Hamilton Origins Explained: Why Lin-Manuel Miranda Wrote A Founding Father Musical

Eleven years before Hamilton debuted on Disney+, creator Lin-Manuel Miranda performed the opening track for Barack Obama at White House Poetry Jam 2009, an event described as “An Evening of Poetry, Music & the Spoken Word.” At the time, the 29-year-old playwright was best known for his Tony Award-winning Broadway production In the Heights, and originally planned to entertain the audience with songs from the musical. Instead, Miranda announced that he would perform material from a new “concept album” about Alexander Hamilton.

Miranda initially conceived Hamilton after reading Ron Chernow’s 2004 book Alexander Hamilton, an 818-page biography about an immigrant who overcame the odds and became one of American’s founding fathers. Over the next several years, Miranda modernized the story for a stage adaptation by incorporating an urban element; one that aligns with the aestethic for the well-received In the Heights. But rather than just tweaking the personalities of the Hamilton characters, Miranda composed the majority of the music in the style of hip-hop — or more specifically, in the style of a hip-hop mixtape. By January 2015, Hamilton premiered off-broadway and then became a New York City phenomenon upon its Broadway run between August 2015 and July 2016. Hamilton on Disney+ was recorded in June 2016 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

Hamilton: What The Musical Changes About The Real Alexander Hamilton

When Miranda appeared at White House Poetry Jam 2009, the audience didn’t go crazy when he announced an Alexander Hamilton-themed hip-hop album. “You laugh,” Miranda says, “but it’s true.” He then details Hamilton’s resume, and how the revolutionary ultimately became George Washington’s “right hand man” and “caught beef” with the founding fathers. The audience listen patiently as a clean-cut Miranda cites Hamilton’s strength as a writer, and reveals that he will performing a song from The Hamilton Mixtape, which was eventually released approximately seven and a half years later (after the stage production ended).

Miranda’s 2009 performance for Obama and company shows that the song “Alexander Hamilton” was already a fully-realized composition, one that mirrors the eventual stage production, both lyrically and in tone. Grammy Award-winning music director Alex Lacamoire (In the Heights) plays piano for the performance, which begins with Miranda suggesting that the audience “snap along.” Miranda also states that he’ll be playing the part of Aaron Burr (the song would ultimately include verses for Hamilton, Burr, John Laurens, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Eliza Hamilton, George Washington, and “Company”).

Unsurprisingly, Miranda manages to captivate the White House audience with each passing verse of his performance. At first, Obama appears genuinely curious about what’s transpiring, and the First Lady Michelle Obama seems purely intrigued. When the music beings, approximately 20 seconds go by without a single audience laugh, but the crowd then begins to understand the lyrical depth of Miranda’s composition. Ninety seconds later, a crowd member nods along to “Alexander Hamilton,” with a stunned look, as the featured performer rhymes about the subject’s difficult upbringing. Miranda’s stage bravado increases throughout the performance, almost like he just realized that his planned Hamilton mixtape could become much more.

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Q.V. Hough
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Q.V. Hough is a senior writer at Screen Rant. He’s also the founding editor at Vague Visages, and has contributed to RogerEbert.com and Fandor.

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