From creating the award-winning musical Hamilton to tirelessly raising funds for rescue efforts and disaster relief for Puerto Rico, Lin-Manuel Miranda has accomplished an array of monumental feats during his multifaceted career. However, the multi-hyphenate creative has set his own bar high once again, recruiting no other than Barack Obama for his latest track.
The new single, “One Last Time” (44 Remix), features the former POTUS and his incredibly missed and unmistakable speaking voice, giving new life to the track alongside Gospel singer BeBe Winans and Tony-nominated actor Christopher Jackson. For Obama’s role, he appears halfway through the track around the 1:43-minute mark and recites a passage from George Washington’s farewell address.
“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 can be heard saying, adding a spoken-word component to the powerful, emotive song. On other versions of the song, Miranda can be heard reading the historic passage instead.
The high-profile collaboration marks a full-circle moment for Miranda, who was first motivated to write Hamilton after performing “Alexander Hamilton” for the then-president at the White House in 2009. The director and composer also performed “One Last Time” during a farewell performance for the Obama administration at the White House last year as a surprise to the 44th president.
The song also concludes the yearlong Hamilton remix series, Hamildrop, which has also included contributions from Nas, Dave East, Aloe Blacc and Mobb Deep, among others. Additionally, proceeds from the songs have been donated to various charitable causes, including March For Our Lives and the UNIDOS Program.
Take a listen to Lin-Manuel Miranda closing out his Hamildrop remix series in the most epic way of all time, as well as see him reflecting on the process, below.