As if we didn’t have enough reasons to celebrate Zohran Mamdani’s win, the mayor-elect once wrote a rap song dedicated to his grandmother, and it actually goes hard.
The 34-year-old socialist and LGBTQ+ ally, who on Wednesday (5 November) became New York City’s youngest mayor-elect in over a century, had a brief music career in 2019 before moving into politics.
Under the name Mr. Cardamom, Mamdani’s first and only single of his brief rap career, Nani, was adorably dedicated to his own nani, Praveen Nair, a former social worker from Delhi.
The song, which we can confirm is a bop, features lyrics including: “F**k any other Nani says they better than Praveen,” and “Wrapped in a shawl just in case of cool breeze, but you’ll never catch me, better just catch Z’s.”
If that wasn’t enough, Mamdani even released a music video featuring none other than television personality Madhur Jaffrey. Yes, really.
Mamdani’s clear-cut musical talent and lovably brash lyrics even gained the attention of the UK press. In a now-hilarious article from 2019, the future mayor-elect spoke to the Guardian about how he managed to convince Jaffrey to not only star in the video, but swear for it, too.
“It’s been a wild ride,” he told journalists at the time. “Once, I was pulling teeth to get an obscure south Asian blog to write about me; now the Financial Times is reposting the video on its social feeds.”
In a prophetic post to his Mr. Cardamom X/Twitter account in 2019, Mamdani’s last tweet reads: “You know I’ll be forever spicy but I’m taking a break from being a spice to answer the question of what happens when a B-list rapper runs for office.”
What happens, according to this week’s polls, is the B-list rapper becomes the first Muslim mayor-elect after winning nearly 51 per cent of the vote.
During his victory speech to supporters in Brooklyn, Mamdani vowed to protect all New Yorkers, including LGBTQ+ people, adding: “Here we believe in standing up for those we love.”
Mamdani’s main political rival, Andrew Cuomo, tried to use the former rapper’s music career against him in a bizarre AI-generated advertisement which attempted to position Mamdani as a “failed rapper who sang about loving literal terrorists.”
The disgraced former Democrat became the failure instead, however, after receiving 41.6 per cent of the vote following a campaign marred by sexual harassment allegations and an inability to connect with New Yorkers.
Mamdani has pledged to transform New York City into an LGBTQ+ safe haven by expanding and protecting trans healthcare and implementing an Office of LGBTQIA+ affairs.
Speaking to a rapturous crowd during his stop at one of the bars over the weekend, Mamdani yelled: “Are we ready to win a city we can afford? Are we ready to make history? Let’s go out there and do it. Thank you, my friends.”
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