Billboard Names HAMILTON #2 Album of The Year

The staff of Billboard Magazine has selected the Original Broadway Cast Album of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton as #2 in its list of the Top 25 Albums Of 2015. Founded in 1894, Billboard is regarded as one of the most important and influential trade publications in the music industry.

Billboard writes, "A Broadway cast album featuring diverse hip-hop, R&B, rap, and Broadway pop numbers about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton? Safe to say few people expected it to work. But work - or, to borrow the parlance of the show, werk - it does, even without the benefit of watching the performance. Because Hamilton is sung/rapped-through, essentially the entire show is on the two-disc album, allowing fans to fully experience the breadth of the immersive and cohesive music by creator/star Lin-Manuel Miranda."

Rapper Kendrick Lamar's TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY took the top spot.

The rest of the list is as follows:

3. ART ANGELS: Grimes

4. SUMMERTIME '06: Vince Staples

5. 25: Adele

6. IN COLOUR: Jamie XX

7. SOUND AND COLOR: Alabama Shakes

8. BLACK MESSIAH: D'Angelo

9. I LOVE YOU HONEYBEAR: Father John Misty

10. SOMETHING MORE THAN FREE: Jason Isbell

11. DS2: Future

12. IF YOU'RE READING THIS IT'S TOO LATE: Drake

13. TRAVELLER: Chris Stapleton

14. NO CITIES TO LOVE: Sleater Kinney

15. DARK SKY PARADISE: Big Sean

16. SOMETIMES I SIT AND THINK, SOMETIMES I JUST SIT: Courtney Barnett

17. 'How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful,' Florence and the Machine

17. HOW BIG, HOW BLUE, HOW BEAUTIFUL: Florence and the Machine

18. BEAUTY BEHIND THE MADNESS: The Weeknd

19. AMANECER: Bomba Estero

20. DAYS GONE BY: Bob Moses

21. HONEYMOON: Lana Del Rey

22. SURF: Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment

23. SKRILLEX AND DIPLO PRESENT JACK Ü: Jack Ü

24. EMOTION: Carly Rae Jepsen

25. HASTA LA RAIZ: Natalia LaFoucarde

Click here for Billboard's full article.

The new musical Hamilton has book, music and lyrics by Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also plays the title role. The musical is directed by Thomas Kail, with choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and music direction and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. Hamilton is inspired by Ron Chernow's biography "AlexanderHamilton."

$10 front row seats for Hamilton - the new musical about the $10 Founding Father, AlexanderHamiltonare on sale for each show by lottery. THE LOTTERY begins two and half hours prior to each performance when patrons may enter their name at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (226 W. 46 St.) for a chance to buy up to two front row tickets for $10 each -Hamilton for "Hamilton." The winner's names will be drawn 2 hours before show time. Entrants must present photo ID, and the winners must pay with cash at the box office.

The cast of Hamilton is comprised of Lin-Manuel Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), Daveed Diggs(Marquis De Lafayette,Thomas Jefferson), Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler),Christopher Jackson (George Washington),Jonathan Groff (King George), Jasmine Cephas Jones (Peggy Schuyler, Maria Reynolds), Javier Muñoz (Hamilton alternate), Okieriete Onaodowan(Hercules Mulligan, James Madison), Leslie Odom, Jr. (Aaron Burr),Anthony Ramos(John Laurens, PhilipHamilton) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).

HAMILTON is the acclaimed new musical about the scrappy young immigrant Alexander Hamilton, the $10 Founding Father who forever changed America with his revolutionary ideas and actions. During his life cut too short, he served as George Washington's chief aide, was the first Treasury Secretary, a loving husband and father, despised by his fellow Founding Fathers and shot to death by Aaron Burr in their legendary duel.