Led Black (00:41)
What up everyone, it's Led Black and my brother Octavio Blanco for another edition of the Uptown Voices podcast and there's another special Black and Blanco podcast. Yo Octavio, what's up brother? How you doing? It's a big day. You know what I'm saying? The day after we're filming this November 5th, 2025, the day after the historic Mom Donnie victory. I don't think there's been a turnout. Yeah, I think it's with 2 million plus people came out to vote, early voting records broken.

Octavio Blanco (00:55)
Yeah.

Historic indeed.

Led Black (01:11)
We're going back 50 plus years. I don't think I've seen this, you know, I don't think we've seen this kind of excitement in a long time. I said this before.

Octavio Blanco (01:17)
it's

Now, now,

so, so many positive things, so many positive things. Go on, go on, keep it, keep it rolling.

Led Black (01:25)
Yeah,

no, I mean, it's amazing that we've elected a Muslim socialist, right, that's not afraid to say that he's those things. Again, and what I realized with that speech that he gave yesterday, again, I think he's chomping at the bit in terms of Obama. I think he might be a better speaker than Obama. I think there was...

Octavio Blanco (01:48)
yeah.

Led Black (01:50)
You know, it was forceful yesterday's speech. I like how he went at Cuomo, right? Like saying, you know, whatever, wish you the best in your personal life, right? But I don't want to have to say your name again. And I think that speaks to the shame that Cuomo brought on himself, by the way, his comportment at the end of the thing. But also it was such a beautiful speech. He also went at Trump, you know, where he says, you know.

Octavio Blanco (02:12)
Yeah, he did. Turn up the volume.

Led Black (02:12)
These four words turn up the volume, you know, and then say, hey, we're a city of immigrants made by immigrants and now we

led by an immigrant, you know, like drops the mic, you know what mean?

Octavio Blanco (02:19)
And guess

what, we're New Yorkers, so you know we're loud.

Led Black (02:22)
Yeah, and the thing is that they have nothing but trolling, right? Like they have the power of the state, but it's it's bothered them so, they're so triggered by this. And it's weird because, you know, on social, I do see people so mad. It's like, why are you so mad? Why are you so mad? You know what mean? And also I don't take advice from people that are Trump supporters. Like the people that they're like, he gonna destroy the city. I'm like, have you seen what your guys has done to the country? Like, the fuck out of here. Fuck out of here.

Octavio Blanco (02:39)
Yeah. Yeah.

Never

Yeah,

have you been paying attention to prices at the grocery store? They're definitely not going down. You know, have you seen the...

Led Black (02:56)
not going. And it's funny, I saw a clip, everything

is more expensive, like everything.

Octavio Blanco (03:02)
Everything, everything. Chocolate, milk, beef, eggs. I mean, even eggs came down a little bit, but they're still expensive as hell. That's the thing about, that's the thing about inflation is that inflation and prices are two different things. So inflation pushes the prices up, but the prices don't come back down once they've gone up. That's inflation. If you want prices to come down,

Led Black (03:06)
Yep.

Octavio Blanco (03:30)
That's something else. And if prices do come down, which we all would like that to happen, like if that happens naturally because of the economy, that's dangerous. So it's one thing to say supplement our purchasing power so that we can afford the more expensive stuff. It's a whole different thing to like bring prices down. It's a sickening thing, but.

In economics, it's deflation. Deflation can be just as dangerous as inflation. Nobody wants to hear about this. I know you're probably going to flame me in the comments about this because prices are too far up. But it's just we don't want them to go higher. And we need help. A lot of us need help.

Led Black (04:24)
Yeah, yeah,

I mean, that's the thing too, like, I mean, but it's this crazy person at the helm of the whole thing, right? And that's the beauty of it though, that what yesterday represents, right, was a moment of hope, you know, that it is possible to create an alternative to what's happening federally. I do think that, like, you know, you...

I think within the MAGA movement itself, fissures are beginning to form. think people are jockeying for a position. That's what the whole JD Vance, Erica Kirk thing was about that everyone was talking about where they basically like, get a room guys. Like they basically like, you know what I'm saying? Fingers in the hair. Like if my wife saw some woman grab him by the hair like that, she would kill me. Like what the hell was that? And then he put his hand on the waist. That would be crazy. Like that's not acceptable. You know what I'm saying? Like that's wild.

Octavio Blanco (04:51)
yeah.

Yeah, get her.

Yeah, oh gosh. Yeah, I would be in trouble. Yes, yes, it was a

very sexy moment. But I don't wanna stop talking about the positives though, lead. I want to stay with the positives. I don't wanna go to the negatives. Yeah, fuck that guy. Let's talk about the fact that we had record. I'm not talking about like.

Led Black (05:16)
And then he insulted his wife about her Hinduism.

For sure, for sure. Fuck JD Vance, fuck JD Vance, but let's talk about the positives. Yeah. No, but yeah.

Octavio Blanco (05:32)
recent record. I'm talking about record ever, ever turnout at the polls. You know, mayoral elections generally are like snooze fests. You know, it's like, ⁓ you know, especially in New York, it's usually kind of like, okay, I voted. Not this time. This was a record turnout. I mean, I am so encouraged by that. That to me was such a beautiful thing.

Led Black (05:36)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Not this time.

Yeah, me too.

And you know, it's funny

you say that, It's funny you say that because like a lot of times on Uptown Collective page, right? I've been so hard for Zohran for so long that I get a lot of hate, you know? I get constant hate. And then sometimes you see that you think the hate is bigger than it is, right? But first of all, lot of motherfuckers that talk shit, they don't even vote, first of all.

Octavio Blanco (06:00)
I just, I just, I just love that.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Led Black (06:20)
Right? But what's interesting is, and my wife shared with me, was a, New York Times kind of broke down, like by neighborhood, you know, the voting. So uptown, uptown, all of uptown, Harlem, Wash Heights, Inwood, Dyckman City, the whole uptown was for Zara and it was all blue. There was no little like, if you go the rich places.

Octavio Blanco (06:21)
Yep.

Yes, that was a great, that was a great map.

No, there was one

little. There was one little.

Led Black (06:43)
They don't even count. was like a little dot that don't count. But if you look at all over, like more than if

you look at you saw where the big concentration were Upper West Side, Upper East Side, FI-DI, right? You saw where Cuomo got more votes. But it's Mamdani country. It was all blue. It was in the New York Times, blue. They Cuomo as orange. It was it was just little small things like and I'm very happy about that. So Uptown is is is Zohran country. You know what saying? And those few haters.

Octavio Blanco (07:03)
Yeah.

