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With the music from the Hamilton cast recording standing on its own as a great album, it only makes sense that a mixtape featuring the artists who inspired the soundtrack of the musical would also be great.

The album features artists that directly inspired the musical; for example, Ashanti and Ja Rule cover a song from the musical (“Helpless”) which Miranda wrote with their style in mind.

One of the demos on the album, “Cabinet Battle 3 (Demo)”, shines more light on a dark element of the play. The song has Hamilton, George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson fail to come to an agreement on whether they should abolish slavery. This adds to a motif from the musical of the founding fathers being flawed figures, not the immaculate men we usually see them as.

A highpoint of the album is the song “An Open Letter (feat. ShockWave) [Interlude]” by George Watsky. This song has Watsky rap an open letter Hamilton wrote to John Adams criticizing his presidency. The song has a fast tempo and is filled with humorous insults such as the opening lines, “An open letter to the fat, arrogant, anti-charismatic, national embarrassment known as President John Adams.”

Having the artists who inspired the music sing songs from and about the musical is a unique experience that adds to the wonderful culture that the “Hamilton Mixtape” is apart of.