When I was younger, my brother Jay was a routine watcher of the PBS Kids show The Electric Company, a modern reboot of the same show in the 1970s. The point of the show was to educate its children's audience about letters and words, which it did via a variety of animated segments and different styles of music, occasionally featuring guest stars such as Wyclef Jean, Jimmy Fallon, and Sean Kingston.
The segments had varying levels of talent and quality; some were better than others. Among the best were segments educating the viewer on the sounds of the letters "g," "c," and "e," featuring the show's beatboxer "Shock" accompanying a man in a grandpa hat spitting raps like it was no tomorrow. I was particularly impressed by the segment on the letter "g," in which the rapper explained the distinction between "hard g" and "soft g" in the form of two personalities: the angry "hard g," and the kind, gentle "soft g."
The raps were impeccably written and rhymed, and I remember watching this guy spit the rap and thinking, "Damn, this guy is talented."
During my senior year of high school, my high school put on a musical entitled In the Heights, about residents of the predominantly Hispanic Washington Heights, a suburb of New York. I was thoroughly entertained and impressed with the performances and choreography put on by my peers.
Three years later, John Oliver did a segment on his show Last Week Tonight about Puerto Rico's debt crisis, and featured a guest appearance by a guy named Lin-Manuel Miranda, who advocated for financial relief for Puerto Rico from the U.S. government, and who performed a rap at the end pleading with the U.S. government to aid Puerto Rico. I had heard of his play Hamilton prior to seeing that segment, but the name didn't ring a bell. However, I was impressed with his performance on Last Week Tonight.
After seeing the hype about Miranda and his play Hamilton, I looked up him and discovered that he wrote music and played Usnavi, the main protagonist, in the original Broadway version of In the Heights! That play was one of the highlights of high school for me, and Miranda playing Usnavi worked on so many levels. I will note, though, that if I were to compare what I've seen of Miranda's performance with the performance of my classmate who played Usnavi, it's a tough call, because they both have impeccable talent.
I'm not sure how I connected the dots, but I wondered if the rapper in the Electric Company videos was also Miranda. Sure enough, with a quick search, I found out that he was. I recall wondering why this talented guy educating children on the sounds of letters via rapping wasn't more popular, so it was quite a thrill to watch him become virtually a household name.
Shortly thereafter, I became immersed in the Lin-Manuel Miranda craze, even though I haven't even seen Hamilton yet. I watched Miranda appear on Jimmy Fallon's talk show and partake in an improvised "Wheel of Freestyle" against Black Thought of The Roots, and it was a treat to watch. Miranda's musical talent is on a whole new level. He has a distinctive voice so unique and raw that it cannot be adequately summed up in words, and delivers the lyrics with passion and poise. He is also a master songwriter and composer, and the result of this combination of musical skills is catchy, infectious, irresistible tunes.
Aside from his unparalleled talent, Miranda seems like an all-around great guy, known for being very humble and personable. He has also quietly voiced his support for various causes such as Black Lives Matter and gun control, and advocated for relief for Puerto Rico as I mentioned above. His play Hamilton has received attention for casting actors of color in the roles of white historical figures.
Of all Lin-Manuel Miranda performances I've seen, my favorite has to be a performance of the opening song of Hamilton at a White House poetry night, with President Obama and his wife in the audience, before Hamilton had even been conceived as a play. You can find it on YouTube, and sometimes I'll just play it on repeat for like an hour. Listening to the eloquence and flow of the lyrics, and the passion with which Miranda raps them, gives me goosebumps every time. Glimpses of the audience show audience members watching Miranda's performance in awe, clearly blown away by this guy's talent, probably thinking, "Who is this superhuman standing before me?" The performance received a standing ovation from the President, applauding and smiling broadly.
After Robin Williams's death in 2014, Jimmy Fallon paid tribute to Williams on his talk show, during which he said this of Williams: "You'd watch him...and you would think, 'I am never going to see anyone like this human, ever.'" I think the same could be said of Lin-Manuel Miranda, as it could of Robin Williams (and Mel Brooks, for that matter).
Make no mistake: when it comes to raw talent, Lin-Manuel Miranda is truly one of a kind.
