Hamilton: An American Musical

Hamilton is the cast album to the 2015 musical Hamilton. The musical is based on the 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow, with music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The recording stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, Okieriete Onaodowan, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and Jonathan Groff. It also features Jon Rua, Thayne Jasperson, Sydney James Harcourt, Ariana DeBose, and Sasha Hutchings. It achieved the largest first week sales for a digital cast album and is the highest-charting cast album since 1963. It was the highest-selling Broadway cast album of 2015 and peaked at number one on the Rap Album chart, the first cast album to ever do so.
Debut and reception
The cast album for the musical premiered in September 2015 on NPR's website." Its digital release on September 25, 2015 debuted on numerous charts and was released in stores as a two-disc set on October 16, 2015. It debuted at number one on the Top Broadway Albums chart as well as number 3 on Top Rap Albums, number 5 on the Top Digital Albums, and number 9 on the Top Current Albums chart. Hamilton's debut was the second biggest first week sales of a Broadway cast album, just behind the cast album for the musical Rent. It debuted at number 12 on the overall Billboard 200 chart for sales, with over 2.1 million streams combined from digital service providers, the largest streaming debut for a cast album ever. Following the 2016 Tony Awards, the album re-peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, making it one of only three cast recordings to reach the top 10 in the last 50 years.
The album was the highest-selling Broadway cast album of 2015 and peaked at number one on the Rap Album chart, the first cast album to ever do so. It achieved the largest first week sales for a digital cast album and was the highest-charting cast album debut since 1963. Billboard called the album an "eye-popping debut," giving it a 5-out-of-5 star review and listing it at number 2 on the magazine's "50 Best Albums of 2015." Rolling Stone gave it a 4.5-out-of-5 star rating, listing it at number 8 on the magazine's "Top 50 Albums of 2015." Robert Christgau wrote in Vice, "I can attest that the intrinsic intellectual interest  powers up here is so impressive it's exciting."
Lin Manuel Miranda made a conscious decision to exclude one scene in the performance from the cast album, "Tomorrow There'll Be More of Us."