Barack Obama Stars in New Hamilton Song Remix: Listen to It Here

The former U.S. president takes part in Lin-Manuel Miranda's "One Last Time (44 Remix)."

By Corinne Heller Dec 21, 2018 4:23 PMTags
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Barack ObamaAlberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney; Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Guess who?

Lin-Manuel Miranda has for the past year released a new Hamilton-themed song every month as part of a HamilDrops series. His final installment, "One Last Time (44 Remix)," dropped on Thursday and features none other than former President Barack Obama reciting Alexander Hamilton's spoken lyrics, which come directly from George Washington's 1796 farewell address.

The song also features Hamilton star Christopher Jackson as the first U.S. president, who begins to sing along with Hamilton, as well as gospel singer BeBe Winans. "One Last Time" pays homage to ​will.i.am's song "Yes We Can," which was released to support of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

"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 recites in Miranda's "One Last Time" remix. "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." 

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"I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers," Washington's speech continues.

Miranda and the rest of the cast of Hamilton had performed songs from the hit Broadway musical in front of Obama, Michelle Obama, and many officials at the White House in 2016, several months before he finished his term.

In 2009, a year after Obama was elected, Miranda performed music from his first Tony-winning musical, In the Heights, at the White House. According to Playbill, he used the opportunity to debut the opening number from a project that later became Hamilton, which marked his first public performance of the song.