Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, recently received a call from Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) with an invite to Wu-Tang Clan’s purported final Madison Square Garden show.
The call was recorded for a campaign video for Mamdani, and plays over clips of the New York assemblyman greeting Wu-Tang fans and supporters in the crowd and meeting rap luminaries backstage, from members of the group to Run the Jewels‘ Killer Mike and El-P to Jadakiss. “No one has the pulse of our communities in a way hip-hop always has,” says Bowman, before he addresses Mamdani: “You are part of that continuum, too, my brother, as you’re bringing new energy and ideas and authenticity and humanity into the political system.”
In one scene, the camera captures Mamdani discussing the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn with RZA, who was born there. RZA talks about a generation of residents who are “stuck” in the underserved community, unable to afford to leave, and asks the mayoral nominee how he would address the situation.
“I think a big part of it is to make Brownsville a place that you don’t have to leave,” Mamdani says. “There are too many people for whom stability, space, raising a family, you can only do it outside of New York City. The whole campaign that we ran on is about ‘How do we make the most expensive city in the United States of America affordable?’”
“OK, I liked that. That’s a pretty good answer,” says RZA. “Alright, so it’s a mission.”
“It’s Wu-Tang Financial,” quips Mamdani.
Before he became a standout candidate for NYC progressives, Mamdani was a foreclosure prevention counselor who moonlit as a rapper — first as Young Cardamom and later as Mr. Cardamom. In 2015, he partnered with lifelong friend Abdul Bar Hussein (rapper HAB) on “Kanda (Chap Chap),” and the year after, they released a six-song EP entitled Sidda Mukyaalo, whose tracks hint at the political acuity that now shapes Mamdani’s populist, affordability-focused mayoral platform.
Several celebrities have shown their support for Mamdani during his campaign, with the likes of Lorde, Ava DuVernay, Ramy Youssef, Cynthia Nixon, Bowen Yang, Emily Ratajowski, and more taking to social media to back the Democratic nominee.
