Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote Hamilton because Ron Chernow’s biography made Alexander Hamilton’s improbable life feel both dramatically compelling and strikingly relevant. Miranda saw a man who used words to rise beyond his circumstances—a story that resonated with hip-hop and immigrant experiences. He first imagined the project as a hip-hop album; it grew into a musical that brings Hamilton’s story into a contemporary form.
How Chernow’s biography sparked the idea
Miranda has said the idea began in 2008, while he was performing in In the Heights. He bought Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton to read on vacation. By the end of the second chapter, he was searching for a movie or play about Hamilton and wondering why the story had not already been told. He later recalled, “I’m completely hooked, and I’m only two chapters in!” (Library of Congress interview, April 2, 2025)
![Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording (Explicit Version) [2CD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51jLpPIQAQL._SL160_.jpg)
The book gave Miranda a subject he wanted to spend years exploring. In an interview with the National Endowment for the Arts, he described the story’s humanity and improbability as what drew him in: “I have to fall in love with a subject to live with it through the years required to write a musical.” (NEA interview)
Why Hamilton’s life connected with Miranda
A person who used writing to change his circumstances
Miranda was struck by Hamilton’s trajectory: he wrote his way out of poverty, into the Revolutionary War, and into George Washington’s confidence, while his writing could also create trouble for him. Miranda saw a connection to hip-hop artists whose words describe their circumstances and reach beyond them. As he put it, “What I recognized in Hamilton, which connected me to the genre of hip-hop and the hip-hop culture, was his relentlessness.” (NEA interview)
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →An immigrant story with present-day resonance
Hamilton’s drive also resonated with Miranda’s interest in immigrant stories. He connected it to his father’s move to the United States for education and to friends who came from other countries. The resemblance was not that Hamilton’s life was identical to theirs, but that his ambition and persistence felt familiar. (NEA interview)
One episode especially captured Miranda’s imagination: after a hurricane devastated St. Croix, Hamilton wrote a poem describing the destruction. Miranda saw in that early act of writing a link to the later story of a man who used words to move beyond his circumstances—and to rappers he admired. (CBS News, 60 Minutes, November 8, 2015)
Rank #2
- Double Disc set
Why tell the story through hip-hop?
Miranda’s first conception was a hip-hop album about Hamilton, not a conventional historical musical. The form suited a story shaped by argument, ambition, and writing. Miranda aimed for the density of the hip-hop albums he loved, using devices such as double meanings, alliteration, and wordplay that reward listening more than once. (NEA interview)
The project developed over several years. The Gilder Lehrman Institute records a 2009 White House performance of “Alexander Hamilton” and traces the work’s later evolution into a stage musical, which opened in 2015. The completed score blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway. (Gilder Lehrman Institute) (Official Hamilton project page)
Rank #3
How the casting made the founders feel contemporary
The contemporary approach extended beyond the music. Miranda said he was not imagining historically costumed Founding Fathers when he first read Chernow’s book; he was picturing artists inhabiting the roles. He also explained that casting actors of color could make the founders feel more human and closer to the country as it looks now. The choice presents the founding-era characters through performers who help modern audiences see the story as immediate, rather than distant history. (NEA interview)
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.From “The Hamilton Mixtape” to the musical
Miranda worked on the idea for years under the name The Hamilton Mixtape before it became Hamilton. The transition from an album concept to a stage work let the project combine the lyrical energy he wanted with theatre’s characters and dramatic storytelling. The origin, as Miranda tells it, was a book that made him fall for an unlikely life—and a form that helped him tell that life in a voice that felt current. (Library of Congress interview, April 2, 2025) (Gilder Lehrman Institute)
Quick Recap
Rank #4
- Hamilton
- 10 Shots
- Highlights From The Original Broadway Cast Recording
