#NerdMusicMonday: The Hamilton Mixtape
Welcome to #NerdMusicMonday, where we feature some of the greatest geek-inspired music to start your week on the right note. We also review geek-inspired music things that we see floating around the Internet, for better or worse.
Hey there, Hamilton fan! Last weekend saw the release of the much-awaited Hamilton Mixtape. If you want to get more mashups of hip-hop and the American founding fathers, here’s your chance to disappear for a couple of hours in the phat beats produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda and The Roots.
Covering the songs are some of the show’s inspirations (Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, Ashanti, Ja Rule, and Alicia Keys, to name a few), and as a bonus, Miranda added few demos of tracks that didn’t make it to the musical. Cabinet Battle #3, in particular, deals with slavery and further stirs up the rivalry between Hamilton and Jefferson.
I felt a bit of disappointment when the first few tracks dropped, as I felt that they didn’t quite capture the feelings of the originals. Now that the entire mixtape is out and I can listen to the songs in their context, I thought that they were pretty good cover versions. Except for Jimmy Fallon’s version of You’ll Be Back. Ugh.
Highlights include:
- Wait For It by Usher
- My Shot by The Roots
- Helpless by Ashanti and Ja Rule
- Immigrants (We Get The Job Done) by K’NAAN
- History Has Its Eyes On You by John Legend
- Dear Theodosia (Reprise) by Chance The Rapper & Francis and the Lights
You can stream the entire mixtape here:
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