{"id":200219,"date":"2026-04-17T01:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/200219\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T01:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:08:17","slug":"nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-is-still-earning-royalties-from-rap-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/200219\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is still earning royalties from rap music"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is still making money from his short-lived career<\/a> as a multilingual rapper, tax filings show. <\/p>\n

But the 34-year-old Democrat\u2019s meteoric rise as a celebrity politician<\/a> has brought only a modest increase in hip-hop profits: he took home $1,643 in music royalties last year, up only slightly from $1,267 in 2024, according to the filings.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who rapped under the monikers \u201cYoung Cardamom\u201d and \u201cMr. Cardamom,\u201d joked Thursday that New Yorkers should \u201cgo to Spotify\u201d if they want to help his bottom line. \u201cA lot of people say they\u2019re listening,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019re not listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani began rapping in high school, releasing socially conscious songs in his 20s on subjects ranging from Indian flatbread to colonialism. He has described himself as a \u201cC-list rapper\u201d<\/a> following in the footsteps of his childhood heroes, including the indie-rap group Das Racist. <\/p>\n

The tax filings, shared with reporters Thursday, showed the bulk of Mamdani\u2019s 2025 earnings came from his $131,296 salary as a state Assembly member. His wife netted an additional $10,010 for graphic design work. In total, they reported a joint income of roughly $145,000.<\/p>\n

As mayor, Mamdani is set to earn a salary of $258,750 this year. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s not New York City\u2019s first mayor to take home entertainment royalties. <\/p>\n

According to his redacted 2012 tax return, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg received somewhere between $2,000 and $10,000 in residuals from prior appearances as himself on TV\u2019s \u201cLaw & Order\u201d franchise, the 2008 TV special \u201cA Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa\u201d and the 2011 movie \u201cThe Adjustment Bureau,\u201d which starred Matt Damon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is still making money from his short-lived career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[288,45225,3423,417,32560,46540,12363,2538,9,24,56,63,65,64,87,1431,79496,2780,421,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-200219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-compensation-and-benefits","10":"tag-domestic-news","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-hip-hop-and-rap","13":"tag-matt-damon","14":"tag-michael-bloomberg","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-nyc-headlines","21":"tag-nyc-news","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-royalty","24":"tag-spotify-technology-sa","25":"tag-taxes","26":"tag-u-s-news","27":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}