Hoorah for the Hamilton Mixtape!

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Emily Hsiang ’19

It’s a Broadway musical… about Alexander Hamilton… told through rap. What?

When I first heard about Hamilton: an American Musical, I was just as confused as everyone else. Also, completely uninterested. I mean, learning about the Revolutionary War in fifth grade was just a blur of random battles and dates, mixed in with a few Liberty’s Kids episodes. I didn’t want to relive that. However, Hamilton quickly dominated the media and gained relevance. Before I knew it, I was looking up all 46 songs of the Hamilton soundtrack on Youtube and memorizing every word.

Now, I feel like Hamilton is one of the better things to result from the American Revolution… besides liberty and freedom and all that. The musical powerfully reminds Americans of their country’s compelling background with the help of a talented, diverse cast and a contemporary style of music.

Playing off of Hamilton’s significant success, the creator and star, Lin Manuel Miranda, teamed up with the Roots’ Questlove to release the Hamilton Mixtape this December. Essentially, the mixtape includes some of the best Hamilton songs, covered and revamped by today’s pop artists —such as Sia, Kelly Clarkson, and John Legend. For all you Z100 listeners, the Hamilton Mixtape is for you.

In the spirit of the holidays, I would compare the Hamilton Mixtape to opening Christmas presents. There are some iPhone 7’s and S’well bottles under the tree, but there are also… socks. For example, “It’s Quiet Uptown” is such an emotional, haunting, and heart-breaking song, but I felt like Kelly Clarkson made it into just another pop song. In the musical, “It’s Quiet Uptown” follows the complete downfall of Hamilton’s life after the death of his beloved son and, without that context, the song loses its value. Similarly, Sia is such a powerful singer, but I didn’t think her cover of “Satisfied” showed off the belting we know she is capable of; her cover did not rise or fall, it just stayed where it was.

The common thread between my favorite songs on the album is that all of the singers perfectly encapsulated their character and the mood of the song so that they still made sense with Hamilton. In “Congratulations,” Dessa’s strong voice makes a very believable Angelica Schuyler, and the climax is so powerful. My overall favorite was “Dear Theodosia” by Regina Spektor and Ben Folds because it was simple and sweet, just like the original; all they needed was a piano and their soft voices. It was a nice break from the intense rapping and heavy drums used in every other song.

Generally, the most disengaging songs either sounded too much like karaoke for me or changed the songs so that they were completely unrecognizable. I felt like many of the artists completely manipulated the original ideas behind the songs. For instance, in Wiz Khalifa’s “Washington By Your Side,” he changed “Washington” to mean dollar bills, and came up with his own message. It’s good that he was being creative and making it his own, but as someone who does not follow pop music, I just wanted to hear more of the same songs I knew and loved from Hamilton. I realize that that’s the fault of my own shallow music taste, though, and I really think that you should give the Hamilton Mixtape a try! After listening to the entire soundtrack on repeat for six months, it’s exciting to have some new fuel for Hamilton fans.

Thanks a lot, Lin Manuel Miranda. You’ve made it impossible for us to let go.