Can’t wait until Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s star-packed The Hamilton Mixtape drops tomorrow, December 2? Great news! In advance of the album’s release, a slew of the guest musicians from the mixtape appeared live in NYC at the Richard Rodgers Theater, performing songs from the brand new album.
Black Thought and Questlove from the Roots served as the event’s emcees, and even though Quest had to bounce a little bit early, they did a great job keeping fans amped for each act that appeared. Though Lin had to appear via video message from London, we got excellent performances from Regina Spektor, who recorded “Dear Theodosia” for the tape, Andra Day, Joell Ortiz, and legends Ja Rule and Ashanti, whom Lin was obsessed with (weren’t we all?) in the early aughts.
The 23-track mixtape features music from Sia, Nas, Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, Chance the Rapper, and a whole bunch of others. So far we’ve heard songs from Usher, The Roots, Kelly Clarkson, and Ashanti & Ja Rule, and they’ve all been fire. The amount of star-power attached to the mixtape is just further testament–as if a record setting week of Broadway sales wasn’t an indicator — to the musical’s cultural staying power.
Check out the live stream above and let us know which performance was your favorite of the bunch! We’re suckers for Ashanti and Ja Rule.
Featured Image: Steve Jurvetson/Flickr
Matt Grosinger is the music editor for Nerdist and can’t wait to hear the entire mixtape when it drops.