Absolutely,

the uptown was Zohran country. The only little blip was like all the way east, above 181st, those little nearby, I guess that's Yeshiva. I don't know.

Led Black (07:13)
Yeah.

But it what? No, what?

Yeah, I never thought about that. That's true too. But again, it was insignificant compared to everything else, right? wasn't like big pockets when you look at the map. So like I'm really overall happy with that turnout. know, I think there's an awakening happening. And again, it feels good for New York to be like what we're supposed to be, right? Like it's New York City. Like this is New York fucking city, right? This is our shit. And I think this represents we're taking it back. Yeah, for real.

Octavio Blanco (07:35)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓

Yeah.

You

Taking it back, I wonder, like, has New York City, when was New York City a people's city? Do you have any thoughts on that? Because as far as...

Led Black (08:06)
Well, mean, don't think, listen, I don't think, no, I don't think it's ever been a people's

city in a sense, right? But what I'm saying, there's always been that, that there's, there's, so for example, for the last 50 years, we've been engaging in this city for the rich.

Right. So in terms of right, there's never really been a time, you know, it was always just poor people just getting by in New York City. Right. But I feel like now we're in a place we could do more than that. Like we are the backbone of the city. And another thing that I love and so beautiful about this is the new Americans coming on board. Right. Like, and that's what I love about it to see, like, my South Asian brothers and sisters, right. Doing their thing, believing in democracy, right. Coming from places they may not, they may not have that. So they cherish it even more. And then putting the hard work in, like,

Octavio Blanco (08:21)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Led Black (08:49)
Doran had like almost a hundred thousand canvassers if not over a hundred thousand, right? Like that's a hundred thousand people that are going to go knock on, they're going to not only vote, but they're going to knock in that enthusiasm. That's infectious. And again, it was beautiful to see like the, the hijab women just there, you know, I'm here to represent my democracy. Like that's beautiful. And I'm happy, and I'm happy it's happening. The one thing, and I hate to go negative. One thing I'm very disturbed by is by the Islamophobia of other Latinos, right? I'm really just kind of disgusted by that. You know what mean? Like again, I'm always having these conversations.

Octavio Blanco (08:54)
Yes!

Yeah.

Led Black (09:19)
online and I want to probe, I want to understand and I keep hearing shit about like the shit that Latinos, some Latinos talk about Muslims is the shit that they're saying about us, right? Or they used to say about us, they still say about us. So it's like, it's so weird that you can't have solidarity with someone else.

from another marginalized community, right? That shit really bothers me in the anti, like I've seen someone put on, hey, if you're Dominican, you're Christian, you can't vote for Mamdani Like what? I saw another person today said, by the way,

I can't believe people forgot 9-11 and you do this. So there's somehow some correlation between 9-11 and this, he was like 10 when that happened? Like, you what are we talking about? And again, but it's insulting, right? It's really fucked up as a person of color saying that about another person of color. That's one thing that just fucking really drives me crazy. Latinos need to better understand race in this country because I think that's one of the reasons we are, what happened with the support of the tyrant.

Octavio Blanco (10:00)
Ha ha ha.

Yeah.

Led Black (10:18)
I thought we fell for the okie doke and we did not understand race.

Octavio Blanco (10:19)
I think, I,

I can't agree with you more that as Latinos, it's sad that we do this. But at the same time, I think that the fact that we're surprised by it, it kind of speaks to like a blindness that maybe we had.

going into it that maybe that we felt like we were above it. But, you know, Latinos, just like everybody else is human, and we are indoctrinated with racist ideas. And sometimes we don't even recognize it. And I think that because, you know, you know, we're brown and maybe some of us are darker brown, some of us are lighter brown.

But even the darker brown people sometimes they don't consider themselves a certain, know They they don't see themselves as black or you know, they they they they they seek that white affirmation and I think that's dangerous. We should be seeking, you know equality for all of us not to be affirmed by anybody but the the Frank the one of the things that I kind of believe why this happens is that

We are a marginalized people or at least we've felt that way for a long time. And we place some others in a different social strata. like whites are the powerful people. So I think there's a certain segment in our society that like reaches for that. And black people are on a lower strata in the society. And I think that some people, just can't sort of like

disengage from that way of thinking and be like, look, you know, we are all one and we're all neighbors. think one of the, one from.

Led Black (12:04)
But I

mean, I hate to say but that we all won. That should sound hunky-dory. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about Latinos don't understand race in this country.

right? Because we didn't have the struggles of black people in the same way. Black Americans open so many doors for everybody else. They created a lane for other people to live here. We didn't have to go through those struggles in the same way or not in mass. So I'm saying, what I'm saying, so we don't understand race. We play funny with it, right? Instead of looking square in the face. And that's what I'm saying. That's the difference between the African-American voter and the Latino voter. The African-American voter understands race in a way he knows race

Octavio Blanco (12:32)
Mm.

Led Black (12:44)
and history in this country. Like we came at a point in this country where we just kind of got at the back end. We didn't have to see the struggle. I some of us did, of course, right? Not saying all of us, but I'm saying as a group, know, a lot of us weren't here for those, the civil rights struggles, right? So we don't understand how important that was and why you had to struggle in the first place. Why a bunch of people don't, like we don't understand white supremacy in the same way, right? Like, and we come with these all, well, that's what that book, Paola Ramos book, The Defectors is talking about, because we come with our own preconceived notions of race.

and

hierarchy and then we don't understand this here, right? So it's like, think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of race that we don't know where our bread is buttered, right? And some of us think that, you know, like that we kissing up to white people is the way, but it's not.

You know what saying? Some of us will give up every little fragment of themselves to acclimate and it's not gonna work either. And I think that we need to know that race is fundamental in America and maybe in our countries it's not. Maybe there's beauty in the way our, not that our Dominican Republic is perfect, where there's colorism, of course, I would never say there isn't, but there's a brotherhood between Dominicans of all.

of all colors that doesn't exist here. But again, that doesn't mean that we're here now. So we need to take race. need to look at the African-American struggle and learn from that and show love to African-American brothers, right? Because they paved the way for us to have rights. And I think sometimes when you just get some of those rights without having to really go through that struggle, I don't think you appreciate it as much. And I think we're facing the ramifications of that right now.

Octavio Blanco (13:54)
Yeah. Yeah.

You

No, yeah, think...

Yeah, I think what you're saying is interesting because in the United States race as a construct is stratified and it's ingrained in our society whereas some of the countries where we come from race is a little bit more fluid even in our own families because yeah, even in our own families like we have people who are black and people who are white and we're all the same family because the the history of of of how

Led Black (14:35)
Yes, it's fluid. It's like this, yeah, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (14:49)
know, things evolved culturally in Latin America and in the Caribbean, especially. But, you know, in Latin America with like the mestizaje of indigenous people and white people where everybody kind of, I mean, there is definitely colorism. I'm not going to deny that either. But it's much more common that in our own families we have people of all colors. Whereas in the United States,

Led Black (15:09)
Of course, of course.

