Even before the votes were counted last week, Zohran Mamdani was making his first misstep as the mayor-elect of New York City.
The upstart outsider who had shocked the political establishment with his out-of-nowhere win hadn’t even given his victory speech, and already he was sending the wrong message.
Mamdani sauntered onstage election night to the blaring music of one of New York City’s many anthems, not unlike a boxer approaching the ring before the bell sounds for Round 1.
But the next mayor of The City That Never Sleeps couldn’t have chosen a worse soundtrack.
Mamdani’s theme music of choice? Ja Rule’s “New York.”
“I got a hundred guns, a hundred clips
I’m from New York, New York.”
Now, to be fair, whoever pressed play didn’t allow the track to run long enough for the excited crowd to hear the violent lyrics.
But if you know, you know. And, if you don’t, well, now you know.
The song, as catchy as the beat is, was a poor choice for a couple of reasons.
The next mayor delivered his speech in Brooklyn, where, despite the decline in violent crime, neighborhoods are still plagued by deadly, senseless shootings.
Just three days before Mamdani made election night history, a 16-year-old Bronx boy visiting friends in Brooklyn was shot to death in Crown Heights.
Tyson “TJ” Harps Jr. was shot in the head along Eastern Parkway near Rochester Ave. just an hour and a half after texting his protective mother who had worried about him going out that night.
She had asked him to check in every hour.
‘Ma, I’m good,” he wrote just before 7:30 p.m. Ninety minutes later he was dead.
His mother is 38, just four years older than Mamdani. The last thing she probably wants to hear is Ja Rule rapping about “slugs flying at the speed of sound.”
GoFundMe
Tyson Harps Jr., 16, was fatally shot on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Saturday night, November 1, 2025. (GoFundMe)
During his Paramount Theater victory speech, Mamdani tore into President Trump, painting him as part of the billionaire class convincing “those making $30 an hour that their enemies are those earning $20 an hour.”
“After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said. “And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.
“This is not only how we stop Trump; it’s how we stop the next one. So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up.”
Again, right message. Wrong song.
I got a hundred guns, a hundred clips
I’m from New York, New York
Despite it all, despite the bigotry, the misogyny, the threats to SNAP benefits and the ICE raids that separate families, the president is still a man who just months ago survived an assassination attempt.
A bullet clipped his ear as it went by his head.
Mamdani is only 34. No one expects him to walk out on stage, confetti flying, to Frank Sinatra, or even Billy Joel.
The new mayor has to keep it fresh. But his song selection has to be better. Even Ja Rule’s “New York,” released in 2004, is more than 20 years old.
Mamdani did much better on his way out, the venue speakers thumping to the sounds of a Bollywood song, “Dhoom Machale,” that paid tribute to his Indian roots. Mamdani’s parents were born in India before they moved to Uganda, where he was born.
This is what New Yorkers need to hear, songs that celebrate the city’s immigrant culture, songs that honor inclusion, songs that still sound good.
Turn the volume up.
