Rapper 50 Cent has offered Zohran Mamdani a “first class one-way ticket” out of New York City after the mayoral nominee threatened to hike up his taxes.
Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, won the city’s Democratic primary Tuesday after campaigning on affordability for average New Yorkers. Mamdani has promised to freeze the rent in stabilized units, create city-owned grocery stores and make buses free. Most of his promises would be made possible by increasing the taxes of New York’s wealthiest people.
On Wednesday, Queens native 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, posted a video of Mamdani explaining his tax policy and wrote: “Where did he come from[?] Whose friend is this? I’m not feeling this plan no.”
“I will give him $258,750 and a first class one way ticket away from NY. I’m telling [President Donald] Trump what he said too !” said Jackson, who put Trump’s face on his album cover at an event following the president’s first assassination attempt.
Jackson was reacting to an interview Mamdani did with “The Breakfast Club” podcast earlier this month, in which he talking about “taxing the top one percent of New Yorkers. We’re talking about people who make a million dollars a year or more, taxing them just by a flat two percent tax increase.”
“I know if 50 Cent is listening, he’s not going to be happy about this. He tends to not like this tax policy, but I want to be very clear this is about $20,000 a year,” Mamdani said.
Supporters of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement were quick to laugh and make jokes of 50 Cent's commentary.
Pro-Trump media personality Nick Sortor wrote on X on Thursday, “LMAO!” An X account named MAGA Voice told Mamdani, “Good riddance.”
Mamdani, who caused a political upset when he beat former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to the nomination on Tuesday, further explained his tax plan in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett Thursday evening.
Not only will he raise the taxes of the top one percent of New Yorkers but he wants to work on “ increasing the top corporate tax rate of New York to match that of New Jersey.”
When asked about the possibility of New York’s wealthiest people deciding to leave the city if their taxes were to increase, Mamdani referred to a December 2023 report from the Fiscal Policy Institute.
“ The Fiscal Policy Institute did an analysis of the top one percent of New Yorkers and found that they leave the city at one-fourth the rate of other income categories. And when they do leave, they leave to what are called high tax states, New Jersey, California.
So what it then comes down to is why are they leaving? Is it fiscal policy or is it actually quality of life? And I've heard that time and again from welfare New Yorkers, from all New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.
