Hamilton, Laurens, Burr, and Lee recite a versified version of the code duello while preparing for a duel.
Title and style pays homage to “Ten Crack Commandments” by The Notorious B.I.G.
On the song and its inspiration:
Kail, the director, explained, “We needed to set up the duel between Hamilton and Burr—because you know Hamilton is going to die—so the groundwork of that, structurally, made a lot of sense to us. But having it be something so loved by hip-hop fans was also a way of saying that these folks from long ago were doing the same things that Biggie was talking about fifteen years ago.” Miranda nodded. “It’s a song about illegal activity, and how it works,” he said. “And we’re both stealing the structure from Moses.”
The company performed a modified version of the stage choreography for a #ham4ham performance.
Hamilton’s own account of the proceedings of Laurens’s duel with Charles Lee can be found here.