A decade before he ran New York City Zohran Mamdani spoke to Kaya 959’s Kgomotso Meso about music, family and Queen of Katwe.
Katlego Sekhu
Nine years before he became Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani sat down with Kaya 959 to talk music, family and Queen of Katwe.
In October 2016, a young Zohran Mamdani sat down with Drive’s Kgomotso Meso to talk about his work as music supervisor on Queen of Katwe, the Disney film directed by his mother, Mira Nair. Nine years on, he is the Mayor of New York City.
At the time, his job on set was music supervisor, later credited as third assistant director too. It started months before shooting even began, when he put together a playlist for his mother to work from.
“Nepotism and hard work goes a long way,” he said, laughing off the connection.
He walked Kgomotso through spotting, the process of sitting with a director and watching the film to mark where a song should land. From there it was on him to find the right ones, sometimes falling in love with a track only to have to let it go and start again. He shared final credit with music supervisor Linda Cohen after the work grew far beyond what he was originally brought on to do.
Talk turned to the sound of Uganda itself, afropop, dancehall inflections, and artists like Eddy Kenzo and A Pass, both of whom he named as poised to break out across the continent. He was hopeful about the timing.
“I think our moment is now,” he said.
Then Kgomotso caught him out. Behind-the-scenes work wasn’t the whole story. Under the name Young Cardamom, Mamdani had written and performed on the film’s soundtrack too.
Half serious about what came next, he checked in with the crew. “Does this camera have protection? I don’t want it to break if I hit it too hard.”
Then he launched into an unscripted verse from #1Spice, the song that plays three times across the film.
It was a lighter, freer version of the man now leading America’s largest city. On Kaya, he was Young Cardamom before he was Mayor Mamdani.
Watch the full interview on YouTube.
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