If you want to feel young, just tell yourself that Hamilton has been running on Broadway for only FIVE years. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not very long and yet it feels like the show has always been down there selling out The Richard Rodgers Theater for decades, even going back to your grandpappy. The show has this enviable ubiquity, managing to exemplify what’s great about live theater better than any other show. It modernized the musical, infusing hip-hop and history in ways that would be hacky if it wasn’t so incredibly catchy. The world turned upside down when Lin-Manuel Miranda took to the stage for the first time as Alexander Hamilton, and I don’t know that any show in the next decade will be as responsible for saving live theater quite like this.
Among its many revolutionary techniques to creator-audience interactions is Miranda’s willingness to celebrate collaborations from outside artists. Among the noteworthy versions is Weird Al Yankovic’s “Hamilton Polka,” and the mash-up of “Story of Tonight” with Dear Evan Hansen’s “You Will Be Found.” As a show, Hamilton is on the cutting edge of transparency and that goes a long way to draw in a new crowd that otherwise wouldn’t see a musical. Considering that Disney+ is about to release a professionally filmed version of the show, it feels like a good time to look back at the biggest gimmick of them all, the one that proved how far-reaching the phenomenon would stretch:
“The Hamilton Mixtape.”
On the one hand, “The Hamilton Mixtape” isn’t a cynical cash-in. The story goes that before Hamilton was going to be a musical, he was going to make it into a concept album. Considering that this was fairly common, especially for Andrew Lloyd Webber shows like Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, the choice to make “The Hamilton Tapes” was a decent use of time. After all, Miranda was coming off of In the Heights and was considered a prodigy ready to change live theater forever. He was also an Oscar short of an EGOT, proving how much anticipation was put into this oddball project. There hadn’t been a full-on hip-hop musical before, so making a concept album made the most sense.
In creating the “Tape,” he had these melodies and hooks that he offered others to remix. For years it was a mythic project where hip-hop and R&B artists would interpret the music in their own way. It should be noted that while the final project is spotty at best, the malleable structure proved how brilliant it was going to be. Not only could this be sung by theater geeks, but also those who probably wore out their copies of Nas’ “Illmatic.”
Diversity was coming together in beautiful ways, and it’s to Miranda’s credit that he had the musical ability to make music that appealed to the masses. While there have been great contemporary shows, few feel as omnipresent where EVERYONE knows your name. There have even been knock-off musicals with Spamilton. This feels like the start of a new, more exciting era of the medium, though it doesn’t mean that “The Hamilton Mixtape” doesn’t sound like an unnecessary gimmick.
The album came out in 2016, over a year following Hamilton’s Broadway debut and its hold on the culture. It felt like a good novelty gift for fans who were eager for a little bit more, especially when it featured an incredible mix of musicians coming together to reinterpret this groundbreaking musical through a modern lens. In some respects, it’s only a Hamilton album in that every song has a tonal reference to its source material.
However, the few covers on this album prove something that other modern Broadway shows couldn’t achieve: they could be pretty good radio hits. While we’re way past the era of Frank Sinatra covering Broadway standards, it is something that I personally miss. Then again, I look at shows like The Book of Mormon and ask how any of that could translate into Top 40 material. I don’t even know that half of the lyrics to “Hasa Diga Ebowai” would get through the censors. Even “I Believe” feels like you need context to understand some lyrics.
If there’s any sign that things are going to be remixed, it’s the opening two songs “My Shot” and “Wrote My Way Out,” which find the most rap-centric songs on the album. The former more closely references the hit song in its chorus while every verse (taken interchangeably by The Roots, Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz, and Nate Ruess) finds the performers personalizing the song to be about their own personal struggles. It’s the most direct understanding of what this album is going for, where the themes of Hamilton parallel the contemporary struggles of immigrants and voices who have been ignored finally getting their say.
This is the sound of the streets, and you understand the immediacy of every moment, why this needs to be an energetic celebration. When paired with “Wrote My Way Out,” (featuring Nas, Dave East, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Aloe Blacc), it reflects the underdog eager to please, working hard to make a difference.
If there’s any issue, it’s that the other remixes aren’t particularly inspiring. There’s “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” which is fine but feels too reliant on the hook recalling the title. The same can be said for “Washingtons by Your Side,” where Wiz Khalifa gets a whole song to himself that amounts to something that’s underwhelming, meant more as braggadocio. While that fits the idea of the show, it’s the epitome of how this trend can go horribly wrong, losing any deeper meaning than to be a club banger that will not stick with you.
The actual covers are on one hand far less interesting by being direct interpretations. There are few creative tweaks that make it worthwhile to go into detail on each of them. The best that can be said is that Miranda’s music is one of the most capable of being adapted into different styles, making you see how these lyrics can be repurposed as ballads that wouldn’t be out of place on the radio. Frankly, I am surprised that this wasn’t the case for any of them. It’s the one oversight of “The Hamilton Mixtape” that I don’t fully understand. While it’s great to have this in your personal collection, it’s the one aspect of Hamilton that didn’t permeate the culture on a deeper level.
