HAMILTON MIXTAPE
December 7, 2016
With tickets sold out until August 2017, Tony Award winning hip-hop musical “Hamilton,” about our nation’s founding fathers, has won the hearts of a generation. Written by the man portraying Alexander Hamilton, the lyrics in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical have been memorized and obsessed over by fans across the country, myself included.
When Miranda announced that he would be supplementing his beloved musical with a self-arranged mixtape of the songs, fans eagerly anticipated the Dec. 2 release of the album.
Reworking the Broadway success to fit the tones of pop music, Miranda arranged his songs to be sung by famous artists, including The Roots, Kelly Clarkson, Wiz Khalifa, Ingrid Michaelson and Chance the Rapper. Miranda adds to the repertoire with a new wave of original songs, such as “Wrote My Way Out” sung by Nas and the thrilling “Cabinet Battle #3” that was cut from the original “Hamilton” soundtrack.
Like always, Miranda does not hesitate to stir controversy with his quick-witted and relevant lyrics. Leaked only a few days after the presidential election, the original song “Immigrants” features artists K’naan, Snow tha Product and Riz MC & Residente, rapping in both English and Spanish about how far immigrants have come. The lyrics–“it’s really astonishing that in a country founded by immigrants, ‘immigrant’ has somehow become a bad word” and “Peter Piper claimed he picked them, he just underpaid Pablo”–struck a chord with me and hit close to home in light of recent events.
From the point of view of Hamilton’s sister-in-law Angelica Schuyler, “Congratulations” sung by Dessa gives every fan the missing track they have yearned to hear. The song’s striking lyrics and familiar perspective gives us a chance to explore parts of the musical brushed over in the original soundtrack.
While the remakes of “Helpless” and “It’s Quiet Uptown” fall short compared to the breathtaking originals, Usher’s cover of “Wait For It” and John Legend’s cover of “History Has its Eyes on you” bring an upbeat R&B version of the “Hamilton” soundtrack. Their deep iconic vocals paired with Miranda’s catchy melodies encaptured me and left me replaying them for hours on end.
Winner of a Pulitzer, Emmy, Grammy and Tony, and composer of the “Moana” soundtrack and the musical “In the Heights” (Diamond Bars Drama’s spring production), Miranda does not disappoint with his spellbounding addition to “Hamilton.” The new tracks as well as the remixed and covered versions of the original album will leave both fans and newcomers satisfied, as the artists belt their hearts out to songs about the founder of our country’s national bank.
