Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
In this episode, Led Black and Octavio Blanco reflect on their achievements over the past year, emphasizing the importance of community support and engagement. They discuss the role of social media in shaping modern discourse, the challenges posed by AI and technology, and the impact of capitalism on society. The conversation also touches on local politics, the significance of community involvement, and the celebration of local artists and culture. In this conversation, Led Black and Octavio Blanco discuss various themes surrounding community empowerment, the importance of supporting women artists in Uptown, and the need for revitalizing public spaces. They delve into the challenges of drug addiction in their neighborhoods, debating the effectiveness of safe injection sites versus community-centric solutions. The discussion also touches on the historical context of drug addiction and its impact on communities, culminating in a celebration of music and resilience, particularly highlighting the album 'Exile' by Chronixx as a significant cultural touchstone.
Takeaways
The importance of community support in achieving goals.
Reflecting on personal growth through podcasting.
Social media serves as both a tool and a challenge.
AI presents both opportunities and ecological concerns.
Capitalism is critiqued as a system that perpetuates inequality.
Local politics play a crucial role in community engagement.
Art and culture are vital for community identity.
The need for a shift in values to address societal issues.
Acknowledging the impact of historical injustices on current politics.
The significance of celebrating local talent and initiatives. Women artists in Uptown should submit their work to NOMAA.
Community support is vital during the holiday season.
Local politicians and groups are making a difference in the community.
Revitalizing public spaces can enhance community safety.
Drug addiction is a pressing issue that needs community-focused solutions.
Safe injection sites are controversial and may not be effective.
Historical context shows how drug addiction has been used as a tool of control.
Music can be a source of resilience and empowerment in the community.
Chronixx's album 'Exile' resonates deeply with the community's spirit.
Community involvement is essential for addressing local challenges.
Chapters
00:00 Celebrating Achievements and Looking Ahead
02:45 Reflections on Growth and Learning
04:37 The Role of Social Media and AI in Society
07:28 Navigating Local Politics and Community Engagement
10:07 The Future of Music and Artist Compensation
12:58 The Impact of Technology on Society
13:07 The Need for Political Change and Accountability
31:50 The Gaza Conflict and Its Consequences
33:00 Celebrating Community and Nightlife
35:43 Empowering Women Artists in Uptown
38:01 Community Support and Holiday Initiatives
41:00 Reviving Local Parks for Community Use
45:30 Addressing Drug Addiction and Community Safety
57:20 The Complexities of Heroin Addiction
01:09:28 Music and Community: A Personal Reflection
Creators and Guests
What is Uptown Voices?
A podcast focused on the Uptown neighborhoods of Inwood, Washington Heights and Harlem. Our neighborhoods have a voice and we want to be heard and felt. We love Uptown.
Each episode will elevate the people here who are making a difference in the life of this community. We’re also committed to “real talk” that seeks solutions that improve the quality of life in our beautiful Uptown neighborhoods.
Led Black (00:00)
What up, what up, what up everyone. It's Led Black and Octavio Blanco on the last episode that will air this year. Not the one last one we filmed, but the last one for the year. So it's a big deal. My brother, how you feeling, man? We pulled it off, man. How you feeling?
Octavio Blanco (00:14)
We did it. We did it every week. We've had at least one, sometimes two episodes. This is a big accomplishment. I'm doing great. How about you? How are you feeling? How are you feeling now? This is like the last episode of the year.
Led Black (00:27)
I'm feeling great.
like, and I remember when you told me we got to tell people to subscribe, stop fucking playing, make sure you subscribe, get on it. Show us that love. We've been putting in this work every week. You know what saying? This is a huge commitment on both our parts. You know what mean? So show us the love and just subscribe. You know what mean? But I thought we meant, go ahead, go ahead.
Octavio Blanco (00:45)
Yeah, just.
Yeah,
no, I was gonna say yeah, just subscribe and I gotta gotta I gotta shout some somebody out. Adrian Delgado. He actually contributed 50 bucks to the show today. You know, on every episode. Yeah, Adrian Delgado from El Barrio. He contributed 50 bucks.
Led Black (00:58)
Yo Adrian, thank you. Wow, thank you. That's dope. Thank you, man.
Octavio Blanco (01:07)
And I just want to say, you know, like it's up to you guys. We just need you to subscribe. That's all, that's all you need to do. But if you want it to, yeah. In every episode, we have a QR code. When that pops up, just point your phone at it. And if you want to give us a donation, $1 or a thousand dollars, it doesn't matter whatever you want to do. But I do want to shout out Adrian Delgado for, ⁓ for, for contributing. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you.
Led Black (01:21)
for real.
Shout out to Adrian for real. Adrian Delgado coming through, pulling up. I like that. Thank you, Adrian. And you know, I wanna
do a toast to you. I wanna do, you know, you always showing me love. I wanna shout you out because you took the time to make this happen week in, week out. You know what I mean? And it's gonna sound weird, but DOGE might've been the best thing to happen to us, right? You know I'm saying? Because you've been able to really folk hone in.
Octavio Blanco (01:51)
Yeah, yeah,
Led Black (01:55)
you know, and put out this product and it's been a great experience, great ride. Like I really do feel that I'm better. I'm better after every episode, Cause I, and even these people that I've known for a long time, I'm like, wow, like I've learned so much, you know, from, from the various episode, very first episode with Niria Martin, you know, to, to, to the last one, Diana Ayala, like deputy speaker. I know, I know more about these people. I know more about, you know,
humanity and about uptown. It only confirms the work that we're doing. So shout out to you, my brother, because you deserve your flowers and your kudos. You illuminate right there with the GWB behind you. So shout out to that brother, for real. Cheers, man.
Octavio Blanco (02:29)
Hahaha
⁓ Thank
you. I appreciate it. thank you. thank you. Salud. I'm to cheers you with my ginormous water bottle.
Led Black (02:41)
I thought it was milk. I was like, that's gross. I can't drink straight milk. That's just not crazy to me.
Octavio Blanco (02:46)
water but but no man I appreciate it thank you I really do doge and this year has been crazy this year has been crazy for me it's been a crazy year for the country doge was not fun but you're right like for many months I was able to focus in on this and try to get it get it going and you know we're not
Led Black (02:53)
Crazy, right?
