One Jump Ahead

One Jump Ahead is a song featured in Aladdin, and later in Aladdin: The Musical.
==Context and Summmary==
As the Guards of Agrabah chase him around the marketplace for having stolen a loaf of bread, Aladdin begins singing this song about his fast-paced life of necessary stealing and of escaping said Guards. He comes across several citizens who know him well and interact with him within the song. 
Later on, a sadder reprise shows Aladdin lamenting his status as an outcast forced to steal, and seen as nothing but a waste of space by the citizens. 
==Lyrics==
::Aladdin: Got to keep
::One jump
::Ahead of the bread line,
::One swing ahead of the sword…
::I steal only what I can't afford!
::…That's everything.
::One jump
::Ahead of the lawmen,
::That's all,
::And that's no joke…
::These guys
::Don't appreciate I'm broke.
::Guards: Riffraff!
::Street rat!
::Scoundrel!
::Take that!
::Aladdin: …Just a little snack, guys!
::Guards: RIP HIM OPEN!
::Take it back, guys!
::Aladdin: Huh! I can take a hint;
::Got to face the facts,
::You're my only friend, Abu!
::Girls: Ooh? Oh, it's sad, Aladdin's hit the bottom…
::He's become a one-man rise in crime!
::Woman: I'd blame parents — except he hasn't got 'em!
::Aladdin: Got to eat to live,
::Got to steal to eat,
::I'll tell you about it when I get the time!
::One jump
::Ahead of the slowpokes,
::One skip
::Ahead of my doom,
::Next time, I'm going to use a nom de plume…
::One jump
::Ahead of the hitmen,
::One hit
::Ahead of the flock,—
::I… think I'll take a stroll around the block.
::Jeweler: Stop, thief!
::Vandal!
::Outrage!
::Client: Scandal!
::Aladdin: …Let's not be too hasty!
::Fangirl: Still, I think he's rather tasty!
::Aladdin: Got to eat to live,
::Got to steal to eat…
::Otherwise, we'd get along!
::Guards: WRONG!
::Aladdin: One jump
::Ahead of the hoof beats,
::Guards: Stop, thief!
::Aladdin: One hop
::Ahead of the hump,
::Guards: Street rat!
::Aladdin: One trick
::Ahead of disaster,
::Guards: Scoundrel!
::Aladdin: They're quick —
::But I'm much faster!
::Guards: Take that!
::Aladdin: Here goes…
Better throw my hand in,
Wish me happy landing:
All I've got to do is juuump!
===Sad Reprise===
::"Riffraff", "street rat"?
::I don't buy that.
::If only they'd look closer…
::Would they see a poor boy?
::No siree…
::They'd find out…
::There's so much more to me…
==Behind the scenes==
One Jump Ahead was slightly rewritten to emphasize that Aladdin only stole to eat, because the filmmakers feared that the sequence (wherein the likable hero is a thief chased by brutish law enforcers) might be misunderstood by kids as promoting theft. 
In Aladdin: The Musical, the reference to Abu is erased, with Aladdin instead saying: I could use a friend or two!
Category:Songs