There are no milquetoast 4/4 time melodies and baby-fied stories but interesting sounds and clever wordplay made with a wink at the audience who is assumed to be smart enough to keep up. Lin-Manuel’s work is aligned with the unapologetically Hispanic sheep and her hip-hop spitting friend, in that they reflect the real world and leverage “real” music to teach their lessons. Like most people in 2016 who possess ears and a heart, I also have an inordinate appreciation for “Hamilton,” and had just fallen in love with “In the Heights” when I had my Murray/Miranda revelation. Diversity was a cornerstone of Sesame Street’s philosophy long before it was expected in mainstream television, much less in a children’s show, and it has long relished the challenge of adapting challenging topics for their audience without dumbing things down. People close to me are acutely aware that I have an inordinate appreciation for Sesame Street I found an excuse to write about it in my first Public Policy class and will likely do the same again because I find the program’s influence and history endlessly fascinating. The theme song for their segment is described by Muppet Wiki as “Caribbean-esque … rap variation on the classic nursery rhyme ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’” performed by none other than Miranda. It was a regular feature in 2008, when my brother was three and at peak Sesame Street consumption, and though I was well past the target age range, I knew the premise alone was special: Murray, an orange monster who mostly yells in some sort of Midwestern accent, spends his days with Ovejita, a tiny and shockingly-cute sheep who speaks exclusively Spanish. “Murray had a Little Lamb” is a criminally underrated Sesame Street segment that struck me as artistic genius from the moment I first experienced it. And, perhaps most importantly, it features a small Muppet sheep who raps in Spanish. It’s been viewed by thousands of fortunate souls. Instead, I’d like to draw attention to one specific work: his magnum opus, which melds an art form beloved by generations of Americans with modern style and diversity. Veritable national treasure Lin-Manuel Miranda has a catalogue of brilliance so large I’d be remiss if I tried to discuss it all in one editorial.
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