TGIF Feature: Rapper, Lin Manuel Miranda drop an ode to Rufio, leader of the Lost Boys

Filipino American actor Dante Basco played Rufio in the movie 'Hook.'

WHO WOULD have predicted that Lost Boys leader Rufio would become such an inspirational figure for young Asians and Asian Americans?

Rufio, a central figure in the children's story Peter Pan, was played by Filipino American actor Dante Basco in the movie Hook, which starred the late Robin Williams.

Following the drop of his single “Vanity”, Utkarsh Ambudkar has just released his animated music video for “Rufio” via Rolling Stone. The track is an epic collaboration with Lin- Manuel Miranda, Basco, and The Olympics. Directed by Tayen Kim, the video shines a light on being an outcast, race, the first generation immigrant experience, politics, Hollywood and more with his raw and melodic hip-hop sound.

Ambudkar remembers his exact reaction to seeing Basco play Rufio in Hook. “Badass,” said the young actor-rapper, known for his roles in The Mindy Project and Pitch Perfect. Soon, he’ll be known for his role as con artist Skath in the live-action remake of Mulan, which he’s currently training for and filming in New Zealand.

“I never related to Peter Pan,” Ambudkar tells Rolling Stone. But the fictional character of Rufio – the leader of the Lost Boys – struck a personal note for Ambudkar, who is Indian American. It was the first time he saw an Asian actor cast as the tough guy – in the movies or on TV.

HAMILTON MIXTAPE

Utkarsh Ambudkar, right, working with Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Ambudkar has dropped an animated video for “Rufio,” one that drives home those superhero qualities that strengthened his own identity. He even includes a shout-out to the Basco's Philippine roots, casting out the sun of the Philippine flag. Basco's part (at the 2:38 mark) includes the line "for all the brown boys and brown girls - yo, that's me! We're not the sidekick, or the butt of a joke ..."

Ambudkar worked with Lin-Manuel Miranda in a the criticlly acclaimed hip-hop group Freestyle Love Supreme before Miranda hit gold with Hamilton. 

Ambudkar and Miranda remained close over the years. They have matching tattoos of the Freestyle Love Supreme microphone that stood for their crew from the early days of their music careers in New York. Ambudkar says he even helped create the Aaron Burr character in "The Hamilton Mixtape," long before it hit Broadway. 

Basco’s contribution was a pivotal one on Ambudkar’s debut album, Vanity, which he feels is aligned with a wave of Asian and Asian American-empowerment with the recent groundbreaking success of films like Crazy Rich Asians and Searching. The goal of the album is to inspire brown people, he says. “The themes are: ‘What is it like to be brown in America? And how do we empower each other?'”

Ambudkar never dreamed that one day he would sit down to write about that moment with Rufio, his childhood hero.  He asked his Blindspotting costar, Indian American actress Janina Gavankar, to introduce him to Basco, who lives in L.A. (“She knows everybody,” he explains). 

Basco was game. He worked on the song, called “Rufio,” with Ambudkar and even brought his gold sword from Hook for inspiration. They both held it while rapping their bars into the microphone.

On "Vanity," Ambudkar made sure he was not “the only Indian in the room” by including a variety of South Asian artists such as Das Racist’s Heems, Brooklyn Shanti, Kaly and Samora Pinderhughes. Plus, his old battle-rapping buddy, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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