Octavio Blanco (03:09)
we're still focusing in and we're still getting it going. But I think 2026 is the year that we're gonna really hit our stride. I think that you're gonna hear a lot more about us. I think you're gonna hear a lot more from us on different channels and in different ways. I really hope that you and I can collaborate on a newsletter to sort of punctuate what we're doing here every week,
we're, I'm in a good place with it. And so I'm looking forward to 2026. I'm looking forward to, to growing this thing with you and to
growing myself into and to helping you grow as well. It's all about that. And I got to agree with you. I got to agree with you that even when I'm feeling because this is a roller coaster emotionally, it's a roller coaster has been a roller coaster this year. And I got to tell you sometimes frankly, like it's time to get on the camera. And I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to get on the camera because I feel like shit. ⁓ But every time every time seriously, I turn off the camera after the show is on. I'm like,
Led Black (03:44)
for real.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Right. I hear you.
Octavio Blanco (04:09)
wow, I am so glad that I did that. I feel personally much better. And I feel like the information that we're getting and the stories that we're getting of people's lives and people's work right here, our neighbors, is illuminating for everybody. And the folks who communicate with us so far have been all positive, which is incredible when you think about something that exists on the internet. Something that exists on the internet.
Led Black (04:12)
Yeah, I agree.
Mm-hmm.
Octavio Blanco (04:34)
You know, maybe I'm, you know, knocking on wood here, but, ⁓ you know, although although the haters will come, I mean, look, like, yeah, there's, there's, there's what we do. We do get into politics and I guess in that respect, we do get a little bit of that other side. That's like pushing back, but, but that to me is like natural. I just mean like on the work that we're doing, the folks that are seeing our interviews.
Led Black (04:37)
Yeah, I think you might be speaking. Give us some time. The haters will come.
Mm.
Octavio Blanco (05:00)
and on our seeing and our hearing the stories like they're appreciative. And so it makes me really excited to keep going. yeah. ⁓
Led Black (05:05)
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Yeah. And
I think you nudged me in the right way with the lives. You know, was a little off for the first time we did it, but the second time it was smooth and I could see that it looked good. So, you know, it's weird because when I download the video, it doesn't look good, but it doesn't matter because we can still get the video, the actual, you know, source from YouTube. So it's no big deal, but it's been good. I think we should definitely start doing it in the new year, you know, doing an early Sunday, you know, just hitting everybody up. I think it's a...
Octavio Blanco (05:20)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Led Black (05:37)
It's important, think, especially, know, we're up time, right? So much stuff is happening. It's easy to miss things. So I think it's a good look. So we should start that at some point. We already kind of started it anyway, you know what mean? But we should make that a thing, you know what mean?
Octavio Blanco (05:46)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, we'll make it a thing and we're going to be, you know, making sure that everybody knows that it's happening. So like these, these last few lives, they just kind of, would call them pop-up lives because we didn't really advertise it. We didn't really tell people they were coming. And so if you caught it, you caught it. If you didn't, you didn't. But Frank, he was thankful because he said that from, from the, from his appearance here, there was a sale that was generated. So
Led Black (06:01)
Mm-hmm.
⁓ that's great.
Octavio Blanco (06:14)
That's great, even if
it's just one. So people followed through and they did what we really were hoping that they would do and that's to support local artists. And Frank replied to me that he saw it directly. He got a sale off of that. So that's great. And so I wanna get folks in the community to come onto our live show to just like talk. Like we do these Uptown Voices in-depth interviews with community.
artists and leaders and something that's I don't want to keep doing that. But I also want to do like what we're doing on the lives have a couple of guests come on and talk about what's going on this week. What do they have coming on in the next coming in the next couple of days and just have these kind of fun conversations like that. I think that was those those really work for what we're doing. And I think that the audience eats it up. And I think that yeah, Sunday 10 o'clock in the morning people sitting with their coffee, you know, they're not going to watch CBS Margaret Brennan anymore because that's, that's a
Led Black (07:10)
well.
Octavio Blanco (07:10)
That's
a failed experiment. But, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm psyched and I'm glad. Yeah. That's state television. It's a, but, but yo, I'm so glad that you're on board with doing the lives. know that it's sounds daunting, but like our show is not terribly, you know, it's not overproduced. We, we, we just sit in front of the camera and talk to one another and we talk to our guests and, you know, that's pretty much what you're getting.
Led Black (07:12)
That's state TV now.
Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (07:38)
you know, and that's way it should be. I don't think it needs to be overproduced. I don't think we need to do fancy stuff.
Led Black (07:40)
Yeah, yeah. You know it's funny you say that.
It's funny you say that because, right, so you know my wife, like your wife is a supporter, she watches it, but then she was like, you know, you're supposed to make sure those cables, no one sees the cables underneath the couch, you gotta push them, you know what I So she be getting on me about that. Make sure the pillows are right, you know what mean? So you're right, this is my crib, this is your crib, you know what mean? We're at home doing this, so.
Octavio Blanco (08:02)
Yeah.
Led Black (08:04)
You know, and again, that's what's
Octavio Blanco (08:05)
You know.
Led Black (08:05)
funny. I think you're right. Like the quality, it's not that, what's important is the content, the conversation we're having, the kind of, you know, really, you know, in-depth conversations that that really get to the gist of things, you know, that's not rushed, it's not hurried, you know, and I think that's something that's important now in the world of social media where everything is, you know, is here and it's gone, you know?
Octavio Blanco (08:28)
Yeah, I think that's the best thing that we're doing is that we're piggybacking on social media to bring you the deeper story because social media, we've seen in the last, you know, what few decades that it's been around, it can be very destructive. And mostly I believe it's because you don't get any context from what's happening. And so if you're not getting context, then there's a lot of messaging that can be
manipulated, misconstrued, and be very, very destructive. mean, we've seen crazy things happen globally due to social media, like revolutions, you know, and people, some of them, some of them, some of them.
Led Black (09:07)
Which are a good thing though. mean, that's I think is the double-edged sword. No, but what I think,
but wait a but that's what I'm saying. That's the other side of that coin is that without social media right now, we wouldn't have anything, right? We wouldn't have anything. You know, everything is, when you turn on that screen that's behind me, you are getting completely filtered information, right? So yes, social media, could be problematic. I agree.
Octavio Blanco (09:19)
No, you're right.
Led Black (09:29)
It could be used in the wrong way. But without social media, we wouldn't know anything about Gaza. We wouldn't know anything about Sudan. We wouldn't know because you won't see it on TV. So yeah, I agree to a degree. But I also feel that without it, we'd be left off.
Octavio Blanco (09:38)
Yeah. Yeah, no, I.
I mean, totally. I think you're right that without it, it would be much worse off. What I do fear though, but I do fear that the social media technology companies, those are owned by a few people also. And right now, don't have any insight.
Led Black (09:47)
It's a tool. It's a tool like anything else.
