--- title: Watch Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda Freestyle Rap With Obama description: He was getting prompts from the president canonical: https://time.com/4258638/hamilton-obama-white-house-lin-manuel-miranda/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-15T00:47:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:53:48.235Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Watch Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda Freestyle With President Obama og:description: He got prompts from President Obama og:url: https://time.com/4258638/hamilton-obama-white-house-lin-manuel-miranda/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64b859fdc7b8bba3/69888af7cd1bbae72f6ffd57/manuel-miranda-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 14: Members of the Broadway cast of 'Hamilton,' including (L-R) Okieriete Onaodowan, creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr., perform music from the production in the East Room of the White House March 14, 2016 in og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda Freestyle With President Obama twitter:description: He got prompts from President Obama twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64b859fdc7b8bba3/69888af7cd1bbae72f6ffd57/manuel-miranda-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch _Hamilton's_ Lin-Manuel Miranda Freestyle With President Obama by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Mar 15, 2016 12:47 AM UTC  Members of the Broadway cast of 'Hamilton,' including (from left) Okieriete Onaodowan, creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr., perform music from the production in the East Room of the White House in Washington on March 14, 2016. Members of the Broadway cast of 'Hamilton,' including (from left) Okieriete Onaodowan, creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr., perform music from the production in the East Room of the White House in Washington on March 14, 2016.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Mar 15, 2016 12:47 AM UTC _Hamilton_ star and writer Lin-Manuel Miranda took the cast down to Washington D.C. for a special White House performance on Monday, but like the founding father, he went above and beyond expectations during the visit. Miranda and President Obama convened in the Rose Garden for a quick freestyle rap about government, the president holding up cue cards with words like “immigrants” and “opportunity” to prompt Miranda’s rap. For example: “We really need a new justice for the **Supreme Court**, in short, oh my gosh this is my book report. And **immigrants**, we get the job done, this is so fun, POTUS is holding up the signs, I’m not done.” At the end, Miranda specified, “I did not see those words prior.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4258638/hamilton-obama-white-house-lin-manuel-miranda/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4258638/hamilton-obama-white-house-lin-manuel-miranda/"},"headline":"Watch Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda Freestyle With President Obama","datePublished":"2016-03-15T00:47:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:53:48.235Z","description":"He got prompts from President Obama","url":"https://time.com/4258638/hamilton-obama-white-house-lin-manuel-miranda/","keywords":["White House","Theater"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64b859fdc7b8bba3/69888af7cd1bbae72f6ffd57/manuel-miranda-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64b859fdc7b8bba3/69888af7cd1bbae72f6ffd57/manuel-miranda-white-house.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 14: Members of the Broadway cast of 'Hamilton,' including (L-R) Okieriete Onaodowan, creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr., perform music from the production in the East Room of the White House March 14, 2016 in","caption":"WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 14: Members of the Broadway cast of 'Hamilton,' including (L-R) Okieriete Onaodowan, creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Jr., perform music from the production in the East Room of the White House March 14, 2016 in W","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4258638/hamilton-obama-white-house-lin-manuel-miranda/","name":"Watch Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda Freestyle With President Obama"}}]}] ```