Octavio Blanco (15:19)
States. Race was a legal definition and it was illegal to be black in certain places and it was illegal for, you know, whites to marry blacks and it was illegal for all these things to happen. So yes, you're right that I think that we forget sometimes I guess not that we forget but we just aren't educated like you say in how

Led Black (15:32)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (15:45)
⁓ serious the the racial construct and stratification in this in this country actually

Continues to be even though we want to be hunky. I want to be hunky-dory I I want to you know, I want to make sure that like everybody's getting along but ⁓ the fact of the matter is that in too much of America that history has not been adequately taught and is actually currently being untaught, know, so I I take your point really really really well because you're you're right like

Led Black (15:55)
Mm-hmm.

Right, right.

Octavio Blanco (16:24)
our people, our recent immigrants come here and they're like, ⁓ they've heard that America is the land of the free and that everybody's equal and that everybody has opportunity.

But that's not the case. If they're here and if they have opportunity, it's because of people that were here before them and African Americans are, I would say, our foundation. I agree, there's gotta be more love between these two communities. And that's why I think what we're doing here, and I wanna continue to make inroads in Harlem and West Harlem.

Led Black (16:43)
Exactly.

Octavio Blanco (17:05)
and East Harlem, you know, want to make sure that we're getting those communities represented and that we have those conversations as well.

Led Black (17:13)
Yeah, for sure, man. That's why that fundamental misreading of the white, like it's funny, like people say, like Latinos say, oh, Trump is not racist. Huh? What more do you prove do you need? Right? Like I have an ongoing argument with someone right now and I'm not gonna name them because that's not right, but.

You know, he'll leave me like long messages, right? Like long voice notes, right? And he'll say things like, we just need a businessman in New York. You know, that's why Bloomberg was a good mayor. Like, Bloomberg was a good mayor? That guy that gave himself a third term? That guy was a good mayor? Right? And he'll reference Dinesh D'Souza.

You know, Dinesh D'Souza is a horrible fucking person. You know what saying? And what I'm saying is, so it's because you don't understand race, we've empowered the worst, right? Like right now you have racism levels that are going back. Like we're hurling back into the past. There's a, I don't know if you've seen this, a girl, I forgot her name. My daughter told me her name is this young white girl influencer. Like she's trying to be like the female Nick Fuentes. And she did a whole podcast, like an hour and change in blackface.

Octavio Blanco (17:53)
Yeah.

Led Black (18:18)
And she's saying the N word with the hard ER, just being straight racist, all in blackface, just all in blackface. Like it's cute. Right. And again, so because Latinos did a lot of Latinos, not all, course, because a lot of Latinos don't even know what I'm saying is even our own history. Right. Like what people don't realize that, like in the Southwest, Mexicans went through their own version of Jim Crow.

Right? You were lynching Mexicans, you know, when you were coming to bring them here, they were delousing them, you know, with like chemicals that you use in chemical warfare, right? You know what mean?

Octavio Blanco (18:42)
Yep.

And not just

Mexicans from Mexico, but Mexican Americans who had been in that part of the country for hundreds of years before any English speakers.

Led Black (18:55)
Yeah!

Octavio Blanco (19:04)
came. actually, you know, I have my family is from the border, right? I don't know if you know. I don't know if you know this, but my family is from Chihuahua, but it's also from New Mexico and it's also from like El Paso. So those are all like sort of next to each other. And my grandmother, she was born in New Mexico and she lived and married my grandfather.

Led Black (19:07)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (19:27)
he worked in the copper mines in New Mexico and the copper mines were basically like slavery because it was you you only got paid enough to get by but then everything that you needed to buy to to like feed yourself and clothe yourself was

Led Black (19:43)
You're sharecropping, sharecropping, yeah,

yeah.

Octavio Blanco (19:46)
All that was like just at the company store, right? And so basically it was, ⁓ it was, yeah. And so what ended up happening was in my, to my family was that there was a uprising of the workers and the copper mines who were ironically probably owned by New York financiers were like, ⁓

Led Black (19:48)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Same thing. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (20:09)
No, no, no, this isn't going to work. All y'all are going back to Mexico, but there was no back to Mexico. Like most of them were born and raised in New Mexico, but regardless, anybody who had a Spanish surname, including my grandfather and my grandmother got loaded up into cattle cars and were sent to Mexico where they

ended up, you know, living for the rest of their short lives because they both died in a fire when my dad was a year old and my uncle was two years old. So what's funny or interesting about that is that my dad grew up his whole life. He didn't know that his mom and dad

Led Black (20:48)
my God.

Octavio Blanco (20:56)
were or that is that his mom specifically because she's the one who we actually had a birth certificate on we didn't know that she was born in new mexico and that she was actually an american his whole life until he married you know later in life he met my mom my mom's american she's a white jewish lady from maryland they met in college they got married

Later on, we came to the United States and one of his cousins had the birth certificate of his mother, my grandmother, who I obviously never met because she died when he was a year old. And she was like, do you know that even though you're naturalized American citizen, because you married an American woman, you're actually American by birth because you're...

mother is American and we have the birth certificate. So he decided, you know what? There is a difference between being naturalized and being given birthright. And so with his mother's birth certificate, he went to the Immigration and Naturalization Office and he claimed his birthright citizenship and they gave it to him, which as we see now,

Led Black (21:51)
That's amazing.

life.

Octavio Blanco (22:16)
Birthright versus naturalized, those two are very different because there is a realm of possibility where the administration could say, we're going to review your naturalized status, but there's no review of your birthright.

If you were born here, you're born here, you know? So anyway, that's an interesting historical story about what you were talking about, how these issues that we're seeing, a lot of folks who are not from the United States, they don't quite grasp the severity of the racism or the race issue. Because in our countries, yes, there was...

know, colorism and all that, but they grew up in a different society where frankly, oftentimes race or color, it mattered less than family. so, yeah, it's really, we.

Led Black (23:15)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, but what

I'm saying is that, again, it's also putting blinders on, right? It's not looking at, for example, know, Usha Vance, JD Vance's wife, he's distilling himself because in that community, in the white nationalist Christian community, his wife is looked down upon, right? She's a foreigner, right? This is the kind of hate.

Octavio Blanco (23:24)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Led Black (23:40)
that the right is espousing and it's like some Latinos like, I don't see it. He's not racist. It's not race.

