By: Karl Risley

In my proposal, I said I would pull lyrics from countless songs from Hamilton the play, envisioning more of a remix that was composed of Lin Manuel’s lyrics. I ended up creating most of the lines on my own. I did end up using lyrics from “Hamilton” and  “Wait For It”, and “the World Was Wide Enough”. My extensive knowledge of the duel correspondences, from the Historical Annotation project, allowed me to immediately dive into writing the lyrics without researching.

Emily Moseley was my peer review partner. She was only able to get a glimpse of the guitar playing and read the lyrics. She told me that I need to make sure I understood the tempo of the song, and suggested that I add the word “the” into the line “aim for sky”, which was a great suggestion that I implemented. I also added a very brief introduction before the song that provides background to the song. Her edits were helpful because they were focused on improving how a listener would perceive and understand the song. Because she was a listener, she knew exactly what the song needed to take it to the next level. She caught things, I the producer/writer, couldn’t catch.

This process was very different for me because it required me to rely on things that were out of my control. Mainly, the idea of having a women sing the vocals was great, but proved difficult to actually pull off. I asked a friend of mine that I knew could sing a little. She was out of town until July 8th, and due to her busy schedule, could only meet me once. I think proposing a video was ambitious. I even planned on her wearing a shirt that I knew she had that said, “Dangerous Woman.” She forgot it. There was no way a video could have been made while we were recording. While one of us was doing well, the other would mess up. She was reading the lyrics from her phone, while I was focused on playing guitar. The video would not have seen either of our faces. It also took forever to record, but was honestly a very fun process. We never were able to get through the whole song in one cut, so I had to edit good pieces of each take together, which also tested my editing skills that I did not have, nor was I really planning on using extensively. As soon as I knew I wanted to make this song, I began to learn the guitar for it. With my guitar skill level, it was very difficult, I could barely play the sequence for thirty seconds because my hand would cramp and get tired from the power chords. I was very impressed with how much that improved. When the recording day came,I didn’t started feeling the fatigue until an hour in.

by Noah Hammond

For my Remix and Adaptation project, I’m using the Cabinet Battle #1 and #2 songs from the soundtrack. I’m going to turn the debates between Hamilton and Jefferson into a series of tweets. This adaptation is taking the ideas of the founding fathers and putting them in a modern setting. With the current political situation, a lot of important discussions and ideas are visible to the public through the medium of Twitter or other social media applications. If Hamilton and Jefferson had their arguments on Twitter, what would that be like? How would the public react and would the outcome change?

The skills I need for this project are a certain level of knowledge about how to use Twitter as well as a familiarity with internet culture and trends. Thanks to this class’s usage of twitter, I have figured out how to do a lot of things that I didn’t know beforehand. However, I might have to look at arguments or disagreements that have been had over twitter, whether it be between two celebrities over some beef they have, or political opponents that want to be seen as “modern” and “current”.

The biggest challenge in this project will probably be converting Hamilton’s and Jefferson’s words into modern terms as well as keeping the tweets within the character limit.

When listening to the Hamilton Mix-tape it depicts a short summary on the life and more so overcoming of Hamilton and it helps bring a different form of understanding and comprehension to the original text. When put in the form of music it plays into a different type of audience it becomes more relatable and easier to follow. In our generation today we depend on music just for the completion of everyday task. When you change the text into a form that is more relevant it takes the “boredom” of reading and translates it to something that is engaging and easier to remember. The experience switches itself and the person now has this piece of material that they would be willing to share amongst peers and it becomes something that they are willing to make into a repetitive cycle of learning. This becomes important as the generations progress and way of living converts itself into the dependency of technology. We see that books and word text starts to become a thing of the past and finding new ways of keeping the upcoming generations engaged becomes more vital than ever. Even with the usage of plays younger audiences don’t seem interested in sitting through something that is not relevant to them.

