Essay On Lin Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American composer, lyricist, playwright, and actor. Miranda was born around the 1980s in New York City. He was raised in the Inwood, Manhattan which is also known as Washington Heights and is of Puerto Rican descent. His neighborhood has had an affect on his musical stylings such as salsa, hip hop, and rap. He is a big activist and even joined Democratic lawmakers in a call for a Senate bill which would allow Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy in order to ease debt. Miranda is also a proud owner of an Emmy, 3 Grammys, 11 Tonys, and a Pulitzer Prize. Overall, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a modern composer with a latin and rap twist with an influence of hip hop culture on Broadway that is directed towards upper class people who usually look down on black culture. His most famous works, In the Heights and Hamilton, are award-winning hits with musical stylings of hip hop and rap culture.

He mixes musical theatre and rap which before was a predominant feature in the musical, Rent. There is a lack of influence of hip hop culture on Broadway although urban culture is becoming more mainstream. His musicals persuades the upper class towards a different view on hip hop culture and Hamilton was even hit #1 on the rap charts.
Miranda’s most famous works incorporate his descent and the environment he grew up in. This has had a great influence on pop culture. Many people view rap music as “hood”, “ghetto”, “street”, or “gangster” type music. In Miranda’s first musical was In the Heights, which was a musical with a story set over three days involving characters in the largely Dominican part of New York