“Go see Hamilton! It will change your life!” hollered Jimmy Fallon on Friday night’s Tonight Show. So he’s a fan. And as a fan, he had Hamilton creator/writer/star/MacArthur Genius Grant-recipient Lin-Manuel Miranda on the show to talk about his show. Of particular interest to Fallon were the freestyle rap interludes in Hamilton that take the form of cabinet debates between the title character and Thomas Jefferson.
And since Fallon is all about fun and games on his show, he decided to have Miranda and The Roots’ Tariq Trotter engage in a competition over the “Freestyle Generator,” i.e. three random terms that must be incorporated into a freestyle rap. You’d think “dinosaur,” “pumpkin pie,” and “Darth Vader” would be daunting. Maybe that’s why you don’t have a MacArthur Genius Grant.