The mix-tape is consistent with the text in the feelings and emotions of Hamilton not so much the events. The song “My shot” is more relatable to the newer generation bringing the struggles Hamilton faced with overcoming, taking risks and breaking the rules for the sake of America which in returns makes him one of Washington’s most reliable assets we can now convert that into everyday living. We now start to feel what he was going through and put our self in Alexander Hamilton’s shoes. That is why my shot was the perfect song to me

By: Avery Showell 

Hamilton has been the key focus point of our class, and comes with remixes and adaptations that engage different thoughts, viewpoints and changes. I want to focus on The Hamilton Mixtape and the message that lies behind it. More closely, the song “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)” and how it portrays the life, struggles, and sacrifice that they immigrants go through daily. Keinan Abdi Warsame, Claudia Alexandra Feliciano,  Rizwan Ahmed, René Pérez Joglar, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Jeffrey Penalva did a great job of taking the song and finding lyrics that directly relate immigrants and voice there opinions and feelings through hip hop.

Immigrants enter the US as outcasts. They progress toward becoming insiders when their disparities do not  influence the ways they communicate with others, the new gateways they have for themselves and their families, and how they partake in legislative issues. I agree, immigrants should be accepted in to our United States society because they prove they are hardworking and willing to go for their own. Being a US citizen does not consequently imply that people are being accepted.it is difficult to be an insider without having legitimate status as a man from others, and in any event the possibility to be a citizen. A lot of people in the U.S don’t accept the language of immigrants especially including the social, the economic, and the political side of the United States. “Look how far I come” is a great line to exemplify how immigrants have been more than enough in society today. We often forget the fact that immigrants have helped the United States since decades ago, and when they shine we often have do not like to portray the fact that they are in fact immigrants end excelling. The Hamilton Mixtape gives immigrants a shining light which they are years short on.

By: Ian Byers

Deciding how exactly to do this project was difficult for me, I even chose to use my extension on this assignment so I had more time to think about it.  I’ve decided to focus my project on one of the central themes of the musical, immigration. This is also a subject that has dominated much of the ongoing discussion about the show. There are a few other people in this class that are also covering immigration in relation to Hamilton, which made me hesitant to do so as well. However, I expected for this to be the case, and I’m confident that my adaptation will be significantly different from others’ projects. Additionally, after thinking about the various conversations about Hamilton, this was the easily the topic that I thought I would enjoy working with the most.

As for the specifics of my project, I plan to have two parts. First, I am going to do some intensive research, with skills that I learned in this class, and compile historical documents written by the founding fathers about immigration and related topics, and how they relate to characters featured in Hamilton. I will also make a timeline of major changes to American immigration policy as well as public opinion on the topic. To finish up this section of my project, I will make a short report with a statistical analysis of certain areas which have received high levels of immigration over the last 50 years. This report will cover various elements of multiculturalism, cultural enrichment, etc.

The second part of my project will be more directly related to both the original songs of Hamilton and those on the mix-tape. The obvious candidates are Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) and Immigrants (We Get the Job Done). However, I don’t plan to necessarily use these songs, at least in their entirety, as I expect that others are already going to do that and I don’t want to make things too repetitive. Therefore, I will use some other songs off of the mix-tape as well. Using small sections of these songs, I will create a short video which is a visual representation of the first part of my project. This way, I can cover multiple elements of communication.

For the skills required to complete this project, I will have to use research and video editing skills. I have done a decent amount of video editing before so I estimate that this will not take me more than a few hours. The research will also take some time as I will need to find varied and balanced sources, and then find the best format to present the findings. Potential difficulties in this project are ensuring that my project is sufficiently unique from other similar projects, and also making sure to make the final result easily understood by a varied audience.

The song I chose f0r my remix and adaptation project is called “My Shot”. My Shot comes from the Hamilton Mixtape. “My Shot”was formatted with great verbal skills and a great sense of direction on where he wanted to go with his message. The song was based upon his hopes for the future. He begins discussing his differences with the British Army and vows that he will be remembered for great doing. The language and material from the original song and my song somewhat go in lie with each other. My remix is the song as a whole, but within that song I made certain changes in areas in which I think were vital in the different messages of the two. “My Shot” remix was sung by Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz, and Nate Ruess. They put together a well liked song and the song even appeared in the LA times for it’s classical remix.

In conclusion, the overall theme of the story was the same as witch I tried to imitate with in my own. There can be some arguments made between the two. Even with that being said, it  could still be the same between the two as well.  The original form does changes the experience with the text simply because it’s an older song and its so classical that it changes how you may go upon it. I learned earlier that there is no big need for catchy remixes. Just a simple format I think it better off and its helps molds the story from its original format. I feel as though there are certain changes that I can make with my remix and it’ll come as I go on with my project. I learned a lot from this analysis and it definitely will helped me during my remixing plan.

