New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani Reports Music Royalties in Tax Return

The mayor’s 2025 tax filing shows $1,643 in music income, with streaming for his earlier rap work seeing a notable increase.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani included music royalties in his publicly released 2025 joint tax return. The filing shows $1,643 in income from his past career as a rapper, recorded under the names Young Cardamom and Mr. Cardamom.

Streaming data indicates a renewed interest in his music coincided with his mayoral campaign. According to Billboard, 74% of all US streams for his 2016 collaborative EP ‘Sidda Mukyallo’ with HAB occurred last year. The project earned 58,000 on-demand streams in 2024.

His most streamed tracks, the 2016 collaboration “#1 Spice” and the 2019 solo song “Nani,” garnered 219,000 and 243,000 on-demand streams respectively in 2024. The figures illustrate how a political profile can redirect attention to an artist’s back catalog, generating passive income years after release.

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ROMBO Editorial Staff

ROMBO Editorial Staff

The collective voice behind ROMBO Magazine’s news, reviews, features, and cultural coverage.

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