Hamilton the Musical and the Repackaging of African American Music
Hamilton: An American Musical
Hamilton the Broadway musical took the world by storm when it debuted first off-broadway on February 17, 2015. With a soundtrack composed almost entirely of rap songs, the musical depicts the journey of a forgotten Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, from his immigration to America, to his rebuilding of the American financial system, to his death at the hands of his former friend—and everything in between. Following its opening on Broadway on August 9, 2015, Hamilton was nominated for 16 Tony awards, a record breaking number, and won 11 of them—including Best Musical. The musical also received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2016. However, it is worth noticing that this is yet another example of African American culture being repackaged and distributed to a profit non-African American person(s).
This presentation will explore the history of Hip Hop in African American culture, the commonalities between Hip Hop music and culture in the musical Hamilton, and how the musical affected the world's view on Hip Hop.
The Origins of Hip Hop
The Bronx was the birthplace of Hip Hop in the 1970s. Hip Hop served as a looking glass into the day to day lives of the people living in New York during a time of financial, political, and societal turmoil. It serves as a means of escapism from the harsh realities of life, and a way to tell stories—in a very similar manner as the Blues.
In fact, Hip Hop really blew up in the Black community with a block party back in August of 1973.
What started out as a simple Back to School Party hosted by a brother and sister duo, turned into a massive event hosting hundreds of people that included nearly all of the pillars of Hip Hop: rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and grafitti. The brother of the hosting duo was known as DJ Kool Herc. At the party, he unfused his Jamaican heritage into his beats that he was able to share with the party-goers which provided a new spin on the emerging genre.
Since then, Hip Hop has played a massive role in American culture, which is what typically happens to aspects of Black culture. Hip Hop influences language and slang, style, fashion, addresses societal issues, and has overall become mainstream in day to day life not only in America, but all around the world. However, even with the massive impact Hip Hop has made, it is still not fully accepted in our society.
Repackaging Black Culture
While there has been no overwhelming evidence shown to prove that Lin Manuel Miranda intentionally and maliciously "stole" aspects of Black Rap/Hip Hop culture and profited from adding those aspects to Hamilton, that is essentially what happened. But this is not a new concept. Black culture is often repackaged by non-Black people, and used to gain profit, fame, followers, and likes. But at the same time, when a Black person participates in those aspects of the culture that is native to them, they are looked down upon or discriminated against.
For example, when Kim Kardashian wore Fulani braids—a common hairstyle for Black women—and called them "Bo Derek braids", much of the non-Black community responded to her with praise. Ellie the Elephant, the mascot for the New York Liberty WNBA team, draws many of her mannerisms, features, characterization, hairstyles, and outfits from Black women. Non-Black women often get body modification surgeries to replicate the body types and features of Black women. In these scenarios, the non-Black person who is participating in or attempting to replicate Black culture is applauded in many scenarios. But when a Black person participates in those parts of their own culture, they are ridiculed, criticized, or even over-sexualized in ways that their non-Black counterpart is not.
Here is a TikTok that takes a deeper dive into an example of repackaging Black culture.
Merging Hip Hop and Musical Theater
Rap and Hip Hop have been around for a long time now, and there have been other attempts to bridge the gap between Rap, Hip Hop and Black culture with the musical theater world.
The Beginnings of Hamilton
The musical numbers for Hamilton began as a mixtape. Lin-Manuel Miranda began working on the music in 2008, which was originally titled "The Hamilton Mixtape." The mixtape was sent to Oscar Eustis, the Artistic Director of the New York Public Theater, who then agreed to help Miranda develop the show.
Listen to The Hamilton Mixtape
Mixtapes, too, have deep roots in the Black community. Budding rappers and DJs would use mixtapes to record their songs, remixes, and freestyles. It was a means to share their craft with friends, family, classmates, strangers, and hopefully producers. Additionally, mixtapes helped to spread different techniques of DJing like the "chopped and screwed" technique that was a staple in Hip Hop in the South.
Watch the video below to hear Miranda describe his Black Hip Hop and Rap influences when writing the lyrics to some of Hamiltons most recognizable songs. Watch from 24: 16 to 27:28.
Learn more about some of the Black artists Miranda mentioned below.
⬆️
Click to read about Mobb Deep
⬆️
Click to read about Rakim
⬆️
Click to read about Gil Scott-Heron
Hamilton vs. The Source Material
Below are several examples of how Lin-Manuel Miranda incorporated popular Black and/or Hip Hop artists and lyrics into the music of Hamilton.
There are, of course, more references and connections between Hamilton and Hip Hop/Black culture, but these are some of the most obvious.

More Connections

Another example of connecting Hamilton to Hip Hop/Rap Culture is in "Cabinet Battle #1" and Cabinet Battle #2" where the battles are fashioned after rap battles. In the prime days of Hip Hop, "DJs battled to see who had the best skillset, record collections, and sound systems. B-Boys battled to see who had the best moves and MCs battled to determine who had the best rhymes and routines. Rap battles were judged by which MC (or crew) received the loudest applause at the end of the said battle. It was just that simple, the audible response from the audience determined the victor" In the case of the Cabinet Battles, the victor was determined by whoever could get George Washington on their side. There are many more connections to be made, the the previously listed ones are the examples that draw directly from their respective source material. Whether that be the same lyrics, melodies, or flow, it is abundantly clear that Black music has played a massive role in the creation of the musical numbers in Hamilton.

The Impact
Hamilton won several off and on Broadway awards. The on Broadway awards involving music include:
  • Tony Awards:
  • Best Musical
  • Best Original Score
  • Grammy Awards:
  • Best Musical Theater Album
  • Billboard Music Award:
  • Top Soundtrack/Cast Album
Clearly, the music for this production was greatly appreciated. So much so that the cast album was charting on the Billboard 200 list at number 12 when it was first released. After the Tony Awards in 2016, the album peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 3, making it one of three cast recordings to reach the Top 10 in 50 years. And the album even made it to number 3 on the Billboard Top Rap Albums list!
Additionally, prior opening on Broadway, there were already $30 million in ticket sales made for the on Broadway debut. Shows were sold out for months in advance, money was rolling in from the millions of streams, there were at least $3 million a week in ticket sales, and the ticket lottery for seats to a show also brought in another thousands of dollars.
The Repackaging
It is important to note that Hamilton is not the first attempt to integrate Black music into Broadway. However, previous attempts were not nearly as award winning, financially lucrative, or world renowned. While there is virtually no denying that Hamilton is an incredibly well written piece of art, it makes one wonder if that could be due to the fact that the aspects of Black culture are being depicted by a non-Black vessel. "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk" and "Topdog/Undedog
An
Who Lives, Who Does, Who Tells Your Story
Conclusion
Sources

Wikipedia

Mixtape

In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists more creative freedom and less commercial pressure. The term has significantly increased in popularity over the years due to high-profile artists marketing their projects as such. Mixtapes also have been inconsistently referred to as albums by reputable media outlets such as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and Complex. This has caused notable confusion on the differences between an album and a mixtape.

WIRED

How Mixtapes Remixed Music History—and Its Future

They started out as dubbed cassettes of live performances. Decades later, they’re still integral to the careers of emerging artists.

Made with