What’s become a fun side project began long ago when In The Heights was a little-known Broadway musical. After witnessing hip-hop in a theater for the first time, I was inspired to bring the theater to hip-hop. I dug up some instrumentals from my favorite records and laid down my version of the opening number in my apartment. Shot a video in an alley and posted it on the interwebs.

Lin-Manuel Miranda was the first person ever to leave a comment on my youtube channel. He laughed at me and said my girl voice sounded like Uncle Ricky. Best compliment I’ve ever received on my rapping.

That paved the way for a few years later when Hamilton became huge and they were accepting video auditions. Having had some experience as an actual lawyer, I figured that pretending to be one on stage wouldn’t be too much of a stretch. I wrote a quick verse and, taking inspiration from a classic tweet by @patsajax, my submission was ready.

Apparently, the Broadway folks liked the video and called me back for a live audition. Despite breaking both legs, I’m still waiting to hear back. The thing is, wanting to be prepared, I had gone and memorized the whole show. What was I going to do with all those songs in my head? Then one day during a walk in DC, I realized that when I started listening to the Hamilton Soundtrack while standing by the Alexander Hamilton statue outside the U.S. Treasury, by the time Lafayette started rapping his first lines, I was standing by the Marquis de Lafayette statue in Lafayette Park, AND George Washington’s first verse coincided with me walking up to the Washington Monument. Something had to be done. I set out to perform the entirety of Act 1 in a single take, while giving folks a tour of the nation’s capital. And knowing that people aren’t trying to see a video of me rapping for an hour and 11 minutes, I decided to speed everything up and fit it into less than 50, obviously.

Partly because it was really fun, and partly because I wanted to put my new homemade hands-free selfie stick to use, my newest hobby was born: PERFORM CLASSIC HIP-HOP ALBUMS IN THEIR ENTIRETIES IN A SINGLE TAKE AT 1.5X SPEED ON LOCATION WITH A TWIST. I had plans to be in LA in just a few weeks, so I decided to start off with an EP, a CLASSIC EP from one of LA’s greatest hip-hop groups: Jurassic 5. For the twist, I solved a Rubik’s Cube while walking up some steps, cause J5’s brainy like that.

Then it was time for perhaps the greatest album of all time – and certainly one of my favorites – A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory. An excursion to hip-hop holy ground in Queens, New York – the corner of Linden Boulevard & 192nd Street a.k.a. Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor Way, named after the beloved 5-footer. Because Phifey almost always sported a fresh sports cap, I donned a different hat for each track on the album. Every hat featured in this video was also featured in an ATCQ video, album cover, or episode of The Arsenio Hall Show.

For my next piece, I had hoped to visit Chicago, a town many hip-hop legends call home. COVID prevented that in 2020, but given that Yeezy made a legitimate run for the White House that year, the National Mall made a fitting spot to reminisce on a time when Ye dropping out of college was celebrated, and him actually being on a presidential ballot was seen as a joke.

Who knows? This might just be the starta somethin’ good…