Donald Trump's campaign boss once dreamed of making a Hamilton-like rap musical about the L.A. riots


Donald Trump's new campaign CEO and Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon once aspired to take Shakespeare's Coriolanus and "make a rap film out of it set in South Central during the [1992] L.A. riots," Julia Jones, Bannon's writing partner of 18 years, told The Daily Beast.
Rap musicals have recently risen to mainstream popularity, most notably with the Broadway hit Hamilton, although Spike Lee used Aristophanes' Lysistrata as the basis of the satirical 2015 musical Chi-Raq about gang violence in Chicago. Bannon, though, was perhaps ahead of his time with the never-produced 2006 script for The Thing I Am; Jones and the son of Bannon's assistant wrote most of the lyrics before "Steve [then] added stuff — all the 'dudes' are him," Jones explained.
The whole thing is rather bizarre, and not just because it reportedly "[embodies] the progressive, social-justice principles that Bannon's media flagship — the Breitbart network — emphatically rejects." Take this scene, described by The Daily Beast from excerpts they received of the script, which includes characters calling each other the n-word:
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Soon after the musical begins, Agrippa and Brutus are already debating politics and class."They don't care for us," Brutus argues, enraged. "Their houses, crammed with good s---; their banks grow fat and daily they repeal fair acts against the rich while passing laws to chain the poor. If their wars don't eat us up, they will. And what's the love they bear us?!"Agrippa fires back, and in doing so commands the crowd's attention."South Central is the belly, you, n--gas, its mutinous members; look on and you'll see that the benefits which you receive proceed … from them to you. In no way from your sorry black asses," Agrippa retorts.According to the unproduced script, the Blood subsequently "crosses to Brutus and grabs his crotch." [The Daily Beast]
The Daily Beast has more from excerpts of the script, which you can read here.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetime
Feature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Book reviews: ‘We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution’ and ‘Will There Ever Be Another You’
Feature The many attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution and Patricia Lockwood’s struggle with long Covid
-
Philadelphia’s Calder Gardens
Feature A permanent new museum
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91
Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle