First time on thinking past tomorrow were going to rise up time to take a shot not throwing away my shot Charlie Leslie odom junior is here, who played aaron burr on this program. What brought you to hamilton . Leslie i was invited into hamilton. Sometimes you find that the best jobs that you get in this career and business, you did not audition for. You have no idea how you got there i just asked tommy last because i have a superstition, sometimes if i get a straight offer, i do not want to ask how it came about. Im afraid they might realize why did we ask this guy . I got invited about two years ago to do a reading for this show. And then i saw it at vassar. I saw them do about half an hour of it. I saw them do maybe 45 minutes at music stand. I was blown away. When i was invited to do the reading, i prepared like i have never prepared before. I knew all of my music. I knew what they were working on. Charlie you knew it had powerful potential. Leslie i knew how it affected me. Lin is only a year older than i am, so this is our music. I recognized the rhythms and the syncopation and the pulse of the piece. I recognized that. It has been in my ears since i was born. Charlie people wondered when hiphop would come to broadway, because rock had come to broadway. Leslie lin was so influential with that. The height was such a watershed moment for hiphop music and latin american actors. I remember listening to it before i saw it. There was something about it i have chills thinking about it, i told him at one of my first one of my first rehearsals, there was something about, from the first moments of that album, the need to communicate has always moved me greatly. I saw a show called def poetry jam. The way that those people came out, they needed you to get it. There is blood in the pen. There was an urgency and a fire in their bellies for you to get it. It came full circle when i was listening to a rehearsal of us in hamilton, learning my part, and i said that we sound like that. I can hear that need. Charlie i read almost all the energy, the preparation, to do justice to the text that you were given. How much of it was important to know aaron burr . Because you not only play a character, you play the narrator. You were there at every moment. Hampton has a larger role, but burr is also a continuity. Leslie what might favor gifts that people give, fans will bring us books. They come by with these articles and books that they order. Those have helped me a lot. I would not call me a historian by any means. Lin has read enough about all the different people and events surrounding it that he has been able to come up with his own opinion on the events. That is the only opinion you have. Ive read enough on burr to come up with my own theories. Charlie there are different opinions of aaron burr, some good, some bad. Leslie at the end of the day, the text and the show is my bible. To play what lin wrote. Charlie you have to pour in what he has written what you know, what you have experienced, and what you feel. Leslie and what i believe as far as what my job is as a performer. Thats another one of those things. This is intersected, coming at the right point. Theres a certain amount of vulnerability that this show requires that i was not ready to embrace at any other moment in my life. There is a certain amount of honesty. That comes with time. Charlie tell me who aaron burr was. Leslie he was a soldier, he was a father, a husband, a lover, a friend, a murderer. A politician. I think he was all of those things. Like all of us when people say, who is the person you want to have dinner with living or dead . Thats charlie rose. [laughter] charlie id like to be there. Leslie aaron burr, just to ask him. Our show is him looking back. Our show is after all that stuff has happened. Charlie he had an interesting life after killing hamilton. Leslie it ruined his life. Charlie ruined his political life, first of all. He had been vice president. Then he fled the east coast. He was indicted for treason. Leslie he had a daughter, his only child, who died. After the death of his only grandchild, his grandson died. His daughter died on the ship he invited her on. He died completely alone. He did have friends, though. He didnt have much money. There were people that supported him because what he had shown of himself the men he had shown , himself to be. He had friends in of the war. People who saw acts of heroics that endeared them to him all the days of his life. Charlie moments of heroism. Leslie yeah. Charlie hes intertwined with hamilton. We see that in the play. They are connected. What was the relationship . Leslie they came up together. They ran in the same circles together. They tried cases as lawyers together. They fought in the war together. So i think of them as friends. I think of them, as if you were to tell them when they were 19 years old, if you show them a picture, this is going to be you in your early 40s. Youre going to do this to this guy, they never would have believed it. Charlie this musical, people are talking about it as changing the american musical theater. As a significant evolution in the american musical theater. This is seen more than simply a successful musical. It is been given the heavy weight of cultural moment. Leslie i am a spiritual guy, too. This work is emotional, physical, and there is a spiritual component. I see it from the inside. There is a great deal of it that those guys, andy, lin have planned within an inch of his life. Those guys are meticulous. We were so happy we opened as it forced them to put their pencils down. They will keep perfecting it until somebody forces them. There is the part that they had nothing to do with. There is Something Else charlie what is that . Leslie it is the space between you and i. It is whatever happens between me saying it on stage and how it affects you and what it does to you. That is the part that none of us have any control over. None. You could not pay jimmy fallon to go see our show and talk about our show the way he did the next night. You cannot pay for that. I hope that the audience comes and feels like their presence is vital. Charlie we spoke to the composer of hamilton, lin and thomas. They joined me and april, and here is a look at that conversation. You sit in a room for six years making something, and you have the dream of version of how the show will be received. We are