During his visit with New York’s The Breakfast Club radio show, playwright/actor/producer/rapper Lin-Manuel Miranda told the hosts that Busta Rhymes almost fell asleep during a showing of Miranda’s wildly successful hip-hop musical Hamilton. While reminiscing on all of his favorite MC’s, Miranda dished about looking out into the crowd and seeing personalities like Eminem and feeling incredibly nervous due to wanting to impress his lyrical inspirations for the show. However, when one of the show’s influences came through, Manuel says he almost contemplating quitting.
“Busta Rhymes sat in the front row, and I’m not gonna lie: He was a little groggy in the beginning. He took a red-eye and I saw his eyes closing during the show and I was like, ‘If Busta Rhymes falls asleep in my show, I’m just closing the show.’ Just like, ‘That’s it, I’m over, I’ll go into woodworking or something else,'” Lin-Manuel says, but fortunately, he won’t have to chop down any trees anytime soon. “He was up and he was with it for the rest of the time.”
He also jokes that he “rapped for his life” when he saw Eminem glowering from the balcony, and talked about the crazy, first-run Broadway success of his historical hip-hop drama, which drew attention from foreign dignitaries, politicians, athletes, New York celebrities, and even the President Of The United States. Miranda’s other successful play (although to a lesser degree), In The Heights is also getting a Jay-Z-produced film version sometime in the near future.