You know what mean? And it's just so ridiculous. now we're paying the price. You know what mean? And just think that like going forward, there has to be a, like, again, I say this all the time, like we can't no more pussyfoot around it. you you, you, this, what was done to us was done to us. And it was our own community. Like, and we have to talk about it. We have to discuss it. We have to point out the fallacy, continue to point out the fallacy and all the people that talk shit about Mom Donnie. Now like, I don't really want to hear y'all. Like, first of all, I don't want to hear you. Y'all voted for Trump and y'all still

Octavio Blanco (24:09)
Yeah.

Led Black (24:17)
point Trump. So you know this thing that we're doing here in New York City got nothing to do with you. Don't be a part of it if you don't want to. Leave. Bye.

Octavio Blanco (24:19)
and

Yeah. And there's also like misunderstandings about what socialism is all about and democratic socialism in particular, because I think a lot of people might have fled from what they consider to be socialist countries, but they're actually...

Dictatorships right like Cuba was not a social a democracy, you know, that was a dictatorship Yeah, they they they gave you free health care and all that but it was a dictatorship Venezuela is also, you know Not a democracy. It's a it's a dictatorship. So, you know people

hear socialism and they think dictatorship and so they elect a person who's actually a dictator

and has no interest in giving anybody any help except for the people who kowtow to his policies. So I'm really excited to see somebody like Zohran Mandani who can maybe clarify through his actions and educate people through his policies what social democracy looks like in America and how people

might benefit. yeah, I'm really, really hopeful for all of that. really, I mean, I'm really excited. I stayed up, I think, till like two o'clock in the morning, like watching coverage and watching the speech and then rewatching the speech and hearing him say the word us over and over again, never me, always us. And I think that's what's super important that we recognize that it's about us.

not really about Mamdani per se. Like look, I think that I don't want to be negative at all. I have high hopes for him, but I do. I will be watching right that he does what he says he's going to be doing because I don't want to have another ⁓ Obama kind of like situation where we're so enamored that we kind of like, I don't know if we all took our our eyes off the ball or if it was

like, yeah, yeah, he's gonna handle that. He's a smart guy. He's gonna handle that. No.

Led Black (26:41)
I mean, listen, think that's

very, it's almost a very charitable look at Obama, right? Like, and I'll say this, right? Before Obama came on the political scene, I did not believe America was redeemable. You know, I came of age as a kid, right? I found Malcolm as a high school student, right? So I've been an acolyte of Malcolm my whole life, right? So I saw America as this, this just, it's just this oppression.

machine right that just took black and brown people and just you know fed us into the mink right and I didn't believe it we had any redeeming that you couldn't be redeemed and Barack may me change that belief right like you know his belief in the ability to have a first black president

made me believe, And I really love Barack and I love that family. You know what mean? Like, was really like, it made me believe, like, my wife was going through cancer treatment at the time, you know what I'm saying? Like, so was this whole emotional thing that I really believe. I went to the inaugurations in D.C., right? But when you look back at Obama, right, it wasn't just that we were enamored. We were, we all were, right? Is that he used that.

to get himself elected and then would tap it down, you know, and not use it to get his, to push his agenda through, right? Where, know, and also when, when, when, the 2008, you know, financial, you know, he, he, bought all the people that caused the problem, they got a bailout, right? And now they just got a bailout. got to design it, but the regular person got screwed, right? And, and so, so what I'm saying is that

Octavio Blanco (28:00)
Yeah.

Yeah, but but

but can I just can I just I don't want to I just need to just say something about the bailout And you're right. It's a it's a travesty that there was nobody from the banking community that ever paid a price like going to prison over the the the lies and and the the crimes that they committed to, know, basically sell People mortgages that they couldn't that they couldn't afford etc

But I will say that I remember 08 very vividly and I remember the fear. It was up until the vote of the bailout. I was terrified that we were gonna have to go, that I was gonna have to leave my work. I was at CNN at the time covering this. And it was terrifying to hear that the whole...

system was going to grind to a halt and that like your money was going to be like gone and

Led Black (29:00)
But I mean,

and I'm not taking that you're right, you're 100 % right, but it's who he chose to save.

Right? Who he chose to put in charge of it. Right? So what I'm saying is yes, yes, there were dire situations. Yes. But you pick winners and you pick losers. Right? And again, what Obama was very good at is getting us hype for the victory and then just saying, OK, I got this from now. And it's also our fault for not following along. Right. But I said this in another podcast before that Mamdani is who we thought Barack Obama was.

Octavio Blanco (29:07)
Yeah, yeah, yes, yes.

Yeah.

Led Black (29:35)
Right? You know what saying? Like, you know what I mean? He really is the socialist, right? He really is. He really is from, you know what mean? Like, he really was born in Africa, right? You know what I mean? But the thing is that like, that what I think with Mamdani is not just...

Octavio Blanco (29:35)
Yeah. ⁓

I hope.

Led Black (29:50)
we gonna be there together. Like FDR said, make me do those things. Like he's activated another force. So it's a movement together, right? Like, you know what mean? And we gotta move that way. Like, and again, it's hard work, but like, I'll give you an example. I know if I've ever said this before, but at the rally in Queens that 13,000 people came out for, right? Kathy Hoco came out, right? And the crowd let her know like, hey, know, tax the rich.

Octavio Blanco (29:58)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Led Black (30:16)
tax the rich, right? So what I'm saying is that like, this is different. And I think that that Mamdani is different. And I think that, you know, it's a beautiful thing to have.

Octavio Blanco (30:17)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Led Black (30:27)
someone to actually aspire to that's very positive, right? Like I think this is a new day for New York and I do think that this is the most important city in the world and that we could be like, we could lead. Like there's people, listen, I saw a thing where people want to vote. Like people saw Zohran, they thought they could vote for Zohran anywhere. People really wanted to vote for Zohran. Like Zohran made, I saw someone put on social, they were like, it was the night before the election. They're like, I can't sleep. And I've never even been to New York.

Octavio Blanco (30:46)
I know. People in California wanted a vote for Zohran.

Led Black (30:55)
Right? Like they want Zohran to win so bad. Zohran is a victory for all of us. again, sometimes the left, what calls to the left, we do too much of shitting on our own, right? Like, hey, let's rock out. Let's work. Let's do this. We all have to do this. We're all New Yorkers. Let's change it and let's show the whole world, right? What it looks like. Let's do it together. And let's not stop always like I think sometimes we heard. And then also it was back to Barack.

Octavio Blanco (30:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Led Black (31:23)
back to those people, right? We also need to finish things, right? We need a purge. And I hate to say it so bluntly, but like Chuck Schumer, never endorse. Barack Obama, never endorse. Barack Obama, never endorse, right? ⁓ Aipak Shakur, tepid, tepid fucking endorsement, tepid.