experiencing that. We are hanging on while we can. I stood up writing this in 2008. I was on my vacation, my first vacation from the show. I picked up the book at random at borders. It had great reviews on the back, and i know that he died in a duel, so it was going to have a banging ending. The dickensian nature of hamiltons life charlie explain that. At some point you say dickens, dickens, and dickens. What was the dickensian nature of his life . Charlie hamilton was born possibly out of wedlock. His father split by the time he was 10 years old. His mother died in bed with him a few short years later. His brother was apprenticed to a blacksmith so he was by himself. ,he got sent to a cousin after his mothers death. The cousin killed himself, that he got part in charge of a trading charter. A clerk for a trading company. They treated sugarcane and rum, the key point of the triangle trade. He rode his way off the island. There was a hurricane that had ravaged saint floyd, and he had wrote a poem about it describing the carnage. Fights that would straight astonishment into angels. This poem was used for relief efforts for the island. People set up a fund to get an education in a new york. Charlie here we have a great character, who dies at the end of the duel. Lots of speculation about that. Here we have that story. You have translated it into so much more. Tell me about the ideas that you want to pour into this to make it a new look at the founding fathers, the american experience, and a different way of presenting it that would appeal to young people, because your people are young actors. You speak to what we were conscious of, eliminating any distance between their story and now. We knew it was going to be set then, but it would sound like now. Fundamentally this was a country that was founded and created by immigrants. Somebody in all of our lines stepped off a boat in some form of transportation, put their foot down on this soil and went to work. Once we started thinking about taking the inspiration from rons book, we thought of events, but we had to tell a story. We had all the events laid out. We read the book and made our own timelines. We would compare, hey, this moment feels like it spoke to me, this one is essential. It became so apparent early on as we were designing how the show could function that this idea of doubling characters felt really right on. The character who played lafayette, one of his great friends charlie jefferson. Also jefferson. This connection to france. This relationship one , antagonistic, one supportive. How can we make the audience feel like who they are is actually not so different than what people are struggling with . Charlie hiphop seems like a genius stroke, but that is what you knew. Lin that was the first thing i checked, by the way. I read two chapters of this book, and i thought, someone has done a hiphop version of this. It felt the quintessential hiphop narrative. This is someone who grew up in hard times and wrote his way out of the circumstances to a better life. That is the hiphop narrative from the south bronx in the 1970s to today. I googled hamilton hiphop and it was not there. As soon as you google it, you will now see my show. But that was the first thing that jumped out at me. This is a fundamental hiphop story. Charlie im just like my country, im young, scrappy, and hungry, and im not throwing away my shot. Charlie rose is rapping. Charlie you performed that at the white house. Lin we performed the opening number. Charlie before we see that. Is that with the president responded to, when he said geithner should see this . This is my first time performing the song in public. They allowed me to perform the show, and i said i had a 16 bars about the treasury secretary. The money they let me close out the show, in his response was i have to get geithner in here. The economic crisis everything had blown up. He said geithner has the hardest job as treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton. That was his quote on the record about what the geithner heaad ahead of him. This was very early in obamas administration, may 2009. They were just figuring out how to do this thing, how to get us out of the hole we were in. I think he was tickled by the fact that i used a secretary of treasury. He also performed it from burrs point of view. It got a laugh halfway through. Charlie where does that come, from aaron burrs perspective . Lin thanks to andrew lloyd webber, we have that narrator. Judas the rates jesus christ, superstar. Narrates. That set up was a very difficult task to figure out who ehrenberg who aaron burr is. A villain in our history. Charlie do you think more of him . Lin i do, after reading about his life. There are several biographies of him. John gore vidal wrote one. Lin his burr is a lot craftier than mine. One thing i learned about him burr was a early feminist. , his daughter received an education greater than any man of that era. He was close with his wife and his daughter. He was on a few main mission with Alexander Hamilton for the abolition of slaves in new york state. There are redeeming characteristics to this guy. I had to find my way into that. Every biography is either insanely defensive of him, or vilified him. Charlie but you know better man anybody. On the one hand, aaron burr was amazingly cautious, careful, laidback, and Alexander Hamilton wanted to charge forward at every move. Lin hamilton left behind seven volumes of written work. 27 burr left behind less than 2. That tells you how much everything you need to know. Burr reserved his right to change his mind on any particular point. The tragedy of the show is, at the moment when burr is finally reckless and lets go and hamilton is cautious, one kills the other. And that is how they are remembered forever. Charlie have you thought about playing burr . Lin every time i wrote a burr song, i thought, man, i should do this guy. Charlie because he was the narrator . Lin because he got the best songs in the show. [laughter] but now with leslie, you can t emagin anyone else. It fits him like a glove. He gets these wonderful moments. One being the room where it happened. He is talking about not being in power and seeing hamilton trade away the capital for a financial plan. How am i not in the room . Charlie take a look at this. This is you at the white house in 2009 performing the first rap song you wrote for hamilton. I