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Zohran Mamdani Used to Rap — and His Catalog Has Been Surging in Streams
Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee in New York City, used to rap and has seen his catalog surge in streams in recent weeks.
In 2016, Mamdani released a six-track EP, Sidda Mukyaalo, alongside his close friend and collaborator Abdul Bar Hussein (who raps under the name HAB). On the EP, the pair raps in six different languages, while drawing from the members’ shared Ugandan heritage — Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, and moved to New York City at age seven. According to a 2019 New York Times story about actress Madhur Jaffrey, Mamdani made his rap debut in the late 2000s while running for student vice president at Bronx High School of Science.
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