The song I chose from the Hamilton mixtape is ‘ Wrote My Way Out’ by Nas, Dave East, Lin Manuel and Aloe Blacc. The remix of the song is by Royce Da 5’9, Joyner Lucas, Black Thought and Aloe Blacc. The overall message of the song is showing how certain things helped Hamilton make it out of the predicaments he went through growing up and even through adulthood. With the Hamilton Mixtape, these artists’ certain thing is writing, thus the title ‘ I wrote my way out’. Besides Lin Manuel most of the other artists in the song talk about how writing got them through harsh environments whether it was watching their mother get beat or dealing with drugs or negativity from others, writing helped them cope with all of these and bring them to the successful paths they are leading now. The remix keeps the same flow as the original and even the same chorus but the switching of artists is what makes the song totally different. Artists like Joyner Lucas who were on the remix brought their own type of style  or flavor to the song which in a way made it sound like it wasn’t even a remix but a totally different song. They also had different points of view and different stories that they brought to the table. From this remix I’ve learned that I don’t have to switch a lot of things around and make it flashy or try to make it very noticeable that I am making a remix. If i just change a few crucial parts of the song and put my own flavor and style to it, that would be good enough. I also realized that I don’t have to be talking about the same thing as the original song, just as long as I am sending the same message in my ow way.

By: Grace Griggs

For my adaptation project, my goal is to add an additional layer of immersion to the show than is already present. I recently read that the writer of 1776 thought the show was an awful idea until he heard the song “Sit Down, John” performed. He explained why that changed his mind, saying that “in that song is the entire fabric and level of the show: You are involved with people whom we’d never dealt with before, except as cardboard figures. This room had flies, it was hot, and these men were not perfect. There’s more information about the Continental Congress in that opening song than I learned in all my years at school”. The same thing goes for Hamilton. Part of its value is that it adds extra layers of immersion to the history. My goal is to create an adaptation that increases the audience’s engagement with the story.

To this end, my plan is to adapt a part of Hamilton’s story into a tabletop roleplaying format, specifically 5^th edition Dungeons and Dragons. I would like to make a one-shot (a D&D adventure short enough to be played in one sitting) where players can play as Hamilton, Hercules Mulligan and the rest of the gang as they steal cannons from a British fort, a historical event described in the song “Right Hand Man”. The final product will be a pdf that includes the plot of the adventure, all descriptive text blocks, descriptions of all relevant obstacles and NPCs and enough information to give the players a variety of ways to accomplish their mission. It will also include a battle-map of Fort George and character sheets for Hamilton, Mulligan, Lafayette, Laurens and Burr, although only Hamilton and Mulligan were historically present.

The majority of my work will be writing and adapting the relevant rules of D&D to fit the colonial period (add guns, minimize magic etc.). Additionally, I will have to do some historical research to flesh out the events of that night and a little bit of illustration for the map of Fort George.

I am a little nervous about my concept for this project because the two things I am combining are just about as different from each other as possible. However, I do have a good understanding of both the subject matter and the medium I’m converting it to, so I am comfortable that I will be able to work around any issues that arise. Overall, I am very excited to work on this project.

Over the last few weeks in class we have been learning more about Hamilton and becoming more familiar with the characters in the Hamilton: An American Musical. I will be doing my remix and adaptation project on Hamilton’s “My Shot”. It’s the third song from Act 1, and it;s based upon events that occurred in his life. This came out to be very successful and even appearing on Broadway back in 2015. For this project I will be remixing this song accordingly as I put it in words from an athlete’s perspective. This song had a lot of meaning to it, and it also showed the audience that Hamilton was literate and a very smart man. Within every verse of the song, I will put it into my own words and try to develop a rap song by taking some of Hamilton’s teachings and forming a song out of those teachings.

In conclusion, I know this project will test me in the form of Technical challenges. Even though that’s an area where I struggle in, I think it would help me improve technical wise and allow for me to grow during the process of making my remix. Moreover, I’m very eager to get started and I’m looking forward to see how it’ll turn out.