There is something enjoyable about the songs that are given a 10% tweak, such as “Satisfied” that may be a literal cover, but finds Sia, Miguel, and Queen Latifah trading lines and harmonizing in ways that breathe new life into them. The harmonies have become pop, and the aggressive flow feels new with each of the rhythmic breaks bringing something more fulfilling. That’s how a lot of these songs end up being. “Helpless” for instance feels like a throwback to early-2000’s rap/singer ballads that were trendy at the time, especially considering that Ashanti and Ja Rule probably haven’t worked in a few years before this after being inescapable for a five-year stretch.
Even the choice to feature two covers of “Dear Theodosia” has a fun quirky vibe. The first is more Soviet Kitsch from Regina Spektor and Ben Folds. It’s a bouncy piano that manages to make it sound jaunty. You’re drawn into the sincerity under the otherwise silly melody, and it stands out as one of the oddest, most endearing covers on the album. Similarly, “Dear Theodosia (Reprise)” finds Chance the Rapper and Francis and the Lights bringing more of a light hip-hop view to the project. It’s quieter but leaves us with a message to follow our dreams. Given that Chance the Rapper at the time was getting acclaim as one of the great self-made rappers, it had a bigger symbolism behind it.
If there was anything that lacked any symbolism or necessity, it was the cover of “You’ll Be Back.” Go ahead and guess who did it. I promise you that whatever name you just came up with will be a lot better than who Miranda landed on. Take another moment. Think of somebody else, and you know what? I promise you that they’re also better. We’re talking about a song that could be a quick drop-in by any idiosyncratic talent, whether in terms of style or personality…
Nope. We got Jimmy Fallon.
On one hand, I get it. Looking at the contributors' list, The Tonight Show house band The Roots has THREE songs on this album. It would make sense to have Fallon for that reason alone. Though if we’re being honest, its only symbolism is how much of a wasted potential this moment is. We could’ve gotten any Broadway person here. Maybe do a woman to be cheeky. Maybe go with a ska cover. Anything would be better than getting stuck with Fallon, who always seems to be too eager to please that he is off-putting. He’s James Corden without any charisma or talent (sorry, as a David Letterman stalwart, I have very specific views on what late-night TV should look like).
But it’s more than my bias against him. It’s that where every other song is tightly wound getting to the point the minute that the ‘RECORD’ button is hit, we’re stuck in a four-minute track listening to Fallon’s warm-up, making bad jokes about how he’s a terrible singer. The self-effacing isn’t cute, and he even does annoying breathing exercises just to prove how unfit for this song he is. What follows is fine, but it feels so… uninspired. Why is he here? I get that this is a villain song, but you could pick someone who acts unlikeable instead and it would be much better.
Then there are the interstitials, which are probably the most fun exercises on the album. The Roots kick things off with “No John Trumbull (Intro)” where they talk about the importance of remembering art. It’s another bragging right, though through a historical lens, and sets up the album in such a way that it never lives up to. Yes, we’re here to remember how Hamilton never got his due, but otherwise, the historical connection is lacking. This isn’t a bad thing, though it only makes this feel more like a compilation instead of a concept album.
It gets more interesting on “An Open Letter (Interlude)” with Watsky and Shockwave, which even pulls dialogue from 1776 (“Sit down John!”). It’s a goofy rap that gives the show personality. Similarly, “Take a Break (Interlude)” and “Stay Alive (Interlude)” are seconds-long tracks that infuse a fun melodic personality that makes one wonder what would happen if this album was a fully remixed vision. Could Hamilton exist as a production conceived entirely by Top 40 artists and be just as successful?
For what it’s worth, this is easily going to be the most dated piece of the Hamilton phenomenon. Regardless of how good any song is, you’re looking at a tracklist of names that have differing levels of success in 2020. Only four years later, and Ja Rule is more known as The Fyre Festival Bamboozler. Some of these songs will stand the test of time, but all that it otherwise does is cement a moment of who was popular in the early 2000s, able to fraternize with Miranda and make an album that was vibrant, full of energy and odd ideas coming together to make something that will hopefully lead to a better Hamilton covers album.
With this said, “The Hamilton Mixtape” has revived these strange compilations in ways that are far less inspired. “The Greatest Showman Reimagined” does similar things for The Greatest Showman (2017), trying to find the intersection between pop and musicals. It makes far more sense than you’d expect, though I still question its overall value.
Maybe it’s just because modern pop is still so strange to me, or that this caters more towards the “bigger is better” aesthetic that I don’t always love. Whatever the case may be, I listen to this “Mixtape” and respect how versatile Hamilton is. With that said, I’m not likely to remember most of these covers as more than fans getting together to celebrate a great show. That’s fine. This whole album is fine. As a chaser to Friday and Disney+’s big release, this will do, I guess.
Comments
Post a Comment