Mamdani chose ultra-capitalist Biggie, Nas, and Jay-Z among his five favorite rappers. Pivot to center? Are Common and Lupe Fiasco a nod to his base?
Will Zoran Mamdani be able to reorganize the DNC?
New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani’s campaign has put affordability at the forefront of his campaign. It succeeded in striking a nerve with young voters.
New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani may not agree with centrist Democrats on many things, but he has mainstream tastes in hip-hop. In what may be considered part of the former firebrand’s pivot to center, he recently selected five very widely admired rappers as his five favorites of all time.
Mamdani, 34, is famously passionate about hip-hop and has tried and failed to make it as a rapper himself, so it’s no wonder that writer Jose Vilson asked him in an interview to name his five favorite rappers of all time.
And the choice of the new mayor was equally unsurprising. Four widely respected legends who rose to fame in the 1990s: Nas, Common, Jay-Z, and the Notorious B.I.G., better known as Biggie, and an almost equally prominent figure from the 2000s: Lupe Fiasco.
For many hip-hop fans in their 30s, this would be an obvious choice. But for a self-proclaimed socialist beloved by hipsters for his unconventional policies, this is relatively prudent and apolitical, the equivalent of naming the Rolling Stones as your favorite rock band of all time or Seinfeld as your favorite sitcom.
For example, moderate House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries had the same three rappers in his top five when asked in 2020: Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas.
But moderation is new to Mamdani. From abandoning past calls to defund the police and retaining his more conservative predecessor as police chief, to a friendship visit with President Donald Trump and a refusal to support a challenge to Jeffries, Mamdani has sought to allay establishment concerns.
some progressive political rappers
Common and Lupe Fiasco are both from Chicago and are among the most prominent rappers who are politically minded and considered progressive. Both are known as cheerful, cosmopolitan, and somewhat artistic personalities, befitting the Mamdani brand.
Despite Karl Rove’s hilariously inaccurate description of Common as a “thug” during a spoken word poetry reading at the White House during President Barack Obama’s administration, neither he nor Lupe ever rapped about being violent, carrying weapons, or belonging to a gang.
Common has frequently championed progressive causes such as civil rights, including his hit song “Glory” from the movie “Selma” and the song “Chapter 13 (Rich vs. Poor)” from his breakthrough 1994 album “Resurrection,” which illustrated the cost of racial wealth inequality.
Similarly, Lupe Fiasco raised awareness about everything from domestic violence to the legacy of imperialist exploitation of the Global South with her hit song “Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free).”
Three giants of New York hardcore hip-hop
It’s no coincidence that Mamdani and Jeffries chose Nas, Biggie and Jay-Z. The three are essentially the holy trinity of New York City rappers. (Biggie and Jay-Z are both from Brooklyn, and Nas is from Queens.)
They are also explicitly capitalist and materialistic in their lyrics, largely depicting a narrative of selling crack and distributing the proceeds among various investment portfolios. Jay-Z, in particular, brags about his wealth and the luxuries it affords, and it’s become part of his personality. (Example lyric: “I’m not a businessman, I’m a businessman.”)
Of course, you can’t become one of hip-hop’s most acclaimed lyricists without hitting other notes. Nas has addressed social issues such as racism in his later works, and many fans would argue that Biggie and Jay-Z raise awareness of the difficult conditions in urban areas and the hypocrisy of American capitalism, which praises liquor company CEOs and locks up drug dealers.
But if you parse his words carefully, you’ll notice that Mamdani calls Chicago progressives his personal favorites.
“When I was a kid, it was Lupe Fiasco for me,” Mamdani said. “I love Common too.”
On the other hand, his choice of New York City was cast as a matter of political necessity.
“We have to include Nath,” Mamdani began, noting that Queensbridge House, the project where Nath grew up, is in his own former state parliamentary district.
“We have to include Jay-Z,” he said. “And I think as a city of New York, we need to bring in Biggie.”
There are no real radicals
Sharper ideological choices might have been expected given Mamdani’s political and personal profile, including his years of advocacy for Palestinian rights, his upbringing by his anti-colonial academic father, and his sometimes harsh criticism of the police.
For example, Boots Riley in The Coup was a Marxist who wrote the screenplay for the anti-capitalist film Sorry, while Wise Intelligent, the black supremacist language in Poor Righteous Teachers, criticized America’s obsession with material things. And, of course, there are the godfathers of politically revolutionary hip-hop like Chuck D. Kennedy of KRS-One and Public Enemy.
Perhaps Mamdani wanted to avoid giving ammunition to his critics. He already had to deny that his call for President Trump to “turn up the volume” in his 2025 victory speech was a reference to KRS-One’s lyrics about the 2020 anti-police brutality protests.
But Chicago doesn’t have a monopoly on milder, more socially conscious alternative hip-hop. How about naming New York City rivals for Common, like A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip and Phife Dawg, Gang Starr’s Gurus, or more underground, decidedly activist options like Talib Kweli and Mos Def (now known as Yassin Bey)?
Perhaps Mr. Mamdani is emulating President Obama’s effective appeal to political moderates. Admiring Common isn’t the only thing Mamdani has in common with the former president, who also famously loves listening to Jay-Z — or maybe he just wasn’t that edgy to begin with.