Correct? Correct.
Octavio Blanco (10:07)
as to what's going on in social media inside the companies in terms of, you know, filtering content or in terms of, of favoring content or what, but it's not as if social media is like a democratic tool that is not owned by people with, their own interests. So it's, it's,
Led Black (10:16)
you
No, but I'm sorry to say, think
that's a, and I hate to say this, I think that's incomplete. I'll say it that way. It's an incomplete look at it. Yes, Zuckerberg owns this, this and that, and definitely at the very top, it is owned, right? But at least for right now, right? Social media, and I'll give you an example, right? I'll give you a concrete example.
Octavio Blanco (10:46)
Yeah.
Led Black (10:51)
Right. So you're right. It's owned by these people. But even when it's owned by these people, the people get around it. That's where it's democratic. And I mean, what I mean by that, and I give you again a concrete example, Barry Weiss, the hand chosen picked non. She's not she's not fit for that role. She decided, right.
Octavio Blanco (11:05)
Yeah.
Led Black (11:09)
She was put again. You know, so funny when when they put stories about Barry Weiss, I read, like I said, I read a lot of news, right. They refer to her as the free press. And again, I know I said this before.
But they make it seem like the free, they don't say the free press, the sub stack blog, right? They don't say that part, which they should. They should underline it. Cause when you say just the free press, sounds really impressive. wow, she's, no, it's a blog. It's a fucking sub stack. First thing, right? So this woman was handpicked, not qualified at all by Ellison to run CBS News, right? Run CBS News. One of the first things she does, she helps to platform Erica Kirk further.
Octavio Blanco (11:23)
Yeah, yeah, right, right. The blog, they should call it a...
Led Black (11:46)
just like the New York Times did, right? So there's a concerted effort, right? There's a thing being done together. And they know what she did, and you know that she did this, right? I send you the article, right? She pulled a piece about how people were treated at CECOT She pulled it like right before it was about to air, right? And with every, like the person that put it together was like, yo, we went through the lawyers, we went through everything. This was not about, this is not editorial, this was political. So here's Barry Weiss.
on what she was told to do, right? She pulled it. But what did the internet do? The internet found it wherever and posted it. So now you're gonna see it and more people are gonna see it now than they would have seen it before. You see what That's internet. That's the democracy of the internet and social media. Yes, it's controlled at the top. But what's beauty is that once you give people these tools, whichever, we can just, what we gotta learn is to de-platform them off of those tools and make them ours.
Octavio Blanco (12:25)
Yeah.
Led Black (12:39)
But they are always, that's the beauty of it. So she could do what she wants. She's the handpicked successor. Here you go. Give us propaganda. And what did we do as a collective? said, nah, fuck that. Here you go. And now everyone's seeing it. So I think that's the power of social media. And again, it's weird you talking about social media when you love AI so much. I hate to say it, but whatever.
Hahaha!
Octavio Blanco (12:58)
Yeah, no, I know. I don't love AI. It just helps me because because I sometimes it helps me to do things faster.
Led Black (13:00)
You
Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (13:07)
AI is great. AI gets us and it got me in trouble this week. I won't say I won't say how, but I had to do a little little scrambling to find non AI, non AI work.
But yeah, I don't love AI. I'm actually very concerned about AI. I'm very concerned about the water situation. The people in Syracuse, apparently, are about to, if they don't conserve their water usage, they're about to not have water. I just read about that in one of my newsletters this morning. It's crazy. It's crazy. The ecological disaster that AI could present is real. So I don't love AI, but I don't know.
Led Black (13:40)
Yeah.
And I feel like, I feel like
I know like, but I think that's the, that's the whole thing, right? It's that, is that it does make things easier. It does, it does give you like a little bit almost superpowers a certain way, but then what you gotta think what it gives to these corporations, right? Like, and I also think a lot of this is being pushed down on our throat, right? Like it's, it's, it's, it's making it accessible to you. So, so, or you or I, right? So it could, so it's just, it's, it's, it's a flood and, and I don't think it's a, it's
Octavio Blanco (14:01)
Mm-hmm.
Led Black (14:11)
The thing behind it, I don't think it'll be good for us as Americans, as humans, and not because AI. I don't think this thing is gonna get intelligent and try to destroy us. I think the motherfuckers that control it are gonna try to destroy us, and that's what they're trying to do, right? Because I think it's not a productive activity, right? So they spend, like we have like an AI bubble in the economy because people just spending money, but it doesn't produce anything. It doesn't produce, it doesn't make a bridge, right? It doesn't make new trains. It doesn't cruise new roads. It doesn't do none of those things.
Octavio Blanco (14:28)
Yeah.
Led Black (14:39)
And again, it's just, I think it's a dead end for humanity at the end of the day. And not because it's gonna be like Sunny, or not Sunny, the other in-eye robot, right? That's nonsense. It's the people, the billionaires that control the technology, right? They're the problem. And they're the one that are actively trying to destroy us using AI as the vehicle for that.
Octavio Blanco (14:39)
No.
Well, well.
it. Yeah, I mean, look, I, I agree with you. But I do think that like, for most people, AI is just like, something that's fun that they can use to make goofy videos. Unfortunately, those goofy videos that are not doing anything except for, you know,
either like fooling people into thinking that people are saying stuff that they're not saying, or making us laugh at a strange looking photo, you know, that's also using a lot of resources. So before you like make your silly little video, think about that. But I do think for people like creators, people like us who are discussing ideas and trying to...
doing it at a very low budget, it can be helpful. But I am concerned about all the ecological dangers. And frankly, like, I'm not convinced that it's not going to become smart and take over.
Led Black (15:49)
And but it is. But yeah.
No, that's that's insane. That's movie shit like that. That's taken away from the billionaires. Those are the real evil motherfuckers. It's not it's not the A.I. That's crazy. What I'm saying is, listen, man, and it's not just ecological. Yes, it's horrible, but it's not just ecological. We live now in a world of A.I. slop. Every time you open your phone, you can't even you don't need. And that's the point.
Octavio Blanco (16:02)
Ha!
Yeah.
Led Black (16:18)
It's to weaken the power of social media, to weaken the person recording something in real life. I do feel it's so, well don't know if that thing in Gaza is real because I don't know what's real anymore.
That's where it's really dangerous. Yes, the colleges, but it's the way the powers that be. And again, I think that's nonsense, Western bullshit that somehow it's not the rich white people. It's not them. It's the AI. No, it's the rich billionaires that most of happen to be white. It's those are the problem. It has always been the problem. Right. And when we try to make it seem like it's the AI that's going to kill us, no, it's the motherfuckers behind the AI. It's those people. It's those people.
