[Blog Entry 1]
By: Adair Garrett
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the musical Hamilton to incorporate many of the sentiments of current rappers. The well-written, short verses of the first act discuss broader issues like poverty and class disparity, a similar tactic used by many rappers today to discuss racism, police brutality, and other controversial topics. Miranda’s lyricism and deep understanding of the recent trends in hip hop were so accurate that many of the songs from the first act have striking similarities to the key elements of the album Damn by Kendrick Lamar. This album, released in 2017 (two years after Hamilton), recently won the Pulitzer prize for its ability to “[capture] the complexity of modern African-American life.” (Read more about that here: http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/kendrick-lamar)
Miranda writes the story of the beginning of our country by creating a musical set in the America of today, a setting well described throughout Kendrick Lamar’s concept album Damn. The beginning of Damn mirrors that of Hamilton with a biographical introduction. Lamar begins his album with a story of the culture he grew up with in the album’s second song “DNA” and Miranda begins his musical by telling the beginning of Alexander Hamilton’s life in his song “Alexander Hamilton”. Similarly, at the beginning of the musical, Miranda introduces some of the general feelings of the rest of the cast about Hamilton in this first song, while Lamar includes an excerpt from a news show where Eric Bolling says: “Lamar stated his views on police brutality with that line in the song, quote: ‘And we hate the popo, wanna kill us in the street fo’ sho’.’” Kimberly Guilfoyle replies “ Oh please, ugh, I don’t like it.” This brief allusion to Fox News shows a side of American society that Lamar disagrees with and continuously tears apart within his music, while Aaron Burr’s part in the song “Alexander Hamilton” shows an early opposition of beliefs that continues throughout the remainder of the musical.
Miranda and Lamar also pick up on common themes throughout their soundtracks. Miranda repeats the phrases “Rise up” to show Hamilton’s belief in the valor of fighting for his values. He also reiterates words like “scrappy” or “hungry” to indicate that Hamilton came from nothing and continues to face an ever changing struggle against those who look down upon him. Lamar, facing similar obstacles, does not state that he wants to “Rise Up” but rather asks for a helping hand from God to help him both understand and survive those who disagree with him. In particular, the song “Fear” by Kendrick Lamar touches upon the ideas discussed throughout the first act of Hamilton. For example, “Fear” picks up on the themes of violence (“I’ll prolly die from witnesses leavin’ me falsed accused / I’ll prolly die from thinkin’ that me and your hood was cool”) which also arise in Hamilton’s “My Shot” (“I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory / When’s it gonna get me? / In my sleep? Seven feet ahead of me?”).
I would really like to know if you guys completely disagree with me or see some logic to what I arguing.
Here are the full lyrics for Kendrick Lamar’s “Fear” or listen to the song: