♪ our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. hamilton islexander the unlikely founding father who wrote his way into the pages of early american history. get a roosevelt called him the most brilliant statesman ever lifted he is the subject of the musical which opened this week on broadway to rave reviews. writer and composer takes hamilton's legacy to new heights due to hip-hop, r&b, and rap music. he calls the play the story of america then told by america now. here is a look.

♪ someone thinking passed tomorrow. ♪ i spoke to actor leslie odom junior. what brought you to hamilton? leslie: i was invited.

sometimes you find the best jobs in this business you didn't audition for, you'd -- you have no idea how you got there. --ust asked tommy last week sometimes i have a superstition i don't want to ask how it came about. realize, whyey may did we ask this guy? i did get invited two years ago to do a reading of the show and i had seen it at vassar. i had seen them do half an hour andhe show at music stands was blown away. when oh's invited to do the reading, i prepared like i had never prepared before. i came out and knew all my music. i knew what they were working on. it had powerful potential. i knew how it affected me.

this is our music. rhythms and the pulse of the piece. since ieen in my ear have been born. really bank people have been wondering when hip-hop would come to broadway, because rock came to broadway. influential in in the heights. i remember listening to in the , i listened to it before i saw it. there was something about that first moment of that album. the need to communicate is something that has always moved me greatly. i remember i saw a show called

deaf poetry -- jam. they put the pen down to the paper and there is an urgency and a fire on your -- fire in their belly for you to get it. i was listening to a rehearsal of hamilton, learning my part. we sound like that. i can hear that need in what we are doing. charlie: i hear all the desire, all the energy, all the .reparation to do justice how much of it was -- how much of it was important -- hamilton burr isrger role but

continuity. fans will bring us books. they will find articles on ebay. with these articles they order and these books they order, and those have helped me a lot. i would not call myself a history environment -- a historian by any means. has written about all the different people and the events surrounding it that he has been able to come up with his own opinion on the events. that's the only opinion you have. burre read enough on noun to come up with my own opinions. charlie: there are different opinions of ehrenberg -- of

aaron burr. leslie: i have to play what lin wrote. joy thing you have to pour in -- charlie: you have to pour it in what you experienced and what you feel. leslie: that's my job as a performer. certain amount of vulnerability this show requires me that i was not ready to embrace at any other moment in my life. there is a certain amount of honesty that if i am doing my job right i am bringing to the stage every night. that comes with time. bang tell me to -- charlie: tell me who aaron burr was. leslie: he was a father, a husband, a lover, a friend, a murderer, a politician.

i think he was all of those things. us, when people say who is the person you want to have dinner with, living or dead , besides charlie rose i say aar on burr. just have him at this table to our show isially looking back. especially after all that happened. what have you learned? charlie: he had an interesting life after killing hamilton. it ruined his life. he had been vice president. and then he fled the east coast. was indicted for treason. daughter. had one

she died. after the death of his only -- his grandson died and he invited theodosia to stay for a while, and she died on the ship. he did have friends. there were people who supported showeduasause the man he throughoutbe his life to his friends. people saw acts of her rogues that endeared them to him all the days of his life. charlie: moments of heroism? hamilton.twined with what was their relationship? leslie: they came up together

and they ran the same circles together, they tried cases as lawyers together, they fought in the war together. i think of them as friends. if you would have told them when they were 19 years old, if you would have shown the mid-picture , this is going to be you in your early 40's, they never would have believed it. play, it iss changing the american musical theater. it is a significant evolution. as a successful musical. and to be given the heavy weight of a cultural moment -- leslie: i'm not a spiritual guide. is awork is emotional, it

spiritual component for me. i see it from the inside. there is a great deal of it that , andy, tommy, lin, have planned within an inch of their life. those guys are meticulous. they will keep perfecting it until somebody forces them. there is also the part they had nothing to do with. a there's something else. it's the space between you and i. between meer happens saying it on stage and how it affects you, and what it does to you. that is the part that none of us have any control over. to couldn't pay jimmy fallon go see our show and talk about our show the way he did the next

night. i hope that the audience comes and feels like their presence is vital. --rlie: earlier wiese earlier we talked to the writer, composer, and start of hamilton, lin-manual miranda. here's a look at that conversation. wildest dreams of versions on how the show will be received. we are trying to hang on while we can. i started writing this in 2008 when i was still in my show, "in the heights." charlie: you sought there and said i will take this one? lin: i knew it was going to have a banging ending. i fell in love with the story. the dickensian nature, almost from the first chapter.

dickens.you would say what is the dickensian aspect of his life? alexander hamilton was born possibly out of wedlock. his father split by the time he was 10 years old. his mother died in bend -- in bed with him. he got sent to live with his cousin after his mother's death. the cousin killed himself. then he got put in charge of a trading charter. company that traded sugarcane and rome, the key point of the triangle trade down there. and he rode his way off the island. it was a hurricane that ravaged. he rode -- he wrote a poem. this poem was used for relief efforts for the island, and people took up a fund to get him

in education. we have a character, who is a great american. we know there is drama, he dies at the end of a duel, which he may not have in fact fired his gun. lots of different speculation about that. you have translated it into so much more. tell me about the ideas you want pour into this, as you want to take a look at the founding fathers, the american experience, and a different way of presenting it that would appeal to young people? you speak to what we were really conscious of, which is how do we eliminate any is in its story and now. we knew what the story was going to sound like now. fundamentally this is a country that was founded and created by in occurrence -- created by immigrants.

as we started thinking about taking the inspiration of ron's book, we think here are a lot of of events, but we have to tell a story. and madeead the book our own timelines. then we would compare, hate is really spoke to me, hate is moment feels like it is essential. it just became so apparent early that we were designing how the show could function that this idea of doubling characters felt really right on. at character who played efi alsoo played lafayette plays jefferson. they both had this connection to france, one antagonistic, one supportive. how can we make the audience feel like who they are and what they understand is not sud de france from what these people are struggling with? that is the first thing i

checked, by the way. and said something already did a hip-hop version of this. is someone who grew up in hard times and wrote his way out of a circumstance. is the hip-hop narrative from the south bronx to the 70's to today. it was not there. now you will see my show. that was the first thing that jumped out at me. this is a fundamental hip-hop story. scrappy,i'm young, hungry, and i'm not throwing away my shot. rolling one everything. .ou performed that at the white house.

that, is that what the president responded to when he said, we should see this? this is my first time performing this song in public. they asked me to perform something from in the heights. i said i have 16 bars and they allowed me to close out the show with that. and his responses, somebody ought to get geithner in here for -- in here. the economic crisis had just ,lown up and he said geithner at the heart of his job, his treasury suits alexander hamilton hit of this is very early in obama's administration, may of 2009. how were just figuring out to do this thing, how to get us

out of the whole you are in. tickled by the fact i made a treasury secretary saying. >> he also performed it from anthony burr's point of view. 's point ofon burr view. we have a great tradition, thanks to andrew lloyd webber, of the antagonist narrating the story. judas narrates jesus christ superstar. that was immediately where i went. very difficult task of figuring out who aaron burr is. he is a villain and our history. charlie: you think more of him. lin: i do after reading more about him.

one of the things i learned is he is an early feminist. his daughter received an education greater of any man in that era. he was close with his wife and daughter. qs was on the society with for ther hamilton abolition of slaves in new york state. there are redeeming characteristics. i had to find my way into that. biographer is either insanely defensive or vilifies him. on the one hand aaron burr was cautious, careful, laid-back. alexander hamilton wanted to charge forward at every moment. hamilton left behind tony seven volumes of written work, burr left behind two.

the tragedy of the show is at the moment when her is isentless -- when burr reckless and hamilton is cautious and throws away his shot, one kills the other. charlie: have you thought about burr?g lin: as i was writing, yes. fits leslie like a glove. he gets these wonderful moments. -- one beingre the the room where it happens. he talks about not being in power and seeing hamilton trade away the capital were his financial plan. how am i not in this room? how am i not in the room where it happened. this is you at the white house in 2009, performing the first rap song you wrote for

hamilton. wanting to be a hero and a scholar. the $10 found it without a father. farther by being a lot smarter, by being a self-starter. by 14 they placed him in charge of the trade and charter. slaves would be slaughtered. across the ways hamilton kept his garter. that hurricane came, the young man saw his future dripping down the drain. refrain.his first the word god around that this kid is insane. let's open up a collection to send him to the mainland.

and the world is going to know your name. what's your name? alexander hamilton. his name is alexander hamilton. there is a million things he hasn't done, but just you wait. when he was 10 his father split, full of it, debt ridden. his mother bed ridden. dead.ead it -- half cousin, hish his cousin committed suicide, left 10 with nothing but a ruined pride. saying alex you got to send for yourself. he started retreating and reading every book on the shelf. nothing left to do, he would have been destitute without a sense of restitution. working for his late mother's landlord.

he can getry book his hands on. planning for the future. standing on the bow of a ship heading for a new land, to new a new man.an be ship is in the harbor now, see if you can spot him, another immigrant coming up from the bottom. his enemies -- i'm the dam fool that shot him. charlie bank could this ever have been done? it's almost like it had to be invented, created for this. lin: i think the score is a love letter to hip-hop and musical theater. there's a lot of references to both embedded throughout. it is this heightened language early onarn really that whenever we dipped into speech and process all the

energy went out. we had the ball throat up so high in this opening number. there are times when we take musical breaks and slow down and speed it back up again. this heightened language seemed to be the only way to convey hamilton's worldview. ♪

charlie: to the million fans around the world, the new york

times has called them purveyors of an american strength of electronic ants music. they combine creative forces to form a supergroup. here's a look at their single from their new album. ♪

charlie: i'm pleased to have diplo and skrillex at the table. here is why i'm really happy about this, i didn't know a did know that much about either of you. the more i read and learned i was excited to have you here. this, do youwith think of yourself as musicians or something else? skrillex: it is a combination of being musicians. i came from singing in bands and playing guitar. it is the culmination of being a musician and an artist did -- and artist. diplo: you have to have one foot in music and the way the shows put together. i create music now and i have learned how to play music on my own. thennk it is a good

getting a guitar. you have to create an atmosphere could when you create some big electronic it is more complex. charlie: what has made it so popular? $6.9 billion per year. timing.: it was the the fact of the internet, being able to share media. abusers and programs are so accessible. people that are younger coming into music. coming from a band i found it easier to express myself through a computer. it is your one-stop shop. us.c videos are all made by diplo: the distribution chain is broken. it used to be when you had a band you get your band together, find some friends that like to make music, you find a garage and rehearse, find someone to borrow some money or use a

studio to record a record, may be fine a label, to another year to promote. that is a two-year process. now it is the eye why -- it is diy. i can reach some buddy in a couple of hours and that record could be catapulted into something on the radio. have things like being bands, but we are in a different world. we are very grassroots and we are district getting ourselves. skrillex: the renaissance of all art has become to digitize with computer and cell phones. people can edit on instagram. that gives normal people and outlet to be creative, and that can go deeper into music and editing and making art in general. it also has huge energy . fromlex: i think it comes

being such a youthful movement. are becoming popular and making a living are getting younger and younger. diplo: our job is inside the computer, inside the speakers to make the loudest, the craziest, the next, the biggest. something you have never heard before. it is our goal to make something progressive and make something brand-new. skrillex: it is all about taking things that shouldn't make sense. jet -- inonal traditional dance music he wouldn't have something like that. forming -- let's u. who'sut forming jack yo idea?

diplo: we became really good friends and i think we have always been outsiders in this dance world and the producer world that we try to create stuff together. it was really special because we have a quality control. that takes a lot of work. charlie: is it a long time? that record you played a video of, we recorded that in three hours in a hotel room and it took another month after the two hours of recording the vocals to make the song sound the way it did. year to mixy take a a record and produce it properly, even if it takes a night to write it. charlie: it is extraordinary for two people at the top coming together. you guys can together as competitors almost green of skrillex -- as competitors are

most. -- competitors almost. skrillex: we have that quality control. charlie: do you guys come clement each other? -- guys complement each other? expand -- skrillex: we are both so forward inking. takes it to the next level. we make good music. diplo: i'm always mixing my music with things you wouldn't expect, like a rapper, a rock singer. he sang on our new album we are always looking to collaborate and make things you haven't heard before, things that are unexpected. determining how does that collaboration take place?

diplo: i became friends with beaver for years in l.a.. bieber justin four years in l.a. i'm on headphones on a table like this, playing around with it until we have some ideas. we had a spark into the to the finish line. charlie: take a look at this. here it is. ♪

skrillex: we just shot justin bieber dancing and performing in a very simple background, but fromtook all of the stills the video and open up an art gallery in l.a. and invited fans, haters, and artists to draw whatever they wanted to on justin bieber. you can see a lot of stuff, complements to false god, illuminati, anything

you wanted to say. diplo: our album is so collaborative. we wanted a video in a way that uses justin bieber's voice in a way that personified what it is to be like justin bieber. the way we make trade him. we create something out of that idea, and of that idea of creating a pedestal for artists. we wanted to make it collaborative by our fans and people who know just eager. charlie: what makes justin bieber tick? school expand i think when you are that young and you grow up that famous -- i don't even know if money -- i had money at a young age and i lost it. it didn't really feel different. maybe it is a certain point when you are surrounding yourself with people who aren't

conducive to what you should be into ant can throw you area where you are very reactive. he's around really good people and creative people. no matter what anybody says he is one of the most town to people i have been in the studio -- with.tive are -- you foro 300 shows per year -- you tour 300 shows per year? diplo: i did cointreau in new york -- i did three in new york, phillie. charlie: sometimes you get

100,000 people. diplo: i want played for 100,000 people. we played for about 60,000 .eople at heart fest charlie: how are you changing? how is what you are doing growing, other than the size of it? skrillex: i think back when we , i came in as a dj. we were outsiders from this thing, doing it our own way. in the beginning no one considered us musicians. now we have gained a lot more respect from a lot of different artists. a lot of people even four or feesyears ago, a lot of

credible people consider us musicians. but media and the outside world didn't. now people trust us a low but more. we never set out to make radio records. nationally our sound is starting to cross over.

diplo: we have a lot of producers, their main goal is to

get on the radio and sell records. our fan base is going to be there regardless if we are making music for fans. we performed live and we think about how the kids at our shows going to like this. charlie: how do you measure success? is it in your head or some other way? diplo: i just want to make great music. i want music to give me goosebumps. it happened with this record. this was really special. thing when you make a record and play for the first time in front of an audience you feel a connect. where he really shine, teaching what we do is to sit up there, we are curating the soundtrack in a live experience for people.

even these festivals are mixed at it we play a lot of festivals with rock bands and rap artists. what we do is so maximal. that is that peak moment where it is all about the life energy of everyone together. that is more important than on the radio. live, iesn't connect would rather have it connect live. diplo: i think the taste of america has changed, where you used to have a machine where put records on the radio, to where record on the radio that was released independently. no help from any major labels. it is possible to put a great song on the radio with the right team. charlie: take me through the process of creating something.

diplo: we had a day off with arcade fire. a friend of mine was there and said, let's go meet up with you guys. we went up to his garage and played for 20 minutes, with everybody on an instrument. andt the files from them edited down these loops and little pieces. i'm probably going to go back with the lead singer and record some vocals on it. jammed for 45 minutes and made an album worth of material. sometimes we will start with three chords and a vocal. that first record, we recorded the song. the vocal and the ability -- and the melody. that was a whole other side of the process.

diplo: for me sonny was a game changer in the dj world. while his production and mixing was another level above what i'm hearing on the radio, he has a high standard for the way he makes music sound. is the first guy i met in the dj world that has a rock star presence. on stage.dle himself a lot of djs are pretty boring. you kind of need to have the rock star. charlie: does that come from understanding movement, understanding presents, understanding relating to an audience? :expand -- skrillex it is about being true to yourself in a moment. teachingpeople i'm ing in front of, the

better. charlie: the more people, the :etter you are? skrillex the energy you get from the stage is indescribable. when people are having fun with the music, it inspires you to go down the right path. charlie: what was it like taking up with the garden? skrillex: it was a great bucket list. charlie: what else is on the bucket list? diplo: charlie rose show. charlie: what about musically? it strange we have people paying attention to this project. are expecting another

single with us. everything that has happened with these records has happened organically. we have a strange leverage for artists to give us the best records they have done. leveragewhen you say -- diplo: when you're working with the artist it is always a sense of negotiating. you find out where the comfort level is. sometimes a fixed or will take up most of the space and you only have a little say in the work. we did 90% of the direction it went. charlie: that has to do with bieber trusting you? diplo: exactly. once we take it to another level i think it gives people confidence to allow us to do it again. skrillex: they have family, and kids, and all the stuff.

we are so inspired and hungry to make great songs and great tracks that sound like nothing else can push the boundaries. , an the justin bieber single top record, it is not a traditional pop song. instead of changing first chorus, first chorus, bridge, changing thee format. we are both kids inside. i'm in my late twentys. diplo: mid thirties. skrillex: we are like kids. we listen to music the way kids do. yearseople a couple of younger than me and they talk to saying, i'm old.