Octavio Blanco (16:31)
Yeah.
No, both of those things, both of those.
Led Black (16:58)
You know what mean? And I have a hot take. have a hot take. I'm gonna have a hot take. This is right here. Capitalism is the first AI. Right? And what I mean by that is that the capitalism in a sense did become alive, right? And it became something that then affected the hearts of people. It's basically greed incarnate, right? And basically that AI is in this AI the same thing.
Octavio Blanco (16:58)
You know, I-
Hahahaha
Huh.
Led Black (17:24)
Right? So that's what you want to do, but it's still people at the end of the day, people that make this money, people that make this capital, they are the problem. And when, when, when, and those are the, again, I'm starting to realize how much bullshit we're fed, how much American myths we've all been brought up in.
Right. And then we told them so dear to our heart, America is exceptional. America is good. America can't be bad. Biden is good. Like it's all this bullshit that we continue to believe in. And even I hate to say that, even the notion that AI is that somehow it's going to come alive and hurt us. But the real people, the billionaires that are actually hurting us, right. That are taking away our rights, taking away, you know, like people like Peter Thiel want to transcend consciousness.
And they got the billions to do it. He has has J.D. Vance second in command. Right. You know, I'm saying they're already you could tell by J.D. Vance already. He goes full on racist. Right. But no, he's full on racist now. Now he's now he's a racist. He went from progressive white person that loved the poor whites right now to to be calling them Trump Hitler. Right. America, Hitler. So now Trump is great So now his vice president is now saying white people shouldn't have to apologize for being white.
Octavio Blanco (18:12)
Yeah.
Yeah, that's his boy. Yeah.
Led Black (18:35)
You know what mean? So that's the problem. Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Trump.
Octavio Blanco (18:41)
I mean, the truth of the matter is that if you, when you can't tell what's right, what's real and what's not real, that's power. If you're able to control that and the billionaires who are controlling these companies are certainly in power because they've got their lackeys in the white house and in government, who are making the world into their.
into their vision of what they want the world to look like. it's definitely a challenge and it's challenge to know like what's right and what's wrong sometimes.
What I wanted to ask you though is do you think that there's a moment when they've overreached in technology and the people are gonna say like, I really need all this technology or can I disconnect and do something else? I was listening to a rapper and I
his name who was talking about
how Spotify pays musicians. And it's like, I think that they, in New York, they finally passed a law where a musician can make a whopping one cent per stream. Before then, it was like 0.01 cents per stream. So it was like some crazy number where you'd have to like, you had to like have
more than a more than one million streams, you'd have to have many, many, millions of streams just to make like a decent amount of money. And he was thinking like, well, what if I go straight to the to the people like, and just sell them directly, my album or sell them directly, my, my, my single, you know, like, we used to do we used to have record stores, you go into the record store.
and go and listen to the music.
people are gonna are gonna disconnect are gonna find it like too intrusive to to their lives where
where they're giving everything up. I mean, if they haven't so far, they probably won't. But I wonder if that's the case. But when you're talking about money, and when you're talking about how people are being swindled, you know,
Why aren't people then saying, well, you know what, let me just take it to the street or like go back to the old school of, just charging you $5 for a CD or charging you $5 for a tape or, or, and I was like, I was thinking to myself, like, yeah, like
that something that you think is gonna happen because because You know, ⁓ we don't have to stream stuff. We don't have to do it that way There's other ways of listening to music and and we've done that a different way for many many many years before the streaming services came around I don't know
Led Black (21:30)
Yeah, I mean, I think that's a longer thing about, I think, you know, people waking up and kind of taking power back. I mean, that's a bigger issue. I think once we take power in other things, we'll take power back in that as well. Artists should be paid for their music. know, music brings so much joy to so much people. So, you know, but it is always it's weird, right? Because it's like in back in the days, you know, we thought musicians were getting jerked, but now they're really getting jerked, right? Like they're really getting they're really getting nothing for their work and they really have to tour.
Octavio Blanco (21:55)
Yeah.
Led Black (21:59)
or sell merch or do a bunch of things to do it. But listen, man, I think at the end of the day, people will find a way to better their lives and we have the rest of control. So I don't think it's the tools themselves. I don't think it's necessarily social media or AI. I'm just saying it's the people behind it, the people that have the power and the muscle that keep us going like chasing our own tail. Because I think these tools could also help us. They could help the people. I think we do live in a time. That's why I think.
Octavio Blanco (22:13)
Yeah.
Led Black (22:27)
the rich are trying to even constrict us more is that we do live in a time where we could really, we know that we could end poverty, right? Like if you just tax these motherfuckers, just put taxes on them, right? I saw something where like, if you just tax them.
Octavio Blanco (22:42)
If you
just force them to pay the taxes that they're not paying.
Led Black (22:46)
And they,
right, that's what saying. If you just tax them, they would still be ridiculously wealthy, but we can end poverty. We can end a lot of things on this planet where we can make this a better planet, right, for every single person on it, right? But we choose not to because we want to make sure they have yachts and they're traveling into outer space. You know what mean? So that's what I'm We need a change in values. I think we're going to have no choice but to change the values, right? Because the current value system is leading us off of a cliff. And what I try to tell you,
Octavio Blanco (22:57)
Yeah. Yeah.
Led Black (23:14)
And I try to other people is I think we need to stop romanticizing our past. We need to stop thinking like that. Like we are going off a cliff, whether we know and hold on when we are ready off the cliff, we just haven't looked down and that's where we're at. You know what I'm saying? And this whole this not looking down is the problem.
Octavio Blanco (23:21)
yeah.
Led Black (23:33)
Because when we don't look down, we think everything is okay. We think Biden is good. We think Kamala is good. They're not Trump. It's bigger. This is a rot at the core of the society because we, you know, we never dealt with the fucking Confederacy, right? We keep letting these horrible white people, white men get away with shit, right? Instead of making this a multiracial democracy for all of us. Like, I don't think there's a bigger case for, for, you know, white privilege than Trump, right? Trump should not be there.
Octavio Blanco (23:47)
Yeah.
Led Black (24:01)
He does not deserve, he's not fit, right? But again, he's also a perfect.
Octavio Blanco (24:03)
And Barry Weiss also
falls into that.
Led Black (24:06)
of course. But I say, yeah, but when I say Trump is the perfect, he's the ID of America. He is America crystallized. Right? So we need to choose new narratives and we have these narratives. Like I think that the beauty of this country is its ugliness. Right? There has been two genocides in this, you you have the genocides of the native and the importation of African people. Right? So there's two genocides, but we still elected someone named Barack Hussein Obama, who I have my many issues with.
