Hamilton star and talented creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is a man of many hats. His Tonight Show debut on Friday night showed the Broadway-cum-MacArthur genius freestyling so profoundly that it brought a roar of applause. Miranda was a special guest on Jimmy Fallon last week, coming in to help promote his brilliant hip-hop musical, Hamilton, based on the life and accolades of Alexander Hamilton. The approach is a fresh take on a stale history lesson and has even become a part of the New York City public school curriculum.
But this wasn't just about our founding fathers. No, Lin-Manuel showed off his chops at rapping off-the-cuff, accompanied by none other than Roots front man, Tariq. The rap battle touched on a myriad of subjects, everything from LGBTQ rights to Michael Jordan and a slick rhyme with vaccination and Channing Tatum.
Also revealed on the segment was a strange outgoing voicemail box message that recorded by Lin-Manuel onto Fallon's phone. The message being the prize for a charity auction that Fallon, ironically, won.
Miranda said on the show: "Our dream collaborators were [the Roots] because they play every genre on your show every night, and they just can do anything. So we were like 'God, if we can get the Roots to come to the show, maybe they would get it.' So it's been just an amazing collaboration."
While the late night appearance was great PR for Miranda, the musical was recently endowed with a $1.46 million grant by the Rockefeller Foundation. The donation was to help some 20,000 New York City high school students see the performance at a extremely reduced rate.
The musical has even been integrated into many school's curriculums to bridge the history lesson beyond the classroom and into the pool of arts.
Check out Lin-Manuel Miranda on Fallon below and procure your tickets while supplies last.
