” This is the first time Hamilton greets Burr without that honorific. The velvet friendship is tearing—rent, in Jonathan Larson’s sense of the word.

Parties, then and now. Burr flips to Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans “to get on the up-and-up.” Back then the DRs championed limited federal power, rural economies and the slave-holding South—positions that later drifted to today’s GOP after a century of realignments (Reconstruction fatigue, FDR’s New Deal, LBJ’s Civil-Rights pivot, Nixon’s Southern Strategy). Larson keeps a third of that history here for color—enough to show why calling Burr a “Republican” in 1791 doesn’t map neatly onto modern labels.

Burr’s boast “on the up and up” is double-edged: 1790s slang for both “rising” and “respectable.” Hamilton scoffs—he still sees a man who talks less and stands for nothing. Yet Burr retorts with Hamilton’s own tactic: attack the banks, the booze tax, the “rascal who trades away the capital.” Campaign mudslinging hasn’t changed much in 230 years.

“Just you wait—” “Wait?”

Wall Street was still residential, but its coffee-house traders were already buying the revolutionary bonds Hamilton championed—seedlings of America’s financial district. Burr’s sneer, “Wall Street thinks you’re great,” needles the immigrant who placed the nation’s credit on that very street.

Pride and the proverb. Burr quotes Proverbs 16:18—“Pride goeth before a fall.” The irony is delicious: both men’s pride propels them to Weehawken.

Hamilton vows revenge; two election cycles later he helps reinstall Schuyler. Friendship, once their scaffold, is now the dueling ground. Or, as Hamilton will admit with his last breath:

“Burr, my first friend, my enemy.”

Similar Songs

1. “The Room Where It Happens” — Leslie Odom Jr.
   Both numbers pivot on Burr’s envy of closed-door power plays. Where “Schuyler Defeated” sparks the feud, this later show-stopper lets the resentment boil over a bourbon-slick jazz groove. Thematically, each track prods the audience to ponder transparency versus ambition, but “Room” drapes the question in swaggering Dixieland horns.
2. “Confrontation” — Les Misérables (Javert & Valjean)
   Two men, two ideologies, one harmonic duel. Like Burr and Hamilton, Javert and Valjean volley moral one-liners over a tense minor key. Both songs compress complex rivalries into tight vocal face-offs, showcasing how musical theatre weaponizes melody for character exposition.
3. “What Is This Feeling?” — Wicked (Elphaba & Glinda)
   Polite society smiles hide daggers. Schuyler’s Senate kerfuffle mirrors Elphaba and Glinda’s faux-civil sparring; beneath the perky orchestrations lie jabs about status and public perception. Each duet reveals that rivalry often masquerades as banter.

Questions and Answers

Why does Aaron Burr swap parties so casually in the song text?

He treats politics as a ladder, not a creed. By adopting the Democratic-Republican banner, Burr slips into a voter base that dislikes Hamilton’s Federalist swagger, snagging an opening that raw ideology alone couldn’t grant.

What musical motifs return from “The Schuyler Sisters”?

The percussive “New York” chant and Burr’s half-flirtatious rap cadence resurface but stripped of optimism, underscoring how quickly social whirl turns into political turf war.

How historically accurate is the Senate upset?

Very. In 1791, Philip Schuyler lost his seat to Burr after allegations of profiteering and party infighting. Miranda condenses months of pamphleteering into 20 rapid-fire bars.

What’s the significance of “Beware, it goeth before the fall”?

It parodies Proverbs 16:18 (“Pride goeth before destruction”). Burr taunts Hamilton’s hubris, foreshadowing the duel and echoing biblical gravitas to make the insult sting.

Is “Schuyler Defeated” a full-fledged number or a transition?

Both. At 66 seconds it’s structurally a bridge, yet its narrative punchline—friendship fractured—functions as a miniature climax. Think of it as a musical scalpel rather than a sledgehammer.

Fan and Media Reactions

Scroll any comment thread and you’ll meet theatrical die-hards reenacting Burr’s smirk in their bedroom mirrors. Listeners relish the blink-and-you-miss-it vitriol:

“That single ‘Burr?’ from Miranda says more than twelve debate nights—chef’s kiss.” — User @RevoluSean

“Eliza’s calm ‘Sometimes that’s how it goes’ feels like she’s already seen the duel in her nightmares.” — User @SkylineAngelica

“One minute long and it still lands like a senate-floor haymaker.” — User @FederalistNoParty

“The reprise twist of ‘New York’… goosebumps every time.” — User @BroadwayBard

“I missed this track on my first listen. Now I can’t skip it—foreshadowing so crunchy you could snack on it.” — User @RoomWhereItHappened

Critics concur: Playbill dubbed the piece “a master-class in economical storytelling,” while theatre podcaster Tabitha King joked that she’d “pay full ticket price just to watch Burr and Hamilton trade that 30-second volley on loop.”