Hamilton Annotation Project

Hello, I'm @epaulettes, and I am the primary editor working on Hamilton on Genius, along with the very wonderful @marvellings, @sandwichenthusiast, and @aprotim. If you have any questions, or want to yell at me for micromanaging an annotation of yours, I am available by direct message or tag here on Genius, or on Twitter. If you want to hash out an annotation, share Hamilton links and material, or just cry a whole bunch into a textbox about "It's Quiet Uptown," please head over to the album's forum post.

Project Goals1. A comprehensive annotation of the entire book, lyrics and score
— Historical context: Accurate and properly sourced explanations for any direct references to people or events
— Musical composition: More than specific song references, we want to talk about things like genre play and influences, score production, and the show's musical motifs and where and why they recur
— Interpretive analysis: Close reading (text’s interaction with itself), reader response (text's interaction with its audience), historical criticism (text’s interaction with its historical period—both the period in which it is set and the period in which it was written), gender/queer & feminist theory (text’s interaction with gender relations, sexuality, and the patriarchy), critical race & post-colonial theory (text’s interactions with racism, imperialism, cultural diaspora, and the kyriarchy), e to the t to the endless cycle of c
2. Standardize formatting across entire album
3. Outreach to larger fandom and Twitterico
4. STRETCH GOAL: Outreach to LMM to get verified annotations

Bigger Projects1. Need hip hop heads to go through and comment on anything meta, not just specific song references, but tradition, grammar, style
2. Need people who have seen the show to go through and comment on any particularly important visuals that may inform the lyrics or expand the listeners’ understanding of the song/show
3. It would be cool to make sure every artist has a photo and a description on their artist page
4. EDITORS AND PAGE OWNERS: fill in the producers on all songs, make sure they are all tagged with "musicals," and use promotional photos to add custom headers where appropriate

Annotation Tips— Newbies, start here for Genius, and here for making good annotations.
— Everyone can edit anything. Just because an annotation has been accepted does not mean that’s all there is to say about it. Propose an edit or leave a comment!
— Comments can be reactions to the annotation as well as further analysis. We're all fans!
— If you read an annotation you like, upvote it! This rewards the people who worked hard to create that annotation and helps them earn site permissions like lyrics editing. It's also a nice thing to do!
— Jokes are fun! Pictures are cool! Annotations can be spicy as well as informative.
— Please annotate in your own words, with supplemental quotations and media where appropriate. Annotations that are JUST links to or quotations from wikipedia will be deleted.
— The best place to find something interesting to say about a historical reference in the show is to check the book it was based on. #checkinwithchernow
—If you link to a song, you should also embed an additional youtube link if you think it's important to hear the song to understand the annotation.

Formatting Tips:1. Links are formatted to hyperlink using this method
2. Historical fact should include links to sources
— Sources should be integrated as hyperlinks into the text of the annotation, i.e. no (source) at the end of a blockquote. Just pick the most appropriate words in your actual text and link from those.
3. In most instances, we're following American style guidelines. For our purposes, that primarily means punctuation goes inside quotations. "Helpless," not "Helpless". The Revolution happened for a reason, folks.
— Songs or poems belong in quotations and should always be linked. Quotation marks and any other punctuation should be included within any hyperlink.
— If the song is on Genius, it should be linked there over any other lyric site. If it’s not on Genius, it might be good to include a youtube embed.
4. Albums or books belong in italics and can also be linked through Genius.
5. Singers, bands, and writers can and should also be linked where possible.
6. Coding stuff: Genius Formatting Guide