By: Zac Frederick
While looking at the storyline of Hamilton as we dealt with extensively over the previous weeks, I have really enjoyed getting to know each of the characters, and in the process how they portray the historical figures they represent. While the play does an incredible job of examining what was accomplished, most fascinating to me usually is who was actually doing each of the actions. With this in mind, when we looked at each of the “Hamildrops” in class that have been released thus far, one in particular stood out to me as incredibly interesting: Ben Franklin’s Song. I really like the idea of taking everything that we already know about the period and adding yet one more perspective on top of it all – arguably a perspective of incredible importance to the historical account. This song piqued my interest and so for my remix project I plan to create a remix of Ben Franklin’s song. For the remix I’ll look at other aspects of his life, and detail some of the other interesting portions not covered in his Hamildrop piece. Among other topics, I’ll include aspects of his self improvement plan, how he was an alleged “womanizer” and also his arrogant demeanor. I really do enjoy studying about the historical characters themselves, so my remix will focus on this aspect, while also stealing some key lines from the original Ben Franklin’s Song itself. I don’t plan on recording any type of production piece, as that would require a skill set that is far beyond anything I possess currently. In addition, I don’t believe anyone would enjoy hearing me behind a microphone in any fashion. Instead, I’ll be re-writing and adapting the lyrics of the song and the final piece will be comparable to the original in style, tone, and scheme, but will differ in actual content included. One challenge I anticipate is making sure that everything fits the rhyme scheme in a way that both flows properly, and that also actually includes meaningful content, however I’m excited to get started on this entertaining project!