Speaker: 00:00:00

Hamilton

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I wish all history was taught this manner.

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Do you guys wish the same?

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Yeah, I think it's very entertaining.

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: 00:00:04

Yeah, I think it's very entertaining.

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: 00:00:04

Yeah, I think it's very entertaining.

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: 00:00:05

It definitely makes it easy to remember because the way kids' minds absorb music, especially like nowadays,

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I think it would be a

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good medium

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to go get that information

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across.

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Definitely, I think it'd be highly effective.

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Yeah, I think so.

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It would be nice.

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This was really well constructed.

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So if it was all constructed this well, I'd say yes.

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On this episode of Hip Hop Movie Club, we'll tell you:

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why Hamilton was not without its flaws,

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about some of the hip hop references Lin-Manuel Miranda weaved into the lyrics and

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and why that made it a perfect Gen X soundtrack,

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who our most valuable player, our MVP, was in this whole story, and

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why it met our expectations, after all these years.

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I'm DynoWright, filmmaker, designer, longtime hip hop fan.

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: 00:00:46

I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, longtime hip hop fan.

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: 00:00:49

I'm Boogie, a DJ, longtime hip hop fan.

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: 00:00:52

Featuring a score replete with hip hop and R&B, Hamilton depicts how Alexander Hamilton

grows from his humble beginnings to his meteoric rise to one of our nation's founding fathers.

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It's not without its flaws though.

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It has its flaws too.

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Yeah, it glossed over some aspects of those times.

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: 00:01:07

Yeah, it's great to see people of color depicting the roles throughout the show, but I think that, in context, there were some actual wrongs being done

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to people of color back then that were kind of not really mentioned as much.

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You don't get much of a sense of slavery in this show and it's like the elephant's

elephant in the room.

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There's a lot of white supremacy back then and all the other things that go along with that, so...

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I think that's part of why I avoided it so long, like, do I really need to go through this

kind of like, it's almost like whitewashing or putting a friendly spin on it.

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How do you fit in there in such a story as supposed to be a positive

uplifting story?

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It kind of takes away some of the impact, but I think they could have done a little more to mention some of that.

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Right away, early on, it's like, I'm John Laurens in the place to be, and that's something that's a refrain that we hear all the time.

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You guys probably caught when Hamilton says, I'm 19 years old, but my mind is older.

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And that's just like, Mobb Deep “Shook Ones, Part 2” when they say I'm only 19, but my mind is old.

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He twists that up a little bit, but that's definitely a call out and a hat tip to Mobb Deep, which is awesome.

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And then there's the 10 commandments, I think, was it 10 commandments of war.

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And that's similar to the “10 Crack Commandments” by Notorious B.I.G.

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So for hip hop heads, this is awesome that you kind of like, where do I know that specific

style or cadence from?

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When he does the A-L-E-X-A-N-D-E-R, that's how, when Biggie says N-O-T-O-R-I-O-U-S, in his “Going Back to Cali”.

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Not the L.L. Cool J, but his “Going Back”.

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There was one part when Daveed

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Diggs as Thomas Jefferson...

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He calls it a “jungle”.

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It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder, that was it.

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And then there's the what's your name line, which is used by a lot of folks.

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Three, four Alexander's like, what's your name?

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My name is Alexander Hamilton.

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Like the whole, what's your name thing?

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Snoop Dogg has done that Eminem and many others.

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I even picked up on when Aaron Burr was talking to the Schuyler sisters, he said, excuse me, miss.

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And I would just think about Positive K with the excuse you miss.

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No, I'm not having it. Yep.

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Yes. Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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Definitely a soundtrack that should appeal to a Gen X hip hop fan.

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It's so funny because hip hop, even from its origins, and we've talked about this

from the early days with Beat Street and everything, and they introduced the whole concept

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like braggadocio, like bragging on, and that's Alexander Hamilton is all about that right

from the get go.

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And even the “Not Throwing Away My Shot” is thematic of Eminem's “Lose Yourself”.

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It's the same concept.

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Like you only get one shot, one opportunity.

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So for him to repeat, I'm not throwing away my shot.

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That's the same type of thing.

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There was, there was other influences from Kendrick Lamar as well as Rakim and many

others.

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My favorite scenes were when they were debating and they were just like turning to like freestyle battles.

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It was like, this is crazy.

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And it just so creative how they did that.

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And I just enjoy the back and forth because I mean, like, what doesn't get any better than

a battle.

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It doesn't get any better.

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That's hip hop out his rawest form right there, the battle.

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So to see them bring that element into the show.

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was definitely one of the cool spots for me.

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My favorite character was probably the Marquis de Lafayette.

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I don't know what it was, the French accent, it's so hard to do what he was doing.

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He kept that French accent going while he was rapping.

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I'm like, wow, Daveed Diggs is so talented for being able to do that.

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I also enjoyed Daveed Diggs.

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Lafayette in history, he comes in, he's very instrumental in saving the revolution.

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It's sort of like a Han Solo kind of thing, like it's like a mercenary from the outside.

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And so I dig that kind of performance and character.

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So for me, it was also Daveed Diggs as the Marquis de Lafayette.

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Yeah, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but same.

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And then his portrayal of Jefferson, what I miss when he went to France.

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That was hilarious.

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So he stole the show from me.

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Yeah, I was blown away by Hamilton production.

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I had heard so much about it and it lived up to the expectations for me.

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It was just so creative.

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The acting was on point.

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I just love that it tells a story through hip hop.

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Like I would love to have been in college at when this was at its peak popularity and have a project about this where you could dive deep into it.

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But now we get to do it here on a podcast.

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Absolutely.

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Create our own homework.

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And it definitely lived up to my expectations.

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It's one of those things that, you could watch it over and over again and you'll still start picking out things that you didn't notice.

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I like the different layers that.

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exist in it and I like the music.

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The music is very, very entertaining.

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It has you nodding your head.

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If you're a hip hop head like us, it'll definitely make you nod your head.

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I was one of those, like the last people on earth to see Hamilton in any form.

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So with that much time that had gone by, it could be difficult for it to live up to the

expectation, but for me it really did and I'm glad I watched it.

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The arrangements, the music, the lyrics are just really, really well done.

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And there's nothing better than a story well told, and is a story well told in this sense.

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Brilliantly executed.

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I wouldn't mind maybe a thrash metal version of Hamilton be fun.

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Or maybe a thrash metal version of the Teapot Dome scandal.

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Let's have that.

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But yeah, hip hop, sure.

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Let's do our ratings here.

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Boogie, bring this funky flick back or leave it in the vault.

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Bring that funky flick back.

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DynoWright?

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I am bringing this funky flick back.

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I also will bring this funky flick back.

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Thanks for tuning into the Hip Hop Movie Club Show.

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I'm DynoWright, filmmaker, designer, longtime hip hop fan, and

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The first hip hop CD I ever bought was DAS EFX's 1992 debut album, Dead Serious.

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I'm JB, 80s and 90s nostalgia junkie, long time hip hop fan, and I hold the microphone

like a grudge.

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I'm Boogie, a DJ, longtime hip hop fan, and I once chilled in the VIP section of a concert

with Vinnie and Kay Gee from Naughty By Nature.

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And remember, don't hate, negotiate.