"Sit Down, John"

The John Adams storyline, while a pretty short one, is very entertaining. John Adams himself isn't actually a character in the show, but his presence is represented by a deep, almost demonic voice that doubles several lyrics in mid-Act II. We're told that Hamilton and Adams constantly fought and practically destroyed the Federalist party- of which they were the only two significant members- but we only get a tiny bit of back-and-forth: Adams calling Hamilton "creole bastard," and Hamilton's response, of which we only get to hear a clip (including a censored F-bomb).

As a lot of people know, the "sit down, John" line is the end of what was originally a much longer diss rap from Hamilton to Adams. With a quick YouTube search, you can find Lin-Manuel Miranda performing said rap, and as you'd expect, it's some pretty good stuff. His trademark wordplay and rhythmic originality are on full display. It's not a bad rap at all, it's actually pretty great. So why cut it?

Say what you will about Hamilton, but it's an incredibly focused show. This might seem like an odd thing to say about a musical that clocks in at around two and a half hours, but there's not a lot of fat. Every song has a pretty distinct purpose, and the story loses something if you cut any of them. Even "Tomorrow There'll Be More of Us," a reprise of "The Story of Tonight" which shows Hamilton receiving word of John Laurens' death at the tail end of the first act, which is famously missing from the soundtrack, adds a little something to the story and Hamilton's motivation going forward.

This is ultimately the explanation for the cutting of the Adams rap. However good it might be, Hamilton accomplishes ultimately the same thing in one sentence. The show has a lot of story to tell, and can't affort to stop for anything that doesn't add anything of substance. Who knows, maybe it'll end up on the mixtape.

The Redundancy of "Hurricane"

Alexander isn't a typical musical protagonist in more ways than one, but one of the most immediately noticeable ways is that he only sings one solo in the entire show. "Hurricane" comes about halfway into Act II, right as the sex scandal storyline is picking up, and features Alexander singing alone. The staging frames him in the middle of a number of chorus members, swirling and dipping around him like a hurricane, placing more of an emphasis of him, in the "eye" of the hurricane (also reflecting the repeated lyric in the song "In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet").

So with all this focus and singularity, this song has to be something groundbreaking and fresh, right? A new look into Alexander's psyche, or an exciting new tune. Right?

Wrong. The subject of the song is just a reiteration of the opening number, this time told by Hamilton instead of about him, and the backing instrumentals feature motifs from "Yorktown."

What the hell, show?

But while this song is fairly redundant, both content-wise and musically, it serves a very important purpose. Miranda and his team didn't just copy and paste elements of other songs, they crafted them together in a meaningful way.

The lyrics remind us of themes that drive the character that we haven't heard since the beginning of act one- almost two hours ago in show time- and they're also used in a different way. In "Alexander Hamilton" they're used as exposition, setting the stage for the "important" parts of the story, but here they're used to reinforce Alexander's emotions and motivations.

The music also has purpose- in reiterating themes and motifs from "Yorktown," it gives us the same emotional context that we felt during that song- battle, struggle, and ultimately triumph. This can represent both the emotional struggle in his youth that he sings about, or the struggle that he is about to face with The Reynolds Pamphlet. Either way, the choice to use the same music from a scene in which our characters fought and won a war is not coincidental.

It just goes to show, like I've said before, that this show does nothing on accident.

The Hamilton Mixtape

As a lot of people know, Hamilton did not originally start out as a musical. Lin-Manuel Miranda's first idea, after reading Ron Chernow's biography, was to create a project entitled The Hamilton Mixtape. As time went on, he developed his songs to fit a stage musical structure, eventually writing the show in its full form as we know it today. And the answer to "why" it was developed as a staged production instead of a mixtape is one that has been answered a million times in a million different interviews and news articles, so instead I want to look at what makes a mixtape, and how Hamilton's story fits that mold.

Mixtapes have been around, in the hip-hop world, since the 1970s, when they originated as recordings of live performances (the only way the genre existed outside of the in-person gigs). Over time they grew and changed, as DJs and artists recorded samples and compilations of their material which were distributed primarily in large cities like New York. These recordings often blended genres like rap, R&B, and soul over hip-hop beats to create new and original tracks. Today, mixtapes take several forms, such as developmental recordings by new artists, experimental albums or passion projects by existing musicians, and promotional or "filler" material leading up to the release of an official album. One thing ties all of these together- they are almost always released for free. This is often for legal reasons- mixtapes usually predominantly feature mixes or samples of pre-existing songs which haven't had copyright agreements cleared or negotiated, thus making any profit gained from them illegal. But sometimes the tapes won't contain any copyrighted material, and will simply be released as a "gift" to fans from the artist.

While I doubt The Hamilton Mixtape would've been released for free, I do think it fits a lot of the molds of a mixtape. Many of the songs on the album contain a myriad of melodies and lyrics from pre-existing hip-hop tracks that, were the show not staged, Miranda may have chosen to sample for the recording. Hamilton also features lots of songs which blend genres ("Satisfied," "The Story of Tonight" and its reprise, and "One Last Time" come to mind), another classic staple of mixtapes. It could also be seen as a passion project, similar to many mixtapes released today by established creators- an umbrella beneath which Miranda definitely falls (and would've at the time), after the resounding success of his show In the Heights.

All this being said, The Hamilton Mixtape might not be dead. Miranda and producer Questlove have gone on record saying they're in the process of developing a supplemental album featuring covers of numbers from the show by famous musicians, as well as original new tracks about the characters. So this passion project might have a second life, even after the original idea has flown from the nest and become its own full-fledged creation in Hamilton. I, for one, really hope to see the mixtape released.