Ex-Rapper Tapped For Post By Mamdani Can’t Pronounce Mayor-Elect’s Name

Rapper and self-styled criminal justice activist Mysonne Linen drew fresh scrutiny this week after repeatedly mispronouncing Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s last name during a Friday appearance on The Breakfast Club—an awkward moment that critics say reflects the broader lack of seriousness surrounding Mamdani’s transition operation.

Linen, who previously served seven years in state prison for armed robbery, was recently named to Mamdani’s transition team, serving on the criminal legal system committee. Even that announcement was mishandled: Linen’s name was misspelled on the official transition roster as “Mysoone,” a detail that underscored what observers have described as a chaotic rollout.

During the radio interview, Linen cycled through multiple incorrect pronunciations of Mamdani’s name, never quite landing on the correct one. The repeated errors, noted by The Daily Caller, came as Linen spoke at length about his role in the incoming administration’s agenda.

“I really just want to focus on just doing this work. Shout out to Mayor Mandami and his team. My team, Until Freedom, we’ve been doing this work … I’m not getting no check for this,” Linen said. “This is a volunteer because I really believe in what’s supposed to be going on in our communities. We’re going to start forums where we talk about civic engagement with formerly incarcerated, we talk about how hard it is for them to be employed, the collateral damages and causes that happen.”

“We want to talk about those things, and then we want to talk about what’s the next step forward. Women that’s being incarcerated — We’re going to start these convenings and we’re going to have them all at the table,” he continued.

“Like, that is one of the biggest voting blocks in the world that nobody has really tapped into. Formerly incarcerated people — a lot of them don’t even realize they can vote, how strong they are. It’s millions of people who are formerly incarcerated that have really just lost belief in the system,” he added.

Later in the interview, Linen again mispronounced Mamdani’s name—alternating between “Mandami” and “Mandani”—while insisting he would not act as a rubber stamp for the incoming mayor.

“[W]e’re gonna push the agenda. People think, ‘Oh, you with the government.’ Nah. If they do something wrong, I’ma be outside protesting Mandami, too,” he said. “‘Cause that’s what we do.”

Linen, now 49, was convicted in 1999 for two Bronx taxi cab robberies and served seven years in state prison. He has since rebranded himself as a criminal justice activist focused on gun violence prevention. During the interview, he claimed he was “wrongfully convicted,” a familiar assertion within activist circles that has gone unproven.

Mamdani’s broader crime agenda has raised concerns among law enforcement advocates and public safety experts. Central to his platform is a proposed $1.1 billion “Department of Community Safety,” which would divert nonviolent and mental health-related calls away from police and toward civilian-led teams, while keeping NYPD staffing levels roughly the same.

The mayor-elect has previously called for defunding the NYPD, at one point labeling the department “racist, anti-queer, and a major threat to public safety.” While Mamdani later softened his rhetoric on the campaign trail, critics argue the substance of his policy vision remains unchanged.

Concerns about Mamdani’s leadership style have extended beyond public safety. According to the New York Post, the mayor-elect ignored a written request from 19 city charter school leaders seeking a meeting to discuss collaboration on educating disadvantaged students.

In a Dec. 1 letter, the charter school operators said they were eager to work with Mamdani and argued that charter schools could help advance his affordability agenda. The invitation proposed a Dec. 12 meet-and-greet at Ember Charter School for Mindful Education.

“Equity and affordability are inseparable,” the leaders wrote in the letter, according to The Post. “When a family can count on an excellent public school near home, life gets less expensive: fewer hours on buses, fewer tutoring bills, fewer impossible choices between rent and opportunity.”

“In short, when equity rises, fewer people, especially black and brown families, feel compelled to leave our great city,” the letter added.

Despite the outreach, Mamdani never responded, the outlet reported.

“So far there’s been radio silence,” Eva Moskowitz, founder and head of the city’s largest charter school network, the 59-school Success Academy, told The Post. Moskowitz, a co-signer of the letter, said she remained “optimistic” that a working relationship could still be built.

For critics, however, the pattern—from sloppy transition announcements to unanswered letters and unserious public appearances—raises questions about whether Mamdani’s administration is prepared for the responsibilities of governing America’s largest city.