OPINION: The Magic of Lin Manuel Miranda’s Songwriting
Mark Seliger/Rolling Stone
When Lin Manuel Miranda speaks or writes, the world listens. He is a multi-talented artist who combines two differing topics: hip-hop and revolutionary history. Miranda’s skill as a playwright makes him stand out from other Broadway and Hollywood stars.
Born in a Puerto Rican household in Northern Manhattan, Miranda’s childhood was immersed in salsa and show tunes. He watched his first Broadway musical, Les Misérables, at seven years old. This made a lasting impact on him. His musical taste consisted of hip-hop and R&B, leading him to become a proficient rapper, evident within his recent work in Hamilton and Moana.
“We had a student-written theatre group at my high school, where students would write plays, and then another bunch of students would pick five and direct them. So, I got the opportunity to be produced at 12 years old!” Miranda told CNN, while explaining where his passion for playwriting began.
“Would I be writing hip-hop songs and trying to be an artist? I might be doing a totally different thing if that club hadn’t existed,” Miranda said.
In 2009, Miranda read a biography written by Ron Chernow following the life of Alexander Hamilton. He associated Hamilton’s life with his own, noting their similar origins in the Caribbean and New York. He connected the beginning sentences of Hamilton’s biography to basic structures of rap music.
“After that, I decided I had to write this play,” stated Miranda for Vanity Fair. “Hamilton literally wrote a verse to get him off an island-- He transcends the struggle, and if you look at your favourite rapper, that’s most likely what they did.”
Miranda states in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes about Hamilton’s “My Shot”, “there’s a lot of references in there. There’s Mobb Deep in ‘I’m only 19 but my mind is older’, the ‘A-L-E-X-A-N-D’, that’s Biggie’s ‘N-O-T-O-R-I-O,’ so I’m grabbing from the influences and paying homage to [them].
“I’m literally calling on the ancestors of this flow. The ‘woah’, is based on the AOL startup dial up octave because I wanted it to feel like… [Hamilton’s] words are connecting with and reverberating out into the world, and I associate that with the first time I signed onto the internet.”
Along with Hamilton, he also transferred his hip-hop and rap interests into films such as Moana and Encanto.
In the same interview for CNN, Miranda describes his unusual and somewhat bizarre writing process. “I’ll record just enough of [the music] to get a loop, and then I’ll go off and talk to myself and I’ll just figure out the lyrics as I’m walking the dog or washing the dishes.”
“When I’m composing, I’m acting. When I’m writing “How Far I’ll Go”, I’m Moana. I’m Moana until I figure out what Moana needs to say and when I say it the right way I write it down.”
Miranda took a personal route writing “How Far I’ll Go.” When discussing the nostalgia for his family inspiring Moana’s feelings in the song, he remarked, “‘Mom and dad, I’m coming to stay the night’ because-- I think that helps. I am an actor before I’m a writer and sitting where I was my angstiest and my tiniest unlocks that for me.”
Miranda also connected his personal life to “Surface Pressure” in Encanto. “That song is my love letter and apology to my sister for having it easier. I watched my sister deal with the pressure of being the oldest and carrying the burdens I never had to carry. I put all of that angst and all of those moments into Luisa.”
His family was Miranda’s main inspiration for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”. “The first verse is with Tia Pepa and Felix, and it’s about who was telling the story. That’s my parents, that is my dad, Luis Miranda, on screen.”
Lin Manuel Miranda has spent his life trying to make an impact in musical theatre, as well as creating Black and Latino representation on Broadway and Hollywood through massive hits like Hamilton. Based on the melody of “My Shot” from Act 1 of Hamilton, Miranda certainly didn’t “throw away his shot.”