OPRAH: So when you originally started, you
weren't trying to create this social,
musical phenomenon that was going to bring
us a better understanding of history and
ourselves. Or were you?
LIN-MANUEL: No, I was trying -- I knew
that he -- he sang. I just knew that it
was a really compelling idea for a musical.
And I look at the musicals I love and
there's different kinds. Right? In the
Heights, when I was writing In the Heights,
and when Quiara came on board, we realized
this -- thank you. This is about a
community changing.
OPRAH: Right.
LIN-MANUEL: It started as sort of just
my college musical. But then we realized,
oh, this is about a neighborhood changing.
And so we looked at other musicals about
communities changing. We looked at Fiddler
On the Roof. We looked at Cabaret which is
about Germany changing fast. We looked at
those musicals that are about a community.
With Hamilton, it's about Hamilton and his
force and personality is so strong that
every other character is just trying to
make sense of him. Either they're
falling in love with him or they want
to kill him. OPRAH: Kill him.
LIN-MANUEL: So I watched Sweeney Todd
and I watched Gypsy. And I watched those
music awards. It's, like, name above the
title. Here Comes Mama Rose.
That's Hamilton. He's this force of nature
and this whirlwind. And so those were sort
of the things I looked to. And then the --
so I just knew that he was very propulsive
and he had a very event-filled life.
And then I found myself drowning in
research. It had been two years and I'd
only written two songs. I'd written the
opening number. It took me a year to
write My Shot. Because if I'm gonna back
up my claim that Hamilton is the most
hip-hop guy who ever lived, he has to
announce himself with the best lyrics
I've ever written in my life.
So every couplet took me about a week.
OPRAH: Really.
LIN-MANUEL: You know -- you know,
it would rhyme at the end of the line.
And I would go, I bet I can make this
rhyme like six more times in here.
And it had to be as dense as my favorite
rappers. It had to be as dense as Jay-Z.
As dense as -- and by dense, I mean,
like, don't rhyme just at the end of
the line. Rhyme seven syllables.
Rhyme in, you know, "I'm past passionately
waiting I'm passionately smashing every
expectation. Every action is an act of
creation." You know. (Applause.)
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