In the effort to serve up stories about the founding fathers with a modern, liberal, hip hop twist, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has done it again. He has just dropped a new remix of one of his kitschy broadway showtunes that features everyone’s favorite cool guy president, Barack Obama.
Ah good, another inane excuse for one of those “iconic” Barack Obama mic drops.
The always peppy and effervescent Miranda (if you want your day to be filled with sunshine and rainbows, check out his Twitter) has been periodically posting remixed versions of his songs on social media that he has dubbed “Hamildrops” — because he’s a cool guy, ok? This time he’s dropped the biggest one of them all, “One Last Time (44 Remix)”
Of course “44 Remix” refers to the fact that Former President Barack Obama is featured on the song. I sadly suspect that many mainstream liberals will consider this to be one of the greatest cultural moments of a generation. Now Mr. 44 isn’t contributing smooth R&B vocals or serving up a blistering anti-Trump diss track, (that would’ve been suitably epic) he’s taken the more genteel approach and offered a stately spoken word verse on the song.
“One Last Time” has that cliche Gospel/R&B sound that Miranda loves. Imagine a Luther Vandross vibe, with Lin-Manuel crooning about peace, love, and prosperity in “this nation we’ve made.” Around two minutes in, the shimmering vocals bow out to a measured reflection by Mr. 44, reciting one of George Washington’s final speeches. Mr. 44 speaks:
Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error. I’m nevertheless too sensible of my defects, not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will view them with indulgence; that after 45 years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion as I myself will soon be to the mansions of rest.
The speech goes on for another minute, with Lin-Manuel echoing Obama’s words via some soulful vocal lines. No disrespect to George Washington, but Miranda has the uncanny ability to take significant and momentous points of American history and make them seem trite and frankly, cringeworthy.
But hey, who says you can’t love Hamilton? You just have to get past all the progressive undertones voiced by liberal power players. Honestly though, it’s pretty hard to listen to the musical while imagining that preening, self-indulgent lecture given to at-the-time Vice President-elect Mike Pence, while he attended the play in 2016.
