{"id":361156,"date":"2026-09-30T21:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361156\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T21:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:12:08","slug":"mayor-mamdani-rap-legend-nas-discuss-why-new-york-city-must-remain-hip-hops-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361156\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Mamdani, rap legend Nas discuss why New York City must remain hip-hop’s home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hip-hop music<\/a> was born in New York City in 1973. Since then, it has become a global phenomenon with many sub-genres that has produced countless artists and fans.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is a major fan of hip-hop<\/a>. Prior to entering politics, he used to rap under names such as “Young Cardamom” and “Mr. Cardamom” and even released an EP in 2016 titled “Sidda Mukyaalo.”<\/p>\n

\"mamdani-and-nas-2.jpg<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left, and legendary rapper Nas recently discussed the importance of New York City remaining the home of hip-hop music.<\/p>\n

NYC Mayor’s Office<\/p>\n

Recently, Mamdani sat down with legendary rapper Nas<\/a> to talk about the five decades-plus since hip-hop emerged from a party on Sedgewick Avenue in the South Bronx<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a video released on social media, Mamdani says the New York City “can’t be content with being the birthplace of hip-hop — we want it to still be the home.”<\/p>\n

Nas<\/a>, considered by many to be one of the greatest rappers to ever do it and a native of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, agreed, citing the music’s messages about identity and upbringing.<\/p>\n

“Hip-hop unveils the truth. Hip-hop tells you exactly what your city looks like, sounds like and feels like,” Nas said. “It was an outcry from people who demanded things to change, and to tell the world what we were going through. And that came from a city that was going through a whole lot.”<\/p>\n

Mamdani often touts the Bronx School of Hip Hop<\/a>, which opened in September and teaches core academics through the music’s key pillars, including DJing, MCing (or rapping), breaking, and graffiti art.<\/p>\n

Mamdani told Nas he believes people shouldn’t think they have to leave their neighborhoods to realize their dreams.<\/p>\n

“There’s more to life than just surviving. It’s all about the youth and how we get them to avoid the mistakes that so many people made. I know so many people from this neighborhood that had so much potential, but there was nothing showing them a different way,” Nas said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said it’s important for the city’s aspiring artists “to keep writing, to keep creating, and to keep dreaming,” and for New Yorkers as a whole “to forever be hungry.”<\/p>\n

“That’s what it’s all about,” Nas said.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hip-hop music was born in New York City in 1973. Since then, it has become a global phenomenon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1123,9,24,56,63,65,64,82],"class_list":["post-361156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-hip-hop","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361156","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=361156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}