By this point, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is known for many things besides his brief stint as a rapper with the handle Mr. Cardamom: his Democratic Socialist bona fides, his charisma on the campaign trail, and his improbable win in the city’s Democratic primary earlier this year. But there’s no denying that his history on the mic — characterized by winning odes to his Indian heritage and the culture of Uganda, where he was born — showed flashes of the man-of-the-people politician he would become. And while he never dropped a diss track, his takedowns of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the debate stage were as hard as any bars you’d find in a Kendrick Lamar verse about Drake .

Mamdani isn’t the first person to trade music for public service, either. Perha

See Full Page