
Hamilton and Anti-Hip Hop Hypocrisy
Hamilton is musical stage-play written and produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It is based on the biography by Ron Chernow, titled after the primary focus, Alexander Hamilton. The play is a mostly accurate, with some creative licenses taken, telling of the life of the eponymous founding father going from his rise to power as an assistant to George Washington all the way to his death at the hands of vitriolic friend Aaron Burr. The play became notable not just for its blind casting of historical figures and the well written narrative, but for its extensive use of hip hop in the majority of songs. Taking place in New York, the birthplace of hip hop, the Hamilton as a protagonist “[writes] his way out” in the same sense of rappers who struggled in life and used music and poetry to become public phenomenons. This was not lost on Miranda who voluntarily wrote the play with hip hop in mind due to the similarities he noticed. Not only this, Miranda is an unabashed hip hop fan.
However, many fans of Hamilton have a disdain for hip hop and maintained this disdain even after listening to the music of this play. For those who dislike hip hop and avoided the play because of it, their reasoning is valid. If one dislikes, say, rock music, but a sung through musical is done almost entirely in rock, they should avoid it. I recently spoke to a friend from high school who has always expressed disdain of hip hop, even when I called out the hypocrisy of her being a Linkin Park fan, yet loved Hamilton. How can one love this play, yet hate hip hop despite the play being a character piece rooted in hip hop?

One of the complaints from a fan of the play stated they don’t consider “ yelling into a mic while walking back and forth across a stage throwing your arms up in the air music.” However, this is Hercules Mulligan’s shtick. His style is reminiscent of Busta Rhymes, known to be loud and powerful when delivering lines. It’s also not fair to label all hip hop as yelling when artists such as Chance the Rapper and Lil Dicky have styles that rarely incorporate shouting. And throwing one’s arms around is a common thing performers do in order to show energy when unsure what to do with their hands.
One commenter in this thread stated that the content of rap music is what pushes them from the genre as a whole. They didn’t particularly state what content, just the content in general. However, hip hop, like any other genre, has subject matter that varies from murder to politics to partying to depression. Another commenter stated that “ [She] categorize all of rap the same way because I see it performed all the time on TV, for all the years it’s been around and that’s the only kind I’ve seen. Never saw any other kind.” Someone else replied to her in a perfect manner.
“ The point is, when you let others (tv shows, for instance) curate for you, your tastes for a genre are reflexive: you either like or don’t like what’s given to you and that’s as far as your engagement goes. When you investigate for yourself, and try to take a grasp of the genre from whatever foothold you start with, and follow your own path through the tangled maze of influences, you develop an understanding and appreciation for what you like and don’t like. Rap has many styles and periods, many brilliant artists and many shallow poseurs. If Lin and HAMILTON are a foothold you can use, it’s worth investigating. But I wouldn’t write off a show just because it uses a form of music I’ve only passively engaged with and tuned out.”

Going through each comment on a variety of sites would be incredibly time consuming and would result in nitpicking. But, simply put, being a Hamilton fan is impossible without respecting hip hop. As said above, the musical is easily over half rapping and hip hop instrumentals including two rap battles. Again, the location and the interests of the creator are rooted in hip hop. And, finally, the protagonist wrote his way out of poverty just like many rappers of the day.
More than this though, Hamilton proves that hip hop is not all that’s played on television and the radio. It can be used as a tool for storytelling and has its own artistic integrity. Miranda was not the first artist to use hip hop in a way that subverts the preconceived notions of the genre. Many other artists including cast member Daveed Diggs, lead vocalist of clipping., have done the same, as well as A Tribe Called Quest, Slick Rick, Kid Cudi, and more. Other major rappers have noted the artistic integrity of the play, most notably Talib Kweli. The only major difference between Miranda and other rappers is that Hamilton is safe. It’s not controversial. While Hamilton is a wonderful piece of musical theatre, it should not be distanced from its roots because of it. Sleep tight.

