to be fair, they also talked about other musicals i didnt care about, but I wasn’t feeling it, lmao. i would have been happy with literally any other topic, but i fall asleep during this shit, cant help it
i got literally yelled at by some ex friends who were white for saying having rapping slave owners was offensive.
I have to admit that I only knew that Hamilton was a slave owner and that he is played by a black guy. I didn’t even know he raps.
hamilton is not played by a black guy! i was referring to Thomas Jefferson played by the (honestly very talented ) davved diggs. theres a scene where he comes in and the slaves are cleaning the floors then they start dancing with him, https://youtu.be/hruG4iDSQAI?si=a4WUZf7zXwQFRq_7. and he even says “be a lamb sally”, sally his 14 year old victim. hamilton also raps, hamilton is played by a puerto rican man.
also its all ok because Hamilton and jefferson have a rap battle where Hamilton totally calls him out/s
Not trying to sway your opinion, you’re entitled to it. From a certain perspective though, having black folks play slave owning founding fathers is sweet justice in the sense that true racists would turn over in their graves to know that a black man was playing them.
There also are not an abundance of opportunities for black opera singers. Tossing aside the race of the characters is a statement. Listen to Leslie Odom Jr, Aaron Burr’s actor, thank Lin-Manuel Miranda deeply for creating opportunities and providing “a new vision of what’s possible” as he accepts his Tony for best actor. That old white slave owners indirectly led to the success of some crazily talented black folks in my time is something I can dig. You’re free to disagree.
Anyway, give it a watch.
I love lesslie Odom Jr, so talented, a shame how Miranda treated him. its not that they played the slave owners its how tastelessly it was done. The musical lies about hamiltons actual positions, he was also a slave owner (yes his wifes slaves counts) and a hypocrite in many ways, not to mention Miranda deleting the third rap battle weakens the slavery is bad message. its kinda maddening the musical would have been so much better if he left that scene in calling out Hamilton in some small way (other than being “too honest” and “too horny”) aslo dunking on jefferson for being a creep would have been nice. there many more things that ruin the musical. theres a world where the Hamilton musical was well done, where it critiqued its subject even a tiny bit and didnt have the slave owner dance and rap, we dont live in it lol. and yes we desperately need more roles for black performers and Hamilton has changed broadway in a big way and its wonderful I always love to see more black artist shining. but yeah it was always lib shit but it could have been inoffensive lib shit. as inoffensive as liberalism can be lol. I just feel like Miranda showed that he knew what he was doing by refusing to make a single meaningful critique of a slave owner. sorry I keep adding stuff. but who care what dead people think? what are the real life impacts of hamiltons success? the babygirlification of slaveowners.
Those are all fair points, I didn’t know anything about them…ahem…whitewashing intended scenes.
thanks! i know too much Hamilton info for a lifetime. I was in deep.
I firmly believe Lin-Manuel Miranda should have been bullied more as a child. The play is just cringy slam poetry disguised as rap.
Immortal Technique did his best.