The "Hamilton" creator shows off his freestyle skills in this ridiculous "Tonight Show" game that gives random words that must be rhymed.
Freestyle is one of the most difficult and challenging things any rapper can face, and yet Lin-Manuel Miranda was (mostly) fearless when taking on the "Tonight Show" challenge Tuesday night.
The "Hamilton" creator squared off against The Roots' Tariq AKA Black Thought in an epic battle made even more difficult with the inclusion of some truly ridiculous words they were forced to rhyme like flip flops, Pikachu and "Game of Thrones" Mother of Dragons herself, Daenerys Targaryen. Jimmy Fallon definitely wasn't holding back with two masters of the form.
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View StoryMiranda even revealed that freestyle rap was actually his first stage work in New York, which he's bringing back to Broadway this September, so it's something that's been bred into him from a young age.
It's a good thing, too, as Fallon could not contain his laughter when those random words started spilling out. For the first round, Miranda was faced with the words "flip flop," "seared salmon" and "prescription sunglasses." Yeah, that should be easy.
And with little to no time to even think about it, The Roots dropped the beat and Miranda was off to the races. But anyone who's seen "Hamilton" knows that Miranda is quite a wordsmith, and he had little trouble creating a narrative with even words as ridiculous as these.
"It hits me in the head until my hip hops / But I got smacked in the back with some flip flops," he rhymed. "Aw yeah, you know that I be jammin' /You know I keep it smooth like I got that seared salmon."
He even dropped a bonus verse to include a rhyme for "The Tonight Show" before blowing Fallon away with how he worked those sunglasses into his lyrical weave.
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View StoryBlack Thought had to give him his props before bringing a whole different lyrical approach to his own verse, incorporating the words "loofah," "Netflix password" and "Daenerys Targaryen."
Honestly, when that last one first popped up, Tariq immediately threw out Rastafarian as a rhyme, which was great. But then Fallon told him he couldn't use it, meaning he had just a few moments to think of a new one, even as he was coming up with rhymes for the first two.
Let's just say he slayed it with an amazing connection we didn't see coming, earning himself a high five from his opponent. An then it was one last verse for Miranda, as he went political while rhyming about "waffle fries," "Pikachu" and "Puerto Rico." Politics is his jam and he absolutely nailed it, but it's much better viewed than read so treat yourself to that video above.
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