Octavio Blanco (31:29)
Yes.

He never endorsed. Yeah, he just never said the words.

Very late, very late

in the game.

Led Black (31:51)
very late and very

softly, like it was just like, ugh, you know what mean? It was just like ⁓ so, ugh, you know what mean? And so, so we gotta talk about them too. There's a whole list of them. There's a whole list of them. They gotta go. It's not just Cuomo, right? Richie Torres gotta go. Apexa Court, Chuck Schumer gotta go. I'm sorry. Like this is where we're at. This is the new Democratic party. The one that's been suppressed for far too long.

Octavio Blanco (32:00)
Yeah.

Led Black (32:15)
Right? And heads have to roll. And again, everybody, and again, you're right. We're not, we're not taking, everybody got to get on board. But what I'm saying is I'm not trying to cut down Zohran now, right? This is the leader of the party in New York City, right? And, and, everybody else got to fall in line. Everyone got to do the people's will. And then there can't be the billionaires no more. There's a new, there's a new sheriff in town and then there's Mamdani you know what I'm saying? And we, doing it differently, right? And again, like,

Octavio Blanco (32:15)
Yeah, yeah.

No.

Yeah

Led Black (32:42)
I think this election proved a lot of things, right? Because even though Barack didn't endorse, even though Chuck Schumer didn't endorse, even though Apex Chacor gave ⁓ a bullshit ass endorsement, it didn't fucking matter.

Octavio Blanco (32:51)
And even though the billionaires

spent hundreds of millions of dollars against it.

Led Black (32:58)
hundreds

Bloomberg put three million himself these people were so much money so I'm saying this this is is this is a defensive game chain this is a mandate right so let's rock with that mandate together let's work to a new New York right and and we're gonna we're all gonna hold our own all our feet to the fire this is all our battle

Octavio Blanco (33:09)
No, yeah, yeah.

Well,

I'm happy that it happened here in New York City because it's a huge population, but it is just one city. So, you know, I think it's a great like place to start and to make sure and to make into.

to be the proof of the pudding, you know what I mean? I think it's obviously, like you say, everybody here in the city is gonna have to, it's just gonna have to be that way it is. They're just gonna have to fall in line because there's gonna be a transition and his people are gonna be in the offices where he wants them to be and they're gonna be democratic socialists.

There is one thing that irked me about the election, and it has nothing to do directly with Mamdani. It was the ballots on the back, the proposals. One of them was...

Led Black (35:06)
yeah, was misleading, yeah, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (35:11)
And you know everybody I I'm down to debate this because I I don't I'm no you know expert necessarily but there was one of the one of the one of the ballot proposals took away the power that our city council has when approving new construction.

And it worries me when that happens because, I mean...

In this instance, guess, ⁓ like, okay, Mamdani like seems to be the guy who has community in mind. So, you know, he's probably going to like make sure that whatever construction gets put up, you know, falls under like certain parameters where, you know, there's like maybe a community center or something like that, but that generally fell under the city council. and now that's being taken away. And.

let's say, you know, four years from now something happens and it's no longer a Mamdani type of person, but it's a more Trumpy type of person. I'm just putting it out like as a possibility. Now that stopgap is gone and it worries me when we when we do that. so yeah, I don't know. Like that to me was a little bit. It was and it was a lot. It was hard for people to understand. And, you know,

It also comes at a time where like the city needs lots of housing, but, know, unfortunately.

A lot of times the developments that are needed happen mostly in the communities that can least protect themselves, the most vulnerable communities. And it's not evenly distributed across the city. And so it worries me that when these protections get taken away, people can debate it, they can debate it whether or not you

Led Black (37:07)
you

Octavio Blanco (37:08)
it to be, you need to have like, you know, one voice say yay or nay and that's the mayor. Or if it's important for the community boards to have a voice and have a power.

Led Black (37:19)
But I

would say this, right, that that's a double-edged sword as well, right? Because what happened in the past was that the council member for that district would decide and then the rest of the council would just fall in line, right? So very concretely, what you see happening right now in Inwood, right, that was signed off by Idanis Rodriguez, right? And that's the wholesale.

complete change. know, people that haven't come uptown and you get off right there on Fordham Road and you come over, you're like, what is this? I don't know this place. Right? So that was, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (37:59)
Yeah, we drove by it. We drove

by it on the way to Connecticut. It was, it's massive.

Led Black (38:06)
It's right.

It's massive, right? And it's exactly the kind of gentrification that seems a bit much, right? It's overdone. But again, that was done under the old system. With Idanis basically giving the neighborhood away, right? So it's like...

Octavio Blanco (38:19)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean,

there's going to be that people's theater in there, and that's going to be, that's a big deal. And I think those are the kind of, those are kind of the things that those developers wouldn't be forced to do that.

Led Black (38:31)
That's a big deal.

But that's not even the point. What I'm saying is that, but what

I'm saying, yeah, but that's not the point. The point is that under the old system, it happened, right? So when it was, the council member was corrupt and he gave it to the real estate. Really, like that's what happened. He went with his pockets, yeah?

Octavio Blanco (38:46)
Yeah, but look, lad, ⁓ those cons-

But they have to, mean, they're.

Yeah, but I guess what I mean, development is going to have to happen. You're going to have to have development. And what's happened, what's going to happen is you're just going to have buildings with no community, like nothing, not a health center, not a not a not a rec center, not a school, not a grocery store. A lot of the new developments that we've seen uptown.

I grant you are probably too big, but there's also been carve outs for community resources.

Led Black (39:30)
Very few, very

few. It's not enough. Like, that one particular, I'm really happy. I love the People's Theater Project. I'm excited about that theater. But there's not enough of that. You know what mean? There's not enough affordable in there. And what's affordable is not really affordable.

You know what mean? What I'm saying is that yes, I'm not saying this is right or wrong. I'm just saying the other system wasn't perfect either. And basically, it gave Ydanis the pen to just sign away a good chunk of that. Yes, there's some benefits to it. Yes, there's some things that good that came out of it. But it's a different neighborhood now. It looks like it's being set up for other people.

Octavio Blanco (39:45)
There's that, there is that, there is that.

You're right, and-

But

yeah, but you know what I guess where I'm coming from in this, in this debate is that the change is happening at a time when people.

are getting activated, where I can foresee that the community board meetings are gonna be much more better attended going forward than they have been ever in the past. And at this time where people are gonna get activated, they're gonna go to their board meetings on a land use issue and it's gonna be like, not our choice, it's gonna be up to the mayor. So it just dilutes the power that the people

have fought so hard to win. And so I was disappointed when that got taken away because now is like the time where you want to give like people more power at the very grassroots.

