Ari Melber Gets Zohran Mamdani To Respond Directly To 50 Cent On Tax Policy Debate

Mon, November 3, 2025 at 5:41 PM

MSNBC's resident Hip-Hop anchor, Ari Melber, invited New York City Democratic mayoral candiate Zohran Mamdani to The Beat this week. During the conversation, Melber boldly brought up 50 Cent's criticism of Mamdani's tax policies.

"He's a critic!" Mamdani concurs. "I didn't even know what my salary would be until I opened up Instagram and saw this thing that was like, '50 Cent offers Mamdani x-amount of money.' I was like, 'That's a very specific amount of money. Oh my god!'"

With pressing from Melber, Mamdani looks directly at the camera and addresses 50 Cent, saying, "I continue to think that having the top one percent on New York City who are making more than one million dollars a year, having them pay two percent more for an economic agenda that would transform every New Yorkers' life, including their own, is something that is worth while.

"The reason I say including their own is when you see a city like ours that is underfunding its city agencies, that is pulling back on the most basic things like library services and trash cans, everybody feels the effects of that. And my job, as somebody who cares deeply about the public sector, is to ensure we are delivering public excellence and that means every dollar we raise, I want to be able to prove to you that every dollar is being well spent."

He adds, "And even though we have a disagreement, every time I get a death threat, I still listen to 'Many Men.'" Melber, unsurprisingly, goes on to quote 50 Cent's 2005 single "Piggy Bank" like the Hip-Hop aficionado he's proven to be.

"Mamdani and 50 have been beefing over taxes for months, so this was a natural question to cover," Melber tells AllHipHop. "It looks like they have more common ground on music than policy.

50 Cent's beef with Mamdani began after Mamdani called out the rapper during an interview on The Breakfast Club while discussing his plan to raise corporate taxes and impose an extra two percent tax on the top one percent of New Yorkers, who make over $1 million a year.

Anticipating pushback from wealthy and prominent figures, Mamdani said, "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."

50 Cent responded swiftly and publicly, posting a clip of Mamdani's comments on Instagram and offering $258,750 along with a first-class one-way ticket out of New York for Mamdani, writing, "Where did he come from? Whose friend is this? I'm not feeling this plan no. I'm telling Trump what he said too!"