New York mayoral candidate claims he is a Jay-Z fan but can’t name any of his songs

You might remember Andrew Yang from the 2020 Democratic presidential race. Well, now he’s back and he’s running to become the next mayor of New York City – but he might have to do a bit more research on one of the city’s most famous musical exports.

In an interview with comedian Ziwe Fumudoh for Showtime, the topic of whether the 46-year-old politician listens to rap music was brought up but, judging by the reaction on his face, he would have preferred if they could have just talked about policy instead.

Yang admitted that he listened to hip-hop in the 90s and 2000s and that his favourite rappers were Jay-Z and Nas. However, when he was asked what his favourite song from the Brooklyn native was, Yang looked a little stumped.

“Yes...errrm...what is my favourite Jay-Z song?” Yang asked himself in a very awkward moment that has already been viewed more than one million times on Twitter.

Out of nowhere he then launches into a rendition of Numb/Encore, Jay-Z’s collaboration with Linkin Park. Ziwe notes that it was a little odd that his favourite Jay-Z song was a rock track but Yang tries to win back some credibility by also naming his duet with Kanye West, Ninjas in Paris.

“Those were the two songs that came to mind for me but he’s got such a canon, couldn’t really go wrong,” Yang added in the least convincing tone ever.

Needless to say, people were not impressed:

You can watch the full interview on YouTube:

Whether this will have any effect on Yang’s polling remains to be seen but Yang is said to be neck and neck in the polls with Eric Adams for the Democratic mayoral primary on 22nd June.