Led Black (40:58)
But it wasn't the community board

that had to say, it was the council member. was that, it was Ydhani's who picked it. Against the wishes.

Octavio Blanco (41:03)
Well, yeah, but if the council member is

at a meeting that's full of people that are fighting, I guess, yeah, that's true. That's That's true. That's true.

Led Black (41:13)
He was, I'm listening, it wasn't for sale, was fighting hard. And he decided to do what he wanted to do. You know what mean? So I think that what I'm

saying is not that this is perfect or it's better or worse. I'm saying that the system prior to it wasn't perfect either because the council member could decide what to do. And if the council member was, he did whatever he wanted.

Octavio Blanco (41:29)
No, yeah, you're right. Actually,

you're on point with the Inwood Not For Sale. That was a muscular group.

Led Black (41:37)
They were about it. They were about it. they kept, yeah, exactly.

They were really about it. They really fought that good fight. They were on Dyckman on the street, right? Like it wasn't they didn't fight. It was that he had too much power. He had too much power and he decided.

Octavio Blanco (41:48)
Yeah, they fought hard. Yeah,

or maybe he just didn't care what they were saying or he was being pressured. I don't know what happened. mean, I don't wanna accuse anybody of something that did or didn't happen. I know that ultimately Inwood is not for sale lost and the buildings went up. But I guess, like in all these things,

especially like also when you're talking about Obama and you're laying a lot, you're laying a lot at its feet. And I get it, I understand it. I just think that there is, know, history is long, but our American history is still being written. And when we talk about what's happened up till now, I think you're right that, you know, a lot of it has been

know, sad because our national like, you know, sin or our original sin of slavery is the way that this, you know, country basically was formed. And it's basically us trying to

chisel away at that history from our culture, from our society, to reinvent America to be something that we want it to be. I think that the hundreds of years that we've been in

that we've been a place where you wouldn't ever want to be a black person, where we've had literally, you know, people owned slaves. You know, we still have many, many more years ahead of us before that like can be remedied, honestly. just.

Led Black (43:32)
Yeah, but why do

we have to sugarcoat things because of Obama? I don't understand that. I think if we're, what I'm saying is that you're saying I'm being too hard on Obama, it's merited, right? It's merited. We were fooled. Michelle Obama kiki-ing with George Bush. I thought George Bush was a war criminal.

Octavio Blanco (43:37)
No, I'm not sugar. I don't think I'm sugar coating anything.

What?

Led Black (43:54)
Right? What's going on? What I'm saying is, again, I'm so, I love the Obamas and Obama so much. That's why I'm so deeply disappointed. And I'm not willing anymore to just play fake games. Like, we have, no, I don't care about any of those things because there's things he could have done and he didn't. And he still doesn't do. He still didn't endorse Mamdani, right? He didn't get on, because he's part of the machine. And we have to be real, the machine is part of the problem. when you look at what the machine has become, let's look at it, let's just be honest.

Right. And let's just let's let's talk about things. The problem, I think, is that we always want to sugarcoat ourselves into bullshit. Right. So Dick Cheney is not the fucking horrible person that he was. He was he was really, really a bad, horrible human being. And he killed so millions of of Middle Eastern people. Lives were affected because this monster was making money with a Halliburne hand over fist. He was not a good person. He was horrible. But he was campaigning with Kamala Harris.

Right. And Kamala Harris put a heartfelt tribute to Dick Cheney, Darth Vader. Like, what are we talking about? Right. And I'm saying like Barack Obama unleashed. He deported more people than anybody else thus far. Right. He gave us Holman. Right. Right. I mean, ICE, he gave more money to ICE. I guess what I'm saying is we need to stop playing these games. Biden, but no, Biden was fucked up.

Kamala's fucked up. Hillary's fucked up too. And what I'm saying is those parties have merged. There's like the Republican and Democratic parties. It's like one party, right? And then there's MAGA over here. But what I'm saying is like, we're not looking at like Obama's fault, right? He was president for eight years, right? And some symbolism only could go so far. I love Barack Obama. But when you look back, when you look back at the deception, right? Like look, go put Obama flip.

Right? And then he went to Flint, Michigan, right? Where these black people were just being just straight up fucking lead in their water, like some fucking medieval shit, right? And he went in there and took a glass of water like I'm doing and drank it.

It's all good people, right? So he took that Obama mystique and he used it for the wrong thing. And we're going to like sugarcoat it like he's not part of the problem too. I'm not willing to do that no more. Not Cory, not Cory Hooker, not any of these people, not any of them. Like I'm done with all of them. And Mamdani is a new way of doing things. And if you want to be down with this new party, can't be part, you can't take APAC money, no more APAC money for politicians in the Democratic Party. That got to go. I don't want to hear anything from anybody, no other country but America. That's it.

Right? And we have to lay down the law. Schumer got to fucking go. Schumer next election, he got to go. We need new blood in there. I think he's like 106. He got to go. All of them. Obama did not endorse. He did not endorse. He's endorsed other races. He did not endorse. But he called them and said, hey, I could be an advisor if you like. That's some funny shit. That's some funny shit. But why don't you endorse me? Why don't you endorse?

Octavio Blanco (46:49)
Yeah, I'll be a sounding board.

You're right. mean, you're right. You're right that

you're right that, know, I got, you know, like when you when you put things, when you put things in that perspective.

It's hard to argue against because the whole war in the Middle East was created and concocted on false premises and millions and millions of people have died and the drone, mean, I think Obama was one of the highest user of drone strikes ever. I mean, we're getting upset at Trump for

blowing up ships in the ocean and that's awful, but many families who were innocent also got caught up in really scary drone strikes where people didn't know when something might come out of the sky to destroy them and they had nothing to do with anything. ⁓ So yeah, I see what you're saying 100%. I do. I see where you're coming from when you put a lot of the blame on

the politicians who we've had and how you say that this is a new era of politics. And I hope that you're correct because politics is politics though. And politics always makes strange bedfellows. you always are gonna have like, politics is about, you know, it's not.

It's not what we've seen it be in the last, what, 10 years where it's just like my way or the highway politics is supposed to be about debate, conciliation.

somebody, you know, making their best argument for what they need, somebody else coming back with their best argument for what they need and finding a middle ground, right? So politics generally is about finding the middle ground. And in politics, if you're doing it right, they say, you're never going to make everybody happy. There's always going to be people who are going to be angry. So I don't know if it's just like my way or the highway. You know, I don't know that that's politics.

