Mar 03, 2016
Words by Sara Masjedi
After winning the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album just last month, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop-centric musical Hamilton is set to drop a mixtape later this year.
The mixtape will be a collection of remixes and covers from the soundtrack, as performed by rap and hip-hop stars such as Chance the Rapper, Busta Rhymes, Common, and Queen Latifah, along with musical greats Regina Spektor and Ben Folds. Even if hip-hop isn’t your favorite genre of music, Regina Spektor’s presence on the mixtape is sure to be amazing (this woman can do no wrong).
Lin-Manuel Miranda told Vanity Fair, “I really wanted the hip-hop community to embrace Hamilton because it’s such a love letter to them.” He recruited Questlove, who was the executive producer of the Hamilton soundtrack, to help with the compilation of the mixtape. “Half the songs are cover versions of songs in the show, and the others are interpolations – we’ll take some of this, some of that, and make something new out of it,” Questlove told Vanity Fair.
Along with the current list of artists to be on the mixtape, several others are to be revealed later in the year.
Although Miranda will not make an appearance on the mixtape in order to keep it “inspired by the original,” it should nonetheless make a large impact on the hip-hop community. Hamilton was the first large-scale Broadway musical to be predominantly hip-hop-based, and that has influenced how hip-hop is viewed as an art form.
The Hamilton Mixtape should be another step in the right direction with respect to conversations about hip-hop.
Image: Joan Marcus