Back in May 2009, a year after his first hit show In the Heights won the Tony for Best Musical, Lin-Manuel Miranda was invited to perform at the White House Evening of Poetry. Lin got on-stage and started a rap from a project he was working on called The Hamilton Mixtape. No one knew the rap he performed there would end up becoming the opening number to his Broadway juggernaut Hamilton. Producer Jeffrey Seller was with Miranda through the five-year development of the so-called mixtape that turned into a full-fledged musical, and convinced Miranda to shorten the name to just Hamilton.
Then, in October, Miranda officially announced that in addition to the already-released cast recording, they would begin work on the original concept of The Hamilton Mixtape.