Led Black (48:57)
you

Octavio Blanco (49:02)
I don't know if that's like the right way. I don't think so. I think that the right way is is for us to try to keep talking to each other and keep hearing each other. It's not happening, but

At the same time, it's, it's gotta happen. And I think that we're going to see stuff that is going to be like, wait, why are you talking to that person or why are you making that decision? And it's going to be political. And it's just the way that politics is. And, but you're right. And I think with the hundred thousand people that were part of the Mamdani campaign, it's going to be more difficult to, you know, drift too far.

like the way that, you know, Obama did. Because, I mean, at the same time, Obama didn't have an easy way, an easy road. mean, everything that his opponents were doing was to bring him down. He was like...

really up against a really difficult opponent that wasn't trying to have any kind of conversation and didn't care if the country, you know, went bankrupt or if the if or whatever happened because they wanted to get their way. So, yeah, it's it's it's unfortunate that our imperfect democracy

isn't better. But it's and it's and I'm happy that in New York City we've seen this like really like amazing individual sort of

Emerge I mean he was at 1 % when he first started Campaigning 1 % nobody wanted to talk to him. Nobody cared about I remember I have a friend who is involved in in has been involved in the democratic socialist movement for a while and I remember he was talking about it and in my the back of my head I was like I Mean, I wasn't I don't know if I was actually maybe thinking this but I think I was I was like good luck with that

Led Black (50:46)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (51:11)
You know what I mean? Like I was like, good luck with that. But guess what? That's what people wanted. That's, he was speaking the language. And I think I came around sooner rather than later because I saw from Mamdani the seriousness of his message and the, the, the, the intellect that he possesses. So it wasn't.

Led Black (51:17)
Mm-hmm.

You

Octavio Blanco (51:37)
like a crazy Curtis Leewa type of person who's, you know, easy to dismiss because, sorry, Curtis, I mean, you're not a smart person. You're not a smart person. But Mamdani is obviously very intelligent and charismatic and must have.

Led Black (51:47)
Fuck Curtis. Don't say sorry to Curtis. Fuck Curtis. Fuck Curtis. Yeah, fuck Curtis. Don't say sorry to Curtis. Fuck Curtis.

Octavio Blanco (52:01)
excellent organizational skills to be able to build and then execute a campaign. Like people that were saying that he's got no experience. I'm like, I don't know, this is a pretty like serious machine that's going on over here.

Led Black (52:12)
You

Yeah,

he posted a video on social, I think it was today. And it was showing like last year around this time, you know, after Trump won, he went to Fordham and interviewed people.

And he couldn't get very few people to talk to him. The people that did talk to him, they tell him why most of voted for Trump and they explain why. And then look at him now, right? Like he built this amazing machine. But again, I think he's a once in a lifetime kind of generational politician. He's a communicator par excellence. Like that dude, he just knows how to communicate. He knows how to stay on message. He knows not to go.

You know, like he knows when to, he has to Kendrick Cuomo. He knew how to do that. He knows how to go negative, like, but pointedly, but he, but it's mostly a positive message that it's uplifting and it's about what we can do together. So, so I really do feel like that, that we're in a special place, but again, we also have to be realistic. And I understand, you know, what Obama, the headwinds he faced as the first black president. And again,

Octavio Blanco (53:00)
Yeah.

Led Black (53:17)
But when you look back at that, that, ⁓

that had his reign in hindsight, you in retrospect, you see that there was a lot that he didn't do, a lot that he could have done different, a lot where he really just was shilling for the machine, right? And he put the machine's interest over the people's interest. And I think that's apparent now. And again, was never going to take, I think, the radical changes that we need. And when he had the opportunity

Octavio Blanco (53:42)
Yeah.

Led Black (53:50)
to do that during the financial crisis, right? Like there was an action time and the actions he took were for the people that got us into the problems, right? And that's all I'm saying. They're like, the democratic leadership cannot no longer remain the leadership, right? The base is not the problem. It's the leadership.

Octavio Blanco (54:02)
and

Yeah, mean, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's two things, two things, because I always, whenever you bring up the 08 thing, I can't let it go because like, I mean, we were looking to, America needed a bailout and who bailed us out? It was Chase, it was Jamie Dimon, he bailed us out. And he's not gonna bail us out without being like.

and my friends, you can't touch them. So, I mean, it's just...

Led Black (54:33)
I mean, don't even think that's

that's not that's not what happened. Like, that's not what happened. But yeah. But but why? Like, but but but but Goldman Sachs had all this funny ass debt. Right. And they didn't want Goldman Sachs to go on there because AIG would and all these it would have been like a like a cascading thing. Right. So, I mean, like, you know, what I'm saying is to you, but I'm saying we were fleeced by by Obama and them. Right. They were fleeced.

Octavio Blanco (54:37)
He paid, he put a billion...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly it.

Yeah, ⁓ yeah

Led Black (55:01)
And again, you didn't bail out, you didn't bail out the

regular person, right? The people that got to the problem were put into power again. And they just made it worse.

Octavio Blanco (55:04)
You know what?

You know who actually,

you know who's actually to blame for all of this? And frankly, it's Bill Clinton. Because Bill Clinton wrote the law that made it so easy for the banks to make these terrible loans. And it was all coming from, to your point of like sugarcoating stuff, it all seemed to be coming from like best intentions. It was like, we want everybody to have the American dream. And then the bankers.

Led Black (55:31)
No, but I agree with you.

The Clintons, right, basically sold out labor and working people and black people, right, with that bill. They did it. They're the ones responsible. But let me ask you question. Who was Barack Obama's secretary of state? Hmm.

Octavio Blanco (55:43)
Yep.

Yeah.

Led Black (55:50)
Hillary Clinton, right? And she toppled the government Honduras, she did the same thing in Libya, right? So not that I love Muammar Gaddafi or whatever, but you could buy slaves in Libya now, right? That was under Hillary and Obama.

Octavio Blanco (56:02)
Yeah.

Led Black (56:04)
You see what I'm saying? So it's like, yes, the Clintons were horrible. The Clintons are the ones that set this party on the current trajectory. Yes. But Biden was part of that machine and he was vice president on Obama and Hillary Clinton had a prominent position. Right?

Octavio Blanco (56:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.

Led Black (56:22)
Like, let's be honest, like, that's what saying, like,

as bad as the Trump first president was back, a Hillary presidency was not gonna be good either. It might have been, in some ways, less oppressive at home, but she was a war hawk. She won at the wars with Iran. She has her masters too, you know what saying? Like, we don't need people with foreign masters. And Obama had a foreign master, so does everyone else. So I'm saying we need to really, really, really be about us, you know what mean? And that's what I'm talking about.