But this country still did that, right? So I do think that we can be a force for good or we can succumb. But we have to realize we have gone off the cliff, right? And not looking down is no longer an option. Kamala's gonna save us in another four years. Listen, there's not another four years. We may not be. America's being eclipsed right before our eyes. And we need to recognize that.
Octavio Blanco (24:54)
And ignoring that past isn't going to do it. And you're right. mean, the fact of the matter that we haven't dealt with the Confederacy and we romanticize it as like something that it really wasn't. was just, it was just, it was slavery. was, ⁓ was, it was a human.
was just degradation, human degradation. And we romanticize it as our past, and we haven't dealt with it either with reparations or even with eliminating the vestiges of it, like the Confederate flag. It's happened, it was happening, but now it's coming back, rearing in full force.
⁓ So yes, I think you're right. I think that the idea, the issue, the problem of white mediocrity and allowing that to happen while everybody else has to work 10 times harder to get two steps forward is just like one of the clearest signs of
the rot that you're describing. You know, the brown kids, Asian kids, anybody who's not like a white Christian cannot ever fail, cannot ever make a mistake. Whereas, you know, white men and white women too, they...
can fail and make mistakes and have bad judgment and they just continually get second chances, third chances, fourth chances. So yeah, that's really one of the things that hopefully we're gonna wake up to, but it doesn't seem like we're going in that direction at this point in time. But let's talk about, let's shift gears.
Led Black (26:30)
Let's
the shift.
Octavio Blanco (26:32)
Let's, let's shift gears because I mean, we've talked a lot about politics and national politics. But I think we could talk a little bit about the local politics that we're seeing because here in New York City. I think, you know, I know that it's only like a little a little sliver but come January 1st, Zohran Mamdani is going to be sworn in. And, you know, there's a lot of hopes on him and a lot of people are really, you know,
It's a it's a it's a win for us and meantime. I just read today You'll you'll be happy to hear this that well, I don't know if happy to hear this but but you'll I think Chuck Schumer there was a poll that was released today that showed Chuck Schumer has the lowest Ratings ever that he's really like struggling in in the polls
Led Black (27:03)
I agree.
Yeah, yeah.
Octavio Blanco (27:27)
And
it's I can't I can't imagine that he'll be able to has lowest approval rating of all top US political leaders according to a poll. The New York Democrat notched just a 28 % job approval rating, the lowest of 13 politicians named in the Gallup poll released Tuesday. So yeah, he's he's struggling and
Led Black (27:39)
Yeah, fuck Chuck.
Octavio Blanco (27:52)
And you know, I, and he's, yeah, go for it.
Led Black (27:53)
Can I say something? He's
the Democratic Ted Cruz. That's who he is. know, just this escrable fucking asshole. know, then again, he's just, I'm surprised he's even that low. Like, I mean, he has been so bad. You know, he's writing, I'm writing letters like.
Octavio Blanco (28:01)
haha
Led Black (28:12)
writing letters, who writes letters? Like, motherfuckers like 103, right? He's just annoying. And again, you know, the tide has turned with people being pro-Israel first, Israel first. Like that's, that tide is turning, right? It's starting to shift, right? Just this week, just this week, I don't know if you saw that you saw the Dave Chappelle, the new special on Netflix. You know, he ends it in a very...
Octavio Blanco (28:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
I didn't watch it yet.
Led Black (28:36)
I'm not going to spoil it, but he ended in a very provocative way, right? And Megyn Kelly, you know, was going at Ben Shapiro, and I hate Megyn Kelly before anyone said anything, but Megyn Kelly was saying Ben Shapiro was to Israel first, I think that notion that Israel or bust, I think that's starting to change. And again, he's a product of that, right? And those products of that are going to start to fade.
Octavio Blanco (28:58)
Yeah.
Yeah. And, and what's, what's, you know, what's really a problem is that not just that he's a product of that, but just how actively he's been and him and the rest of the, of the, of the, of the guard down there actively fighting against the progressive wing of the party, which is the part.
Led Black (29:18)
Yeah, he never, he never, he never endorsed Zoran.
Never to this day endorsed Zoran. Not once. He never endorsed Zoran. For the record.
Octavio Blanco (29:24)
not
not endorsed, never endorsed and and and apparently actively fighting against Zoran. I think he would most probably preferred that Cuomo won the mayoralty. And and to me, that's just like unacceptable. So there's certainly like a it's it is without a doubt that
the old guard is out of touch. And the question then becomes, know, who is gonna take over? And that process is starting to happen. I think, you know, Chuck Schumer is just old also, and I don't know if he's gonna be able to have it in him to stay on very much longer, although...
Led Black (30:05)
Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (30:13)
Although these senators, it's amazing how they stick around.
Led Black (30:17)
Yeah, but I want to say, that, you know, it's not just that he's old, right? He refers to himself, his job is to keep the left pro-Israel and he refers to him as the guardian of Israel, right? Not the guardian of the United States, but the guardian of New York, right? Like that's the problem. That's why he's unpopular. That's why Kamala lost. That's why Biden lost, right? That thing that you could put another country before your own, that's...
Those days are gone. Those days are gone. That's for, again, I think most people starting to feel this way, like we cannot continue down this path. Things are pretty bad here, right? And then if we're sending our money to Israel, so they can have free healthcare, so they can have free education, right? So they get stipends to raise their children per child, right? And then we're calling people of color here welfare queens, right? When they get a little bit of money that they actually put in the coffers, right? So that,
Schumer needs to go, all these people need to go if we're gonna have a true democracy, right? And again, it's just, we need to move forward. Like we really need to get, I really don't wanna see Hillary Clinton anymore. I don't want her talking anymore. know, Bill Clinton was in the files, arrest that motherfucker too, take Hillary too if you need to. We need to clean house. And again, the rot is deep.
Octavio Blanco (31:20)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, absolutely. And then on top of that, just to put a cap on the Israel discussion, that then we see the way that Israel has been killing Palestinians in a horrific way, just leveling up.
the Gaza Strip, killing so many innocent people. you know that, if Israel thinks that that's gonna ⁓ protect it from people who hate Israel, I hate to tell them, but it's not. That's only gonna create more and more people who hate Israel. And that's just gonna propel that whole issue further down the road and it's never gonna be resolved.
