Eight years ago, in the middle of the initial wave of Hamilton-mania, I posted a handful of songs from the Hamilton Mixtape, a project that saw the musical’s songs reinterpreted by a host of contemporary musicians.
It was a cool project that shed new light on great songs, and allowed Lin-Manuel Miranda to enlist some of the artists who inspired his work. It’s also the kind of novelty release you listen to once or twice and never revisit.
When I first started listening to Hamilton, long before I saw it on Broadway and before I knew it would become my whole family’s obsession, I was immediately drawn to the simple piano ballad ‘Dear Theodosia.’ It’s a love song from Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to their young children and one of the prettiest songs in the play.
The track reminded me of Ben Folds’ ‘Gracie,’ one of my very favorite songs, and at the time I longed for a Ben Folds cover of ‘Dear Theodosia.’
In addition to covers of original Hamilton tracks and new songs inspired by the play, the Hamilton Mixtape features a couple of songs that were cut from the musical.
One of those is ‘Cabinet Battle 3,’ another political debate reimagined in the form of a rap battle. Numbers one and two, which focus, respectively, on the monetary system and neutrality regarding France’s war with Britain, epitomize Miranda’s incredible feat of telling centuries-old stories in a modern style.
OK, confession time. I’m not a big fan of the Hamilton Mixtape. It has its moments — principally the ones I’m featuring this week — but too much of it falls flat.
I think the problem is that Hamilton is already a hip-hop musical. It doesn’t benefit from “modernized” versions of its songs because it’s modern. An R&B remix of a South Pacific song might sound adventurous, but asking Alicia Keys and John Legend to perform songs that are already slinkily soulful adds very little.
Like yesterday’s selection, today’s Hamilton Mixtape song is a rap inspired by a single line from the musical.
In this case, it’s the beloved line from ‘Yorktown’: “Immigrants, we get the job done.” It’s a throwaway line that became a rallying cry during an election year that saw so much demagoguery against immigrants (and that was before the chief demagogue won).
Meet Me In Montauk 