New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is arguably the most beloved politician in America right now (outside of MAGA country anyway), and if New Yorkers didn’t love him enough already, the good mayor is now looking to further solidify the Big Apple as the Mecca of Hip-Hop culture.
On Wednesday (Sept. 30), the GOAT mayor premiered a quick video about the importance of Hip-Hop and sat down with none other than the iconic Queensbridge King, Nas, to break down his take on the culture that changed the world.
“We can’t be content with being the birthplace of Hip-Hop. We want it to still be the home,” Mamdani tells Nas before we get a look at the first students of the new Bronx School of Hip-Hop. Founded by Bronx native and Principal Jason Reyes, the Boogie Down representative proudly explained the science behind his Bronx school, saying, “What it does is it validates that our culture is great and that our culture means something.”
Indeed, Principal Reyes. Indeed.
Nas, for his part, took a moment to explain to Mayor Mamdani his views on how Hip-Hop music was able to impact so many lives, saying, “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. And that came from a city that was going through a whole lot.”
New York City in the ’70s really was something else.
Although the inaugural class has only 100+ 9th-grade students, the school plans to add a grade level each year until it eventually reaches 9-12.
This makes us older heads want to dust off our JanSport book bags and enroll in this school. Just sayin’.
Check out Mayor Mamdani and Nas discussing hip-hop below, and let us know what you think about the Bronx School of Hip-Hop in the comments.