Octavio Blanco (56:38)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, no,

I agree. And I will agree with you 1000 % in terms of my disappointment.

Because I also I mean I remember when he got elected I went out into the street and I was partying with my neighbors You know everybody was on the street when he got elected up and inward everybody was running around and running around the block and all that stuff I was I was elated. I was very happy I thought it was the turning point, you know, and yes to to what you're saying But I do believe that so I believe I believe that you have very strong points and really good and they're true

what you're saying. I also think that he had a lot against him. We've already touched on that. What I'm much more disappointed in him is now. Now. You're not in power. You're private citizen. Where are you? Where are you, man? Why aren't you more forceful, more vigorous, more vocal?

Where are you Obama? Where are you? I just, to me, that's the most disappointing thing is that he seems to have said, you know what, that was really hard what I did and I'm done. I'm done with it. And I don't know, like a part of me gets it. Like, yeah, I get it. But you did inspire a lot of people. did

Use beautiful language to make us really happy. You know, you really made us think that this country was like awesome and that you Really cared and then now what where are you like what's going on? It's that's what I that's where I fall in terms of my disappointment with with Barack Obama. I love Barack Obama My vision of what he could have been and I'm so upset that he's not more like

more vocal about the changes that need to happen in this country. And the fact that he didn't endorse Mamdani, think is super sad. It's super sad. It's super sad.

Led Black (58:44)
It's crazy, it's insane, it's just disgusting.

It's disgusting. But again, this is to

everyone's detriment. Like we're moving forward again. I just I just think we need to stop with like always like the rose colored like glasses, always trying to look at things. But he's so nice, but they like him. Like, no, like we need to like we don't need any more of that. We don't need Cuomo's. We don't need any of these these people like the leadership has failed us and we need to look at squarely. And if you want to be a leader in this party, you got to listen to the dictates of the people.

Octavio Blanco (58:55)
You

Led Black (59:15)
we're going to set the agenda from now on, not them, because they've been failing us. And again, is when you look at, you know, a lot of the propaganda against, you know, against the left that these Latinos are buying into, a lot of it is because it's real, because Biden did suck, right? Biden did suck. Biden paved the way for Trump.

Octavio Blanco (59:15)
Yeah.

Led Black (59:35)
Biden didn't do the things he needed to do and the things that he did were really stupid like the, know, the bear hug approach with Netanyahu. Right, Netanyahu, this is his genocide again. Right, so it's like, you know, the people that got us into this, all of them, all of them, because I want to like Barack too, but he's part of that clique and I'm not done with that clique no more. You know what mean? And we in a new movement. And again, it's different. And we need to act like it and, you know,

want to talk about it that's fine don't endorse but we see you we see everyone

Octavio Blanco (1:00:08)
Yo, changing topics. Did you see Zohran at the Knicks game? Was he with the deus or Mero or which, who was he with? Yeah, Mero, Kid Mero. And he was like, Knicks play tonight. They're starting, I think they're playing now. They're playing now, think. Timberwolves.

Led Black (1:00:13)
Yeah, that was really cool. That was really cool.

Yeah, I think we're with Meryl, we're with Kim Meryl. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, Oh yeah, I gotta good. Yeah, yeah, for real. And then before

we go, gotta say a shout out to, this is the Stay Frosty event. This is the t-shirt for Stay Frosty. Shout out to my brother, Tom Sanford, who goes by uberkunst on Instagram. He's a dope local artist and they had Stay Frosty happen February 24th, I think to the 26th that weekend.

Octavio Blanco (1:00:34)
Yes.

Yeah,

did you, you went to that? I wasn't able to make it.

Led Black (1:00:49)
I got to go, yeah, I one day. I got kind of

go in by myself. It was on the 128th between Amsterdam and Convent. It's funny because I had never been to that particular block because it's like kind of a dead end. So you go in there, it looks a little like, you know, like it's just like, you know, like it's one of these like dead end blocks where like Verizon has stuff, there's nothing really there. And then you can't, the cars are dead and you can't, the cars can't go to Convent from there. But at the last lot, it was almost like a mini Art Basel.

Right, was all this really cool artwork. You could go to the Uptown Collective Instagram. No, no, everyone had their own little station. And most of it was, for whatever reason, most of it was like vehicle based, if that makes sense. So there was, yeah, so there was like a van and you could go into the van and it had like artwork in it. There was a basically like a classic car coupe made out of plastic bottles.

Octavio Blanco (1:01:19)
wow.

Was it all his or was it or was it a

Like what, like cars?

Led Black (1:01:47)
It was just like really cool, really like, yeah, yeah, we gotta have Tom on. He's really cool. That event was really cool. I don't think he organized it, he just participated, but it was a really, really dope event happening uptown, like in the middle of Harlem, like on a weekend. And it was just so cool that Free Burger, Tom gave me a beer. We had a beer, talked with him. It was great, man. So shout out to those people.

Octavio Blanco (1:01:47)
Yeah. We gotta have him on.

So.

Nice. And he created

art for the Knicks too. There's a commercial on MSG and I was watching it and all of a sudden I saw Tom. I was like, that's Tom Sanford right there.

Led Black (1:02:13)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The time is the man. Time

is the man. He does a crazy lot. I got some of his Knicks t-shirts. I love his work, you know what mean? So he's a great artist. We definitely got to have him on because it's Knicks all day. We're Knicks season has begun. So we're about the Knicks now. You know what mean?

Octavio Blanco (1:02:28)
We gotta have him on. He's a great guy. Yeah, man.

Yeah, you know, they had a tough road trip, hopefully now that they're at home, it's gonna be the longest stretch of home games for the Knicks in history. I think it's seven games at the Garden. So they just destroyed the Bulls, not the Bulls, they split the Bulls, the Washingo Wizards.

Led Black (1:02:44)
wow, that's dope. That's dope.

Let's the balls in.

Octavio Blanco (1:02:58)
When I grew up, they were the bullets, but now they're the wizards. So I always, I always almost say bullets, but then it's actually wizards, but they killed them as the wizard. Yeah, they killed them. And I think today is the timber wolves. So hopefully, so that's, that's Randall. That's Randall. That's Randall. We're going to see Randall.

Led Black (1:03:00)
Right.

The Wizards.

that's a good game. So let's watch that game. yeah, yeah, yeah. So with that said, let's get off this and watch the game. Everybody, thank

you so much. spread love is the uptown way, uptown voices, black and Blanco. Subscribe, stop playing, don't play yourself. All right, y'all, thank you.

Octavio Blanco (1:03:21)
Subscribe, please subscribe. Come on. All right.