What's happened in Gaza the genocide that Israel is is conducting has set that region back I mean hundreds of years because you're talking about the children of the children that are of the of the people who have been killed who are never going to forget that and I don't know how that's ever going to be resolved at this point and ⁓ so, you know, I I I think that to be able to to
Led Black (32:37)
I agree. Yeah, but I'm sorry, I brought you back. I
brought you back to the whole thing. We need to move on. I moved you, I'm out for, I brought you back. Let's move on. Let's move on. I want to talk about, want to shout out, you know, my NYLFF family, right? Because even though the festival was late in September, we had like a little holiday get together right here, One Eighty One Cabrini, you one of our favorite spots, our sponsor.
Octavio Blanco (32:43)
No, well,
Led Black (33:00)
And it was really cool and was funny about it, right? Because it was Calixto, my brother Calixto Chinchilla, right? The founder. And he invited us kind of last minute, you know? And it was just really like the stakeholders and like the people. You some people couldn't make it, but it was like the year in, year out folks. So David Bell, Liz, Maria, Yanniel, and I think that was it. And, you know, it was, and myself, of course,
Right? But it was a great night. And I think I felt so good that night that I got really kind of drunk. You know what mean? I got, got, don't usually get drunk. I got, I got really drunk. I had like three sangrias. I had like five beers. And then James, James Lee, our boy, he came at the end of the night and just, and gave us all shots. And I was just, ugh, it was horrible. had to go to work next day. And it's funny, I even woke my wife up in the middle of the night. Like I pushed her.
Octavio Blanco (33:32)
⁓ yeah.
Led Black (33:50)
in the bed, like she was like laying down and I was like, yo, move, move. And she's like, what are you doing? Get out of my side of the bed. And I woke her up and then I put, I was like, I went over her instead of going around the bed. I was a mess. you know, first thing she like, you know, you were too drunk yesterday. but it was, it was because of the love I have for Calixto and the rest of the team. And you know, it kind of felt good to like, I knew I was going to get, I don't use, like I said, I have a glass of wine, but I don't get ripped. But that day I felt so good, just like commemorating what we were able to do this year and year in, out.
Octavio Blanco (33:52)
⁓
Led Black (34:18)
So shout out to my NYLFF fam, you know what mean? Because that's one of the best things I do every year and it's super exciting. And you know, this year we got more to come. So yeah.
Octavio Blanco (34:25)
And
And it was great that we could highlight that work on the program. It added a lot to what we're doing. I think it was very, very interesting. The films that were selected were really interesting. And I'm really glad that we were able to have them on the program. And I hope that we also can extend that love. We extended it a little bit to the...
Led Black (34:34)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, for real.
Octavio Blanco (34:51)
Project feel and what they're doing and I know that we have some local Latino film folks in the in the neighborhood and I hope that we can bring them on to talk about what they're doing as well because it's not about scarcity. It's about abundance I want to make sure that we can spread the love as much as we can to everybody who's putting in the hard work
But yeah, man, I think that that was that sounds like you had a good time. I love it. I love it when people when you when you when you can let your guard down, you know.
Led Black (35:19)
Yeah, yeah. I knew I was gonna get drunk that day. was like, yo, I feel this is my people right here. We pulled off something amazing this year once again. So I'm like, yo, I'm gonna throw it back. I drank way too much. But shout out to them, shout out to James. And then I also gotta say, cause we gotta stay local. Cause if you let me, I'll talk about other shit all day. Cause I hate Trump so much. So there's an open call right now for women, the next women in the heights.
By the fabulous incomparable Andrea Arroyo and NOMAA, right? So the theme is called shade whatever that means to you so this is for women artists that live in ⁓ Harlem Washington Heights and then would and so yeah go to NOMAA NOMAA website
So it's nomaanyc.org And that's also, @nomaanyc is also the IG. You know what I mean? But yeah, man, I think it's another, I think the 18th edition of I'm Mistaken of Women in the Heights. So it's an important exhibit. Every year it gets better. Andrea Arroyo is a uptown arts.
Octavio Blanco (36:02)
Hahaha!
Led Black (36:18)
you know, fixture and her husband, Feggo who's been on the show, we need to get Andrea as well. So, you know, make sure it's the 17th anniversary. It's the 17th anniversary. I just, I just saw that. So, you know, it's an important show you have until January 5th to, that's when the, when the call ends. So, so make sure you go to, go to nomaanyc.org
Octavio Blanco (36:24)
yeah, she needs to come on.
Led Black (36:38)
And if you're a women artist doing Uptown, you should submit, you know, whatever stage of your career, you're, you know, you're a beginner or even, you know, a more, a seasoned artist, this is, that's what makes NOMAA so great that it brings all this together. It's Uptown, it's us. So shout out to Niria shout out to Martin shout out to Michelle. You know what mean? Like they, they've been so helpful. And again, I have to, you know, disclaimer, I also do the social media for, for Nomaa So I do get a check, but, but again, this is part of like, I think.
I don't do it for a check, right? I do it because I love Uptown and I love the arts and I love NOMAA right? So before I worked for NOMAA, I was kind of already working for NOMAA because I would always help amplify what they were doing. And then in the past, I would always do the social media during the Uptown Astro, which takes place every June. But then for the last few years, I've been on the regular social media director all the time. So it's been an amazing journey and I love them. And so make sure you go to NOMAA.
nyc.org to submit your call for your art for women in the heights shade.
Octavio Blanco (37:37)
Yeah.
shade and they got your photo on the website. I peeped that this week. I saw they got your photo on the website. I also wanted to shout out all the local community groups and the local politicians and the local businesses.
Led Black (37:44)
really? That's dope. I didn't know that. that's really cool, man. That's really cool.
Sure.
Octavio Blanco (38:01)
They have been really going above and beyond with all the toy giveaways and on the turkey giveaways. it's been like every day there's like another toy giveaway. you know, there's a huge need in the community for this. And I think so many people have stepped up and there was, I swear to God, it was like every single day there was a different one. And hopefully all the kiddos out there.
Led Black (38:07)
Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (38:28)
you know, got something because it's that time of the year and it's so sad when, if you don't get something and by these community groups and these businesses, I know United Palace and Tuto Tares did something really interesting. We had him on the show to sort of hype it up, but it was just so many, so, so many. So that's why also I think it's so important for us to make sure that those folks behind the scenes that you don't know even their names.
Led Black (38:41)
Mm-hmm.
Octavio Blanco (38:53)
You don't even know the names of half the community groups in Washington Heights and in Harlem and in Inwood and in the South Bronx that are doing the work every day, not just on Christmas, not just with these toy drives and food distributions. That's why I want to make sure that they all get their flowers and that we highlight the ones that are really making a difference to help people's lives because sometimes people need help.
what the community is all about. So shout out to everybody who's been doing that. Yo, also want to, you you
Led Black (39:21)
100%. 100%, man.