was a bastard, son of a whore, scotsman dropped in the caribbean grew up to be a hero and a scholar got farther by working a lot harder, by being a selfstarter at 14, in charge of a trading charter across the waves, are hamilton kept his guard up hurricane came, and devastation rained he saw his future dripping down the drain around, they said this kid is insane education, dont forget from whence you came of the gold is going to know your name whats your name, man . Alexander hamilton. [laughter] theres a million things he hasnt done, but just you wait debtridden, alexander mothers bedridden alexander got better but his mother went quick cousin committed suicide, left in but nothing with ruined pride he wouldve been destitute without a sense of restitution in new york you can be a new man ship is in the harbor now, see if you can spot him coming up on the bottom charlie there you go. Its unbelievable. Could this ever have been done . Its almost like if they didnt have hiphop, it had to be invented for this. Lin wow, thank you. That means a lot. I think the score is both a love letter to hiphop and musical theater. But it is this heightened language. We learned early on that when we turned a speech into prose, the energy went out. We had this ball that we throw in the air so high at a top of this opening number that we had to keep it at that level. There are a lot of times when we take musical breaks and slow it down and speed it back up again, but this heightened language to be the only way to convey hamiltons worldview. Charlie im pleased to have diplo and skrillex at the table. The New York Times have called them purveyors of an important music. Of electronic heres a look at their single take you there from their new album. Charlie im pleased to have diplo and skrillex at the table. For the very first time, welcome. Here is why im really happy about this, i didnt know that much about either of you. The more i read and learned i was excited to have you here. Let me begin with this, do you think of yourself as musicians or Something Else . Skrillex i think it is a combination of being musicians. I came from singing in bands and playing guitar. Piano and other instruments. It is the combination of being a musician and artist. Diplo in 2015, you have to have one foot in music and the creation of the media and the way the shows put together. I am not a musician per se, but i create music now and i have learned how to play music on my own. I think it is bigger than just getting a guitar. You have to create an atmosphere , in with electronic music, is more complex than laying down some chords. Charlie what has made it so popular . 6. 9 billion per year. Skrillex i think it was the timing. The fact of the internet, being able to share media. Computers and music programs were so accessible. Younger people were coming into music. Coming from a band, i found it easier to express myself through a computer. It is your onestop shop. Music videos are all made by us. Diplo the distribution chain is broken. It used to be when you had a from, youe sonny came get your band together, find some friends that like to make music, you find a garage and rehearse, find someone to borrow some money or use a studio to record, maybe find a label, create a record that they want to promote. That is a twoyear process. Now it is diy. I can go on my laptop, make a song, put it on youtube or sound cloud, and reach people in a couple hours. That record could be catapulted to something on the radio. The distribution chain is lost. We are very grassroots and we distributing ourselves. Skrillex the renaissance of all art has become to digitize with computer and cell phones. People can edit on instagram. Ant gives normal people outlet to be creative, and that can go deeper into music and editing and making art in general. Charlie it also has huge energy. Skrillex i think it comes from being such a youthful movement. Being such a youthful movement being such a youthful movement. The producers are becoming popular and making a living are getting younger and younger. Diplo our job is inside the computer, inside the speakers to make the loudest, the craziest, the next, the biggest. Something you have never heard before. It is our goal to make something progressive and make something brandnew. Skrillex it is all about taking things that shouldnt make sense. And making them make sense. In traditional dance music you wouldnt have Something Like that. Charlie lets talk about forming jack u. Whos idea . Diplo we became really good friends and i think we have always been outsiders in this dance world and the producer world that we decided to create stuff together. It was really special because we have a quality control. That takes a lot of work. Charlie is it a long time . Diplo that record you played a video of, we recorded that in three hours in a hotel room and it took another month after the two hours of recording the vocals to make the song sound the way it did. For me it may take a year to mix a record and produce it properly, even if it takes a night to write it. Charlie it is extraordinary for two people at the top coming together. You guys came together as competitors almost. Skrillex we have that quality control. We respect each other so much. Charlie do you guys complement each other . Skrillex we are both so forward thinking. We tried to push the envelope with sound. Jack u takes it to the next level. We make good music. Diplo im always mixing my music with things you wouldnt expect, like a rapper, a rock singer. A country artist. We work with different singers. We are always looking to collaborate and make things you havent heard before, things that are unexpected. We met Justin Bieber at a club. We told him if he would give us a vocal, that we would make it crazy. Im on headphones on a table like this, playing around with it until we have some ideas. We had a spark into the to the finish line. Charlie take a look at this. Here it is. Skrillex we just shot Justin Bieber dancing and performing in a very simple background, but then took all of the stills from the video and opened up an art gallery in l. A. And invited fans, haters, and artists to draw whatever they wanted to on Justin Bieber. You can see a lot of stuff, everything from complements to false god, illuminati, anything you wanted to say. Diplo our album is so collaborative. We wanted a video in a way that uses