Lin-Manuel Miranda closed out 2018 by dropping a Hamilton remix featuring none other than former president Barack Obama. It’s a gospel-inspired take on 'One Last Time', a song that finds Alexander Hamilton and George Washington singing about Washington's precedent-setting decision not to run for a third term of office. The number includes a recitation from Washington’s real-life Farewell Address, and this time Obama did the honours.
"Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors," Obama reads. "I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will view them with indulgence and that after 45 years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as I myself must soon be to the mansions of rest."
The Obamas have made it plain over the years that they’re pretty big Hamilton-heads, so it’s unlikely that Miranda had to do a lot of arm twisting to get the former president on his track. Miranda and Hamilton cast member Christopher Jackson performed the song at the White House near the end of Obama's term in 2016—an appropriate time to sing an ode to the peaceful transition of power. The only part of this recording that disappoints is that Obama doesn’t sing even a single bar. Come on, we all know 44’s got pipes.