Yes, and when you say shout out to Kurandara, hold
on, I want to just say shout out to the Kurandara Collective and Angel, Angel, Dr. Angel Rosario, who did a ⁓ toy drive with Uptown Gaming. And it was, I think, a very successful shout out to them, man. You're right. Like, these are the people, you know, that are making it happen in a time of great need, right? Because all of us are feeling the pinch, you know, during this holiday shopping for food, right? Like, you know, tomorrow, you know, today's the 23rd, tomorrow will be the 24th.
Octavio Blanco (39:30)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Led Black (39:50)
I'm gonna go to two letters and buy my usual stuff, but every time it's just getting more expensive. you know, for those people that are really struggling, this is not good. You know what saying? So we need, that's what community is, and that's what I love about community uptown, that we really look out for one another. kudos to all those people making it happen.
Octavio Blanco (40:07)
Yeah, man, and I'm so happy that I've doubled down on my commitment to be involved in Uptown. I've been attending, I've been attending and I will continue to be attending our community board meetings and our city council meetings, whether I'm there in person or catching up on the YouTube because just so everybody knows, all these things are posted on the YouTube. So you can just, if you don't have the bandwidth to go, you can even join.
via Zoom, you know, like it's, it's, it's, there are ways for people to participate. And I personally, I'm going to do my, my, my part to participate. I'm actually starting with a small project that I think we're going to be talking about here on the show more often, but we've talked a little bit about it called the, there's a park near our house called Dolphin Park. It's a park that's owned by the,
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. And it used to be operated by a woman in the neighborhood who had formed a nonprofit. But unfortunately, she died. And when she died, there was nobody there to pick up the baton. And so ever since she passed away, which I think now is like, at least I've been in this apartment for at least five years.
So probably maybe even five years before that, this park, which is a beautiful little pocket park, has been closed and inaccessible to the children and the families in the community. And it might seem like low stakes or a low bar in terms of all the important issues that people are facing, whether it's housing or food insecurity or drugs and mental health issues.
It all goes towards that, right? If there is a ⁓ park in the neighborhood that is there and it's not being utilized, it does nothing more than depress the neighborhood. So it's my, I was able to, with the help of a lot of people in the community, I actually attended the park's...
committee hearing and I put it on the record that this is something that we the community want to have addressed and the city the city the city you know the community board 12 it's not their responsibility because it's a it's a it's a port authority property but but but the community board is is on the record that it's going to be supportive of the movement to reopen the park which means
they're going to be making a declaration to reopen the park, presenting it to our other elected officials, especially the ones who are state officials, like Robert Jackson and others, who might be able to move the needle because it's port authority, right? So it's not a city agency and the city really has no authority. But the state officials might be able to move the needle somehow and help out.
to get that hopefully reopened. you I don't want to get anybody's hopes up, but wouldn't it be great if by the springtime, once this horrible winter is over, we had a little pocket park where families could play and children could hang out and have good neighborhood noises of children playing. I love that.
Led Black (43:30)
I agree, I agree.
Octavio Blanco (43:31)
So, yeah,
go ahead.
Led Black (43:33)
No, so I agree. think we need to take back our public spaces, especially our green spaces. think that especially on the other side of Broadway, on the East side, when you go all the way East, like off of Amsterdam, there's a lot of beautiful parks there. But if we don't inhabit them, if we don't come into them, if we don't use them for what they're used for, they become overrun with drug addicts, right? So I do think that...
that making these places really accessible, really inviting, really incentivizing people coming to our beautiful parks, it makes, again, because drug addicts, they have a sickness, right? So they don't know what they're doing. they're caught up in that habit. So they're there, but if they see people there, if they see the place busy, and they see people enjoying themselves, a lot of times they're gonna stay away. So I think we need to...
to bring back our parks. We have great parks in this community. Growing up in Washington Heights, I don't know what it is. I think it's just part of who I am as a human being. I always liked woods, even though I grew up in the city, I always liked woods. And I would go into the woods behind George Washington and the Amsterdam, going to those woods there. I would go into the woods at Inwood Park, Fort Tryon Park. I just liked that.
So, you know, I think that especially that Highbridge Park is gorgeous. We have a bunch of beautiful parks like the Sunken Playground, know, and right off of Edgecombe. We have all these beautiful parks. think, you know, hopefully I could work with my good friend, De La Sorte, who works in park. And, you know, we've been talking about, you know, bringing some more activity there, because I think it's important, you know, and the more we take back, the better, right? Like we need to, we are at, you know, just up here, right?
We have a fight in our hands with what's happening federally but also locally. We are being overrun with heroin and drug addicts. And I think the way you fight that is with community, we're showing, we're coming out and our parks are pouring each other. Yeah, for sure.
Octavio Blanco (45:31)
Yeah. And also like unity. So it's not just here. It's in it's in El Barrio too. They're they have they're facing some of the same issues in West and East Harlem. But it's all over uptown. And unfortunately, the the the problem is, well, part of the problem is that most of these drug, you know, use and
most of these places are being just placed in our communities. Now, I'm not saying that they don't belong in our communities. I think that there's a need for them, but they don't belong just in our communities. And so I want to see a movement uptown of people who are pushing the rest of the city to take some of the burden of these drug treatment centers. It shouldn't just be uptown.
It's not like drug addiction is only happening uptown. It happens all over this city, from uptown to downtown to all over the place. So I really hope that our elected officials, our community boards from uptown can get together and push it so that other people can also open up these treatment centers in their own communities, because it's needed.
Led Black (46:43)
Yeah, I would like to know,
like, yeah, well, I wanna, I have to stop a little bit right there. I do agree they are needed elsewhere, but I don't think safe injection sites are the way, I don't think that's the way. I don't think so. I don't think so. So yeah, do the other things, all the other things, safe injection sites, I just think it needs more, it needs more. ⁓
It leads to look you need to look at it anymore. I think you're incentivizing, you know, people doing doing intravenous drugs. I'm sorry. Like I feel that although things are great. Yes. But I don't think safe injector sites. You want to have that everywhere. I just don't feel that's a good thing. You know, I'm sorry. And I don't think there's any proof that it actually works. Yeah, I don't think there's any proof that what they say is their big thing is, we prevented 500 of these. But what does that mean? How many of those oldies are repeated? And again, it's like because these people again.
Octavio Blanco (47:21)
I think that's where we kind of, well.
