New York’s newest civic campaign has a judge with a Hot 100 No. 1. On Friday (April 3), Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Cardi B announced a citywide contest to write the jingle for 2-K, the city’s free childcare program for two-year-olds, with Cardi choosing the finalists and the public voting on the winner.
The announcement arrived with a video shot backstage on her Little Miss Drama Tour. “Can you believe that?! We have a 34-year-old mayor!” Cardi says when they meet. “I feel like I’m a kid, and you’re, like, running New York!” Mamdani goes right to the point. “Cardi,” he says, “what do you think of free childcare?”
Her answer is the pitch. “I feel like free childcare is very important,” she says. “Sometimes us women we can’t really go forward because we don’t have nobody to help us take care of our kids.” Then she signs on as judge, adding that “the mayor’s going to help you! And I’m gonna judge, and he’s going to give because he’s the one with the funds!”
How the contest works
Residents can submit an original 15- or 30-second song through NYC.gov by April 17 and share it with the hashtag #NYC2KJingle, tagging @nycmayor. Cardi will pick five finalists, New Yorkers will vote, and the winner becomes the official theme for the program and gets played on the radio.
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Mamdani leaned on one of her biggest lines in his statement. “As Cardi B says: ‘I can get ’em both. I don’t wanna choose,’” he said, a nod to “Bodak Yellow,” her 2017 chart-topper. “With universal child care, New Yorkers won’t have to. For too long, families have been forced to choose between affordable care and staying in the city they love.”
Why it matters
2-K foreshadows the universal childcare Mamdani campaigned on, and the city is starting small. Per Billboard, the first 2,000 seats arrive this fall across four districts: Fordham in the Bronx, Washington Heights in Manhattan, Southeast Queens and Canarsie in Brooklyn. Enrollment runs June 2 to June 26 for children regardless of ZIP code, income or immigration status, per Rolling Stone, with placements announced in August and classes starting in September.
The neighborhoods have a connection to Cardi, Rolling Stone noted: she was born in the Bronx and shares Dominican and Caribbean roots with many people who live there. She’s also a mother of four, and Billboard points out that she has already worked with the city on subway etiquette PSAs for the MTA. For a mayor who has made hip-hop part of his city-hall identity, a jingle contest is a natural way to turn a policy into something people hum.
Submissions close April 17, then the finalists go public. If you’ve got a hook, you have two weeks.
- Program
- 2-K: free childcare for two-year-olds, first 2,000 seats this fall
- Jingle deadline
- April 17, 2026
- Enrollment
- June 2–26; placements in August
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
