Like any good piece of rhetorical analysis,
quotes are powerful tools to persuade the audience. He writes, “it probably
took a month alone to figure out the right phrase to rhyme with ‘revolutionary
manumission abolitionists.’ ” By implementing quotes into his writing as shown,
he allows the reader to make decisions for themselves and see first-hand how
Miranda used certain techniques to create certain effects. In this way, he can
show the reader the intricacies of Miranda’s writing and musical technique,
proving Hamilton to be the best album of the year.
Kornhaber also includes comparisons to other artists, including
hip-hop artists like Kendrick Lamar and Drake. He writes, “You can find this
Hamiltonian idea of hip-hop refracted through rap’s other great works this
year. You hear it in the verbosity, the craft, the daringness, the desperate
idealism, and the death-obsessed drive of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly.
You hear Hamilton’s obsession with legacy, his unwillingness to back down when
challenged, his profligacy—’why do you write as if you’re running out of
time?’—in Drake’s multi-mixtape 2015 output.” In this way, Kornhaber proves the
validity of rap as an expressive tool in musical theater, perhaps even more
effective than just singing. This is seen in the song “Farmer Refuted,” in
which “Hamilton tears Samuel Seabury’s words apart by literally speaking
between them—basically, it’s Miranda proving the supremacy of rap as a form of
expression.” Kornhaber argues that even though Miranda’s use of rap is
unconventional, it’s wholly effective in musical theater. Kornhaber’s
direct quotes from Miranda’s song and comparison of Miranda’s songs and other
artist’s songs allows him to successfully rhetorically analyze Hamilton all
while supporting his argument that Hamilton should be lauded
as the album of the year.
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