Hamilton, what could be called the hottest ticket in town, is a musical about America’s founding fathers and has been stunning audiences for over a year. It has amassed a large gathering of fans willing to wait on their feet for hours hoping to score a ticket, swept in many praises, including 11 Tony and a Grammy award, and has led many to fall in love with a piece of history they are learning for the first time.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the famed mastermind behind the Broadway hit, has decided to give another gift to his fans: The Hamilton Mixtape. It is a beautiful treasure of songs from the production, as well as new songs, reimagined and sung by popular artists.
In an article titled “Questlove and Lin-Manuel Miranda Give Details of The Hamilton Mixtape,” Miranda explains he originally thought Hamilton would be a concept album.
“I wanted to write really dense, fun lyrics like my favorite hip-hop artists did,” Miranda said. “I thought I would write a bunch of great songs that tell the greatest hits of Hamilton’s life, have artists cover it, and someone else would stage it later.”
Miranda also explained why he thought Alexander Hamilton’s life would make a good case for being transformed into hip-hop music.
“To me, Hamilton was a hip-hop artist,” Miranda said. “He used his words to get everywhere. He also ruined his life using those verbal abilities.”
For the past two weeks, two songs have been released each Friday from the mixtape. Fingers crossed the trend will continue and tomorrow two more songs will be released.
Currently, the four songs available for listening on Spotify and iTunes are: “My Shot,” “Satisfied,” “It’s Quiet Uptown” and “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done).”
As reported by Playbill, below is a list of the songs on the mixtape.
- “No John Trumbull” (Intro) – The Roots
- “My Shot” (feat. Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz & Nate Ruess) [Rise Up Remix] – The Roots
- “Wrote My Way Out” – Nas, Dave East, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Aloe Blacc
- “Wait For It” – Usher
- “An Open Letter” (feat. Shockwave) [Interlude] – Watsky
- “Satisfied” (feat. Miguel & Queen Latifah) – Sia
- “Dear Theodosia” (feat. Ben Folds) – Regina Spektor
- “Valley Forge” (Demo) – Lin-Manuel Miranda
- “It’s Quiet Uptown” – Kelly Clarkson
- “That Would Be Enough” – Alicia Keys
- “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)” – K’naan, Snow Tha Product, Riz MC, Residente
- “You’ll Be Back” – Jimmy Fallon & The Roots
- “Helpless” (feat. Ja Rule) – Ashanti
- “Take A Break” (Interlude) – !llmind
- “Say Yes To This” – Jill Scott
- “Congratulations” – Dessa
- “Burn” – Andra Day
- “Stay Alive” (Interlude) – J.PERIOD & Stro Elliot
- “Slavery Battle” (Demo) – Lin-Manuel Miranda
- “Washingtons By Your Side” – Wiz Khalifa
- “History Has Its Eyes On You” – John Legend
- “Who Tells Your Story” (feat. Common & Ingrid Michaelson) – The Roots
- “Dear Theodosia” (Reprise) – Chance The Rapper & Francis and The Lights
Featured Photo Credit: Feature photo courtesy of Hamilton: An American Musical on Facebook.
Ilana Bernstein is a junior journalism and theatre double major and can be reached at ilanab@terpmail.umd.edu.
