Rami Even-Esh, an Israeli-American rapper known as “Kosha Dillz,” invited all of the candidates for New York City mayor to take part in his new music video “Mayor of New York.” The Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, was the only one to agree.
“He’s just a historical guy of New York, and that has a lot of cred in my book,” the rapper, who isn’t endorsing anyone in the race, told JNS.
Sliwa “found me in Queens, outside a Dominican restaurant and joined,” Even-Esh, 44, stated. “Very New York City moment.”
The rapper, who has more than 225,000 followers across various social media platforms, spoke to JNS en route to his next filming location. He described Sliwa as someone who has “stories about sticking up for people” but said he “doesn’t have a shot in hell.”
“Everyone likes him in Zohran’s camp and people hate him in Cuomo’s camp, because everyone wants to blame others except themselves for what’s gonna happen,” he told JNS.
Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who is anti-Israel, leads the race, with former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, following, and then Sliwa. Recent polling has shown Mamdani’s lead narrowing, amid extensive pressure on Sliwa to drop out, although the Republican nominee has said that he will not and that Cuomo, who lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani, ought to do so.
In Even-Esh’s video, which he posted on Wednesday, Sliwa wears his signature Guardian Angels red beret and dances with the rapper and with kids on the street.
One lyric in the song is “Holy Land five—that’s straight trash.”
In a 2017 rap song, Mamdani declared “love” for the so-called “Holy Land five,” officials of the Holy Land Foundation, who were convicted in 2004 of supporting Hamas and were found liable for the 1996 killing of an American teenager in Israel.
“This Holy Land five thing was really bothering me,” Even-Esh told JNS. (Mamdani has reportedly dodged questions on praising the Holy Land Foundation.)
Kosha Dillz doesn’t only name check Mamdani in the song. “Excuse me, slichah,” he raps, using the Hebrew word for “sorry.”
“Zohran, Adams, Sliwa. Do you agree when you guys speak to me?” he raps. “New York City, man, we hate everyone equally.”
“People were knocking on my door, canvassing, and I wanted to write something political,” he told JNS. “Capitalize on a moment.” (He recently put out a song about the release of the hostages, and he intends to soon debut a documentary called “Bring the Family Home.”)
Even-Esh told JNS that Sliwa talked to him about “the Gambinos and Biggie Smalls and hip hop.” The rapper asked the Republican if he’d ever been in a rap video.
“Have I been in a rap video? I don’t know,” Sliwa told him. “But I’m in Kosha Dillz’s rap video.”
