New York City has Mamdani fever! Our new mayor-elect made it official on Tuesday, after a savvy final push where Zohran spent the last month frequenting every bake sale and garden club and hip restaurant and Washington Square Park content creator. He even spent Halloween weekend club-hopping to every cool nightlife spot in the city, or as we New Yorkers call it, an Eric Adams Wednesday.
As we celebrate Mamdani week, it's important to remember that he is the hip-hop candidate. Not just because of his former rap career, though we'll get to that. It's the way he has used rap in interesting ways to establish his candidacy. From going to Wu-Tang shows to shouting out Dipset, he has the taste of, well, your typical Brooklyn hipster, which is yet another bit of smart politicking. With that in mind, let's toast to Mamdani with the songs that represented his run.
Wu-Tang Clan - "Bring Da Ruckus"
As alluded to before, Zohran showed up at the Wu-Tang Clan's final New York show at Madison Square Garden. A most New York event, particularly to then turn into part of your campaign event. Wu-Tang is for the children, so hopefully Zohran will be too.
Jadakiss feat. Styles P - "We Gonna Make It"
Ja Rule, Jadakiss, and Fat Joe - "New York"
Zohran has shown appreciation for the canonical NYC anthems. He's given props to Jada and "We Gonna Make It" specifically, and said that he planned to make "New York" his trademark song once he won the race. He kept that promise. Zohran is living up to his word already, although for future reference, next time he should include Jada's shit-talking from that Verzuz match for maximum effect.
Being able to hear Jada yell "I'm from the real New York, I don't live in Miami," at the same time Andrew Cuomo is somewhere having sad finger food at his depression party, would've been too good.
50 Cent - "Many Men (Wish Death)"
Mamdani went on TV earlier this week to talk about taxing the rich or die trying. Cute. Like 50 Cent, many people seem to want the homie dead, out of their own ugly Islamophobia based on a misguided notion of what 9/11 was actually about (Bush doing it). Speaking of which:
The Diplomats - "Dipset Anthem/I Really Mean It"
Remember when our worst actors tried to make a thing out of Dipset being pro-Taliban, all because Mamdani was Juelz-posting? That was fun, as was being reminded about all the insane 9/11 references that crew made in their music: "Young Mohamed Atta, no plane lessons / Cocaine lessons to supply the towers." Who even thinks to say that??
Blaketheman1000 - "Citibike"
Mamdani's theme throughout the campaign, apparently. Listen, they can't all be winners.
Usher feat. Young Jeezy - "Love In This Club"
In Mamdani's Pitchfork interview, he made a tossed-off comment about getting to know the city's aloof new First Lady and feeling embarrassed that his playlists were full of variations of Usher and Young Jeezy's "Love In This Club." But that sounds quite all right to me. This song still bangs.
Lil Wayne feat. Drake - "Right Above It"
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, we were all in college in 2011 somehow. It was a weird time for everyone, and to be frank, you just were not going to get a millennial's rap playlist without seeing a Drake appearance somewhere. Although ...
Kendrick Lamar - "Not Like Us"
... Mamdani was firmly in the Kendrick camp of the millennial rap war. I don't know, maybe Drake never got around to adopting a Ugandan accent and that didn't sit right with Zo. At any rate, Mamdani seemed to find inspiration in Kendrick's surgical evisceration for his own campaign. There's never been a more "they not like us" political race than this one, with the "they" being a certain ex-governor who would rather be in Florida than dealing with the city he hates yet claims to want to be in charge of. Personally, I think Mamdani is probably more of a "Euphoria" guy, though.
Young Cardamom & HAB - "#1 Spice"
I am not against fan service. And we all deserve a little sweetie treatie this week, do we not? It's a new day for New York City!
The Non-Rap Song of the Moment
R.I.P. Ace Frehley.