when you set saying that you are becoming old. road: we have been on the for a decade, both of us. i have been moving all over the place. we are atot trends -- the party two nights ago. we're hanging out with kids who make music we make. we are -- we come from underground. they are between the 20's and 30's. -- skrillex: they they are getting younger too. diplo: we went to a party yesterday where they were in their 30's. it got to a lot of rap music, a lot of underground rock music. it is all part of our scene. hip-hop, young kids in

it is music you can't really put a genre on. everything is fancy. we don't need all these sued people around. we make it in our own environment and have a good time. charlie: what about drugs? this is what the guardian wrote. coincided withly the assent of skrillex and the clumsily named electronic dance music to the top of the u.s. dance music charts." skrillex: i think with every generation of music -- clothing are you responsible with the assent of molly? -- charlie: are you responsible with the ascent of molly?

erallex: if you look at any where music exploded in youth culture, just because of the bigger ratio creates a bigger ratio of drugs. drugs were used in the disco era, cocaine. lsd and marijuana. there are always drugs. this year it happened to be molly. skrillex, andas dma and ecstasy have been going on since the beginning. got bigger with the culture that came along with it. in thents he played audience as we reached out to are so much more vast than what this article talked about. you think you it in the music will be in five years?

diplo: we are both humble. we feel lucky to be doing this. i'm just happy people are paying attention. charlie: of all the good things people are saying about you, what do you appreciate the most? about the music, the fame, the attention. there are some people who come to these shows. it is still the minority. artists. we are truly it is a renaissance of how you can create art and music through technology. that is awesome. that can lead to anything. diplo: there used to be barriers and shoppers about what you should listen to. people change the ideas of what

the limits of music and change the limits of music, that would be important. we are enabling a lot of people. when we started out we weren't considered musicians. charlie: you think that has changed. skrillex: there has been electronic music. the 70's and 80's. music got itsnic notoriety with summer records. those like a big breakthrough. into hip-hop, into dance music, into new wave, into industrial music, all the way up to us. we are a common nation of everything that happened before us. we are another filter that comes out. charlie: here it is.

scruggs bank i hope we can take -- >>echnological shift hope we can take this technological shift. the internet is not just audio. it is audio, visual, and interactive. what is the future of music going to be in that format that is not just about the actual sound itself anymore? sound andt the perhaps maybe the interactive -- interactive part. charlie: would you agree with them? -- diplo: what helps me be successful, a lot of distributionbattle systems, we embrace it 100%. we would rather people listen to our music. that is important for us, to get our music heard that the grabbed every penny we can get.

skrillex: you have different if you're going to take your music away from one area, there is a whole demographic of people that only go to that i'll -- to that aisle. myse people -- this is philosophy. people go to spotify and subscribe. away you aret alienating people. it doesn't mean they are going to change. a lot of times they are not going to go by a cd because you took your stuff off spotify. charlie: they also may not have a chance of getting a record made. >> i was immediately recording stuff off the radio.

it has always been in favor of the audience to make it easier for them. it is not going to get any easier than the artist. the audience is going to find easier and easier ways. you can't stop that. >> accessibility is a keyword. diplo: we have always wrote that way. school expand the one thing i am bummed about is all the major --els -- school expand skrillex: the one thing i am bummed that is all the major labels. cloud -- wen sound are some of the biggest people on sound cloud with the most followers. that is a huge asset to our overall business.

there are kids that only go to sound cloud. and eliminates a big asset is cutting off your music to an audience. is definitely a lot of controversy. the way they wanted to be heard. charlie bank are you happiest in front of a large crowd? skrillex: you make a song and it gives you the chills and you get to experience it being heard in a different way in front of people. it creates an energy in the room. that is a special feeling. diplo: i'm just lucky i make a living creating. i'm happy i can do that and share it with people. can ever my family

believe i would make a living off of creating something. charlie: thus not a bad living. thank you for joining us. see you next time. ♪

♪ emily: he is tech's biggest outlaw, under house arrest after a massive raid by new zealand commandos. kim dotcom is known for his outrageous personality as he has trotted the globe from germany, to hong kong, to new zealand. now he is the target of the biggest copyright case in history, accused of trafficking in pirated music, movies, and tv shows, as he awaits an extradition hearing to decide his fate. joining me on this special edition of "studio 1.0" from auckland, new zealand, megaupload founder and self-proclaimed ruler of the kimpire, kim dotcom.