Nas and Mayor Mamdani Meet in Queens to Keep Hip Hop in NYC

Mayor Zohran Mamdani sat down with Nas at Queensbridge Park, outside the rapper's childhood home at the Queensbridge Projects, to talk about keeping hip hop alive in the city that created it.

The conversation appears in a new video from the Mayor's Office. Mamdani, a self-professed hip hop fan who once rapped under the moniker "Young Cardamom," and Nas discuss the genre's roots and its place in New York City's past and future.

"We can't be content with New York City simply being the birthplace of hip hop. We want it to still be its home, and that means ensuring that the artists who create here are actually able to live here," Mamdani said.

Hip hop was born in the Bronx during the summer of 1973. More than 50 years later, it has grown into a global cultural movement that continues to inspire artists and fans.

The mayor pointed to the city's rising cost of living and to the communities that built its culture now being pushed out. "If we allow New York to become such an expensive city that art becomes a luxury good, then we are depriving future generations from the magic of art," he said. "New Yorkers deserve a city that is a living, breathing testament to what it looks like when we create the conditions to help this art form flourish."

Nas spoke about the form's impact and its origins. "Hip-hop unveils the truth. Hip-hop tells you exactly what your city looks like, sounds like, feels like. It was an outcry from people who demanded things to change and to tell the world what we were going through," he said. "And that came from a city that was going through a whole lot."

The short film also follows Mamdani as he celebrates the first day of school with students at the Bronx School of Hip Hop. According to a press release, the school "uses hip-hop culture as a foundation for rigorous instruction." It serves grades nine through 12 in District Nine, in the Claremont section of the Bronx.

Students there study emceeing, DJing, graffiti, breaking, and "knowledge of self while connecting academic content to real-world experiences." Their coursework includes audio production, digital media and financial literacy alongside the standard curriculum.

"It's like surreal that New York City mayor's office, the chancellor's office, this is their school. They said we are going to back this," said Principal Jason Reyes. "Who would have ever thought that hip-hop would make it this far? So, it means the world to know that our city is leading the way in a way that no one else has ever done it. And that's New York."

The pairing of a rap icon and a city administration signals a broader ambition: to treat housing affordability not just as an economic issue, but as a condition for whether New York remains a working home for the artists who shaped its sound.