Source: YouTube / NYC.gov
On Thursday (April 16), New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly released his joint tax return filed with his wife, Rama Duwaji. The details of the return revealed one surprising entry – royalties stemming from his secondary career as a rapper just a few years ago.
According to the 2025 return, Mamdani and Duwaji reported a total income of $145,000 with the bulk of that income stemming from Mamdani’s salary as a state assemblyman of $131,296. Duwaji reported an income of $10,010 from her profession as a graphic designer, which would wind up being $8,860 after deductions.
Mamdani’s royalties from his music totaled $1,643. More than half of those earnings were made from overseas. He rapped under the name Mr. Cardamom while he was working as a foreclosure prevention counselor, after debuting as Young Cardamom back as a student at the Bronx High School of Science. He even joked about being a “B-list rapper” in a post on X, formerly Twitter back in 2019.
