Zohran Kwame Mamdani’s octogenarian nani is an absolute boss. So much so that when the lady in question, Praveen Nair, was hanging with the up-and-coming Ugandan-American hip-hop star and his sisters two years ago, Zohran just started freestyling “like an idiot about my nani . Weeks passed and I couldn’t shake either the chorus or the general idea out of my head”, remembers the 27-year-old, son of Ugandan scholar Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair ( Monsoon Wedding , The Namesake ). “So I started talking to my friend Magnus [Thompson] about producing a beat for it. She’s played a big role in my life — a source of joy, wisdom, and love.”
The result is the recent track, aptly titled ‘Nani’ — under Zohran’s moniker Mr Cardamom — with a video starring desi darling, actor and food writer Madhur Jaffrey. A few short days since it dropped, the video is already being shared far and wide, finding a spot on the Instagram accounts of model Padma Lakshmi and Bollywood director Zoya Akhtar.
Through 200 or so seconds, ‘Nani’ gleefully revels in Zohran’s quirky style, featuring a heavily kohl -eyed 85-year-old Jaffrey partaking in the green, flipping off youngsters and essentially being cooler than any millennial or Generation Z-er could ever hope to be. The lyrics with fierce rhymes only heighten its laconic vibe: ‘I’m 85-years old, 85-years gold’ and ‘So so gather round now celebrate me, I’m your boss... Don’t need a nanoo cos I’m living my dream’.
Dream team
In the video, Jaffrey traipses all over New York from street-side bodegas to being hot boxed in a Halal food cart, dressed in a salwar kurta or yellow hoody, with a blunt between her red lips. “Madhur Jaffrey is an icon in the desi diaspora and beyond, not to mention a fantastic actor. To have her agree to star in this video was a dream come true,” says Zohran, who contacted Jaffrey through actor Poorna Jagannathan. “From there, [Jaffrey] invited me to come over to her apartment for chai . I pitched the video as I envisioned it and I can’t say it took too much convincing — it was a lovely conversation.”
The low-budget video has been financed entirely by Zohran’s savings and his muse only took home a prop (the yellow beret) as payment for her work. When prodded to reveal what’s on the anvil for the unlikely duo after their New York-style old school hip-hop shenanigans, the rapper reveals, “It seems a little ridiculous to say, given her stature, but yes I think we’re friends! I don't think she’ll star in another Mr Cardamom video any time soon though — if only because I have to first make a song to even think of a video.”
Out of Africa
Born in Kampala, Uganda, Zohran divided his time between Morningside Heights (America) and his birth town. He discovered hip-hop — rap specifically — at the age of nine through a scrubbed and rinsed version of Jay-Z’s The Blueprint . “From there I fell in love,” says the rapper whose day gig, sadly, is nowhere near music-related. He works as a counsellor for home foreclosure prevention at the non-profit Chhaya CDC that caters to the housing needs for New York’s South Asian community. “Growing up in New York City, rap was not only my soundtrack, but also a guide in understanding both myself as well as the world around me.” he says. Back in high school, he listened to Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West (but only pre-Trump!), K’naan, K-os, and Common. His playlist these days includes everything from Anatii, Bad Bunny, Talal Qureshi, 1da Banton to Bollywood — the soundtracks of Gully Boy and Udta Punjab. “I’ve grown up with Hindi movies and music,” he says. “They’re definitely a big part of my life. My favourite films and songs make me feel at home, no matter where I may be at the time.”
Mamdani (far right) with the cast and crew of ‘Queen of Katwe’, directed by his mother Mira Nair. His song, ‘#1Spice’ featured in the film, for which he also served as music supervisor
Zohran first made his musical debut as Young Cardamom with his best friend from Uganda, Abdul Bar Hussein aka HAB, in 2016 with the song ‘Kanda (Chap Chap)’. Together they’d rap in several languages including Luganda, English, Hindi, Swahili, Runyoro, and Nubi. The duo grabbed the spotlight when it made ‘#1Spice’ for Queen of Katwe, directed by Mira Nair (for which Zohran also served as music supervisor).
Now that a prefix has replaced the ‘Young’ in his name — “I'm 27 now so I thought it was a little ridiculous to call myself ‘young’ any more” — Mr Cardamom is on his way to make more music. There’s another song on the horizon, however blurry its future. “I’ve been procrastinating sending it over to my producer Magnus,” he says. “ Insha'allah it takes less than the two years ‘Nani’ took to be released!”
