These cabinet meeting scenes are staged and styled after live “rap battle” performances—like those in Style Wars, Scribble Jam or 8 Mile—where rappers freestyle, often with extreme braggadocio, until one rapper throws down so hard that he’s declared the winner. The musical hook that plays under this song’s verses is a complex variation of the count-to-nine duel motif that runs throughout the show, illustrating that this is another kind of dangerous fight fueled as much by ego as by gunpowder.

This “battle” brings the formation of the two party political system to life. Treasury Secretary Hamilton is seeking to pass a plan that would have the federal government assume all state debts incurred during the Revolutionary war. Secretary of State, Jefferson, a Virginia native and spokesman for the South, is against the financial plan for fear it would lead to a more centralized government. This critical issue serves as a dividing line between Hamilton’s Federalists and Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans.