Hip-hop has always spawned collaboration. When people dig what youâre doing, they want to be a part of it, and the vocal-centric, hip-hop art form lends itself well to such partnership. Hamilton, the universally lauded musical rendered in hip-hop, has inspired people in and beyond hip-hop realms. To accommodate that community, the showâs creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is teaming up with Questlove to create The Hamilton Mixtape.
âI really wanted the hip-hop community to embrace Hamilton because itâs such a love letter to them,â Miranda told Vanity Fair. âTo me, Hamilton was a hip-hop artist. He used his words to get everywhere. He also ruined his life using those verbal abilities. I thought of this as a concept album like Jesus Christ Superstar; that was an album before it was staged as a show. I wanted to write really dense, fun lyrics like my favorite hip-hop artists did.â
Questlove has been one of Mirandaâs favorite artists since The Roots played his collegeâs âSpring Fling.â Asked whether he had always wanted the hip-hop maven to be involved, Miranda said, âThat was the dream.â Now, Questlove, who executive-produced the musicalâs Grammy-winning cast album, is on-board for the mixtape, bringing even more legitimacy to the project.
So far, Questlove says, the mixtape’s lineup includes Chance the Rapper, Common, Ben Folds, Busta Rhymes, Regina Spektor, Queen Latifah, and others. âPeople are coming out of the woodwork, knocking on the door,â he says. âHalf the songs are cover versions of songs in the show, and the others are interpolationsâweâll take some of this, some of that, and make something new out of it.â
Miranda wonât be a part of the album because âthe goal is to keep this inspired by the original,â but that shouldnât diminish its impact. âHamilton is the balance that hip-hop needed,â said Questlove. âItâs changing the conversation. The amount of people in my apartment building treating me different now … This is a key moment for Broadway and for music.â
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HT: Vanity Fair
IMAGE:Â John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation/Creative Commons