Brow Beat

Watch Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda Prove His Freestyling Genius on The Tonight Show

Jimmy Fallon has long challenged guests to improvise with games like “Wheel of Impressions” and the even better “Wheel of Musical Impressions,” but on Friday night The Tonight Show introduced a new game: “Wheel of Freestyle.”

The guest? Lin-Manuel Miranda, the genius-level composer, lyricist, and star performer who created the revolutionary new musical Hamilton. Of course, Fallon himself couldn’t go bar for bar against Miranda, so instead the show had to bring out one of Miranda’s collaborators and longtime idols, The Roots’ Tariq Trotter aka Black Thought. Trotter might have had more experience, but Miranda (who has honed his freestyling skills with his comedy hip-hop crew Freestyle Love Supreme, not to mention his acclaimed work writing closing raps for the Tonys) was young, scrappy, and hungry—and he did not throw away his shot.

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