Led Black (47:34)
They're doing heroin with fentanyl in it. And you bring it in, how, they don't say, hey, we stop people from doing heroin. They never say that. They never say that. They say we prevent the ODs, right? They didn't say, hey, this, ⁓ Pablo is clean now. They don't say that. They never say that. They don't have those stats. So what I'm saying is, again, I just think, you
Octavio Blanco (47:43)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Why does that have be Pablo?
It's probably Jim.
Led Black (47:54)
It's Pablo, it's Jim, it's a lot of people, but again, it's something that's spreading in our community, because it's now Pablo. It's a lot of young dudes that are from our community now that sell and get addicted and they hustle to heroin acts and now they caught, I seen it around my block all the time. The young dude, he's a regular dude. I'm just selling to these fiends. I'm just making my money. Six months, a year in, now he's a fiend himself.
And again, I think that safe injection sites, yes, you need definitely harm reduction, but I think we need to be really nuanced with it. Harm reduction is one thing, but safe injection is another. And again, it was passing the dead of night without community involvement, and it seems like an experiment.
Octavio Blanco (48:36)
Yeah, I think that's where you and I kind of disagree. I do think that safe injection sites are important. And it's one of the tools in the toolbox. What I wear. we disagree on that point. The toolbox of addiction and trying to and trying to save people and trying to help people. But hold on, but hold on. It's it's
Led Black (48:48)
And what toolbox? What toolbox? I mean, I just, but why is that, but why is that the most, but why is, but why
are addicts the most important thing? I don't understand. Why are addicts the most important thing? I don't get that. Like, I remember they did this Maxillone training.
Octavio Blanco (49:01)
No, no, it's.
It's not what
you're talking about. And where I agree with you is that there's only two in the whole world or in the whole country, sorry, in the whole country. And I think you're right that there's definitely a question as to whether or not they work. I think in Portugal, they've had these and they've run into problems, but it's an open question still. What the problem I think mostly is that
Led Black (49:14)
in the whole country.
Octavio Blanco (49:31)
they're only being cited in certain neighborhoods and they're not spread widely. And then I don't know if that's ever going to happen. So maybe just maybe just because of that it's going to be a
Led Black (49:36)
What? No,
but what I'm saying to you is, find help. Get these people help, right? Help them out. Say, hey, we're gonna find you a job. We're gonna find you treatment. We're gonna do these things. But when you allow them to keep doing heroin on site, you're not really helping them because they become clients. They're your customers. You want it. This is the business model.
Right, so I'm saying safe injection is my issue. Like I'm good with everything else, needle exchange, you know, get people help. I'm cool with all that. But safe injection has not been proven yet. So you don't do something before you prove it works. do small, you know, again, this has been a disaster in Washington Heights. It's been a disaster. Again, I get harm reduction, then if in a world like ours where you don't have resources for everyone, when you put the addict before the community,
We are going to lose, I'm sorry. I remember one of the reasons, years ago, Robert Jackson did a meeting at the church on 180 First, right? And it was about heroin in the neighborhood. So I went, I wanna hear this, but it was really about Narcan and how do you save the addicts? But I'm like, how do you save the community? What about me with my children? Seeing these addicts destroyed, they come from other places, destroying and defiling my community. And that's the problem. We're not, that whole solution, it doesn't put us first, it puts the addicts first. And I think,
It can't be addict-centric, it got to community-centric. And I think, yes, you need harm reduction, more harm reduction, but safe injection hasn't been proven. You can't just roll that out. Like, it's been a disaster here. So putting it everywhere doesn't make sense to me.
Octavio Blanco (51:07)
Yeah, I think that that's the issue is like, are, when we do these tests, when we do these experiments, which is what it is, this experiment was flawed. It's flawed. It's not a good experiment because it's only in a couple of places. And those places of course are gonna attract.
Led Black (51:25)
It's a perfect experiment though.
It's a perfect, but it's a perfect experiment because what they want to do is get rid of us. So it's what I'm saying, like, and I keep saying this and it's, think is a failure of negative imagination, right? We will never, we, we, we think these things happen that there's not people behind them, right? It just happens. But again, you, de Blasio put it at the dead of night without any community involvement, right?
And it happened because we don't, never think people will get together, hey, let's make people more, you know, more dependent on drugs so we could, you know, get rid of the people that live here for, you know, like my mother that's been here in the neighborhood of 60 years, right? Let's get rid of those people because she only pays, you know, she pays less than a thousand dollars a month in rent. They're the problem. You know what mean? That's the thing is like, I don't think safe injection site, it's ever gonna be something smart. And again, it's never gonna make sense. Harm reduction, yes.
Let's try to get these people help. Let's get them off of drugs. Let's police these corridors better. But safe injection to me is not the way. It's just, it's never been proven. And again, that goes back to, we believe everything. Yeah, this is the way, that's what they tell us. But you see what this neighborhood has become in the last few years since, you know, since it's been really bad, really bad. you, again, every day in my ⁓ corner of my block, I see tons of garbage, you know, cause the drug addict goes and just does this.
Right? And then, you know, I see people defecating on, you know what mean? Like, it's not working. It's not working, dawg. Sorry. You know, it's not.
Octavio Blanco (52:54)
Yeah, I look, I also think that it was a problem, a big problem before On Point was around, or maybe, I guess, I don't know who used, there used to be sort of like an on the DL safe injection site by the Avichuela Condulce lady. There was like a building there where people could go in and it was a harm reduction site, but everybody knew that they could
Led Black (53:22)
No, it was on one of firsts.
It was on one of the firsts though. Yeah, it was on one the firsts, yeah. But again, if, but if you look at it, I remember like, go ahead, I'm sorry.
Octavio Blanco (53:24)
Was it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so what I'm so
what I'm saying is when I remember when they closed that down, the the whole neighborhood looked like zombie town much worse than than it is even now, because they didn't have anywhere to go. And so they just spilled out onto the street. It was crazy for
for a while and then, then On Point came and it, I don't know, in my view, like it created this corridor, which is unfortunately where we live. But in many respects, it also like, I mean, gave some people a place to go where they don't need to be on the street, but it doesn't, it's also, we are.
Led Black (54:09)
But we're talking about the few, we're talking about the few over the many. Have you
seen one in the first one train station at night? It's ghoulish, it's ghoulish. And I feel bad for those people. It feel really bad for the people, right? But again, the problem, you can't fix the problem of heroin by letting them have more heroin, right? Right? That makes no fucking sense, right? That just makes no sense. And that's why, and again, it was, was that.
Octavio Blanco (54:16)
Yes, it's insane. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Hahaha
I I guess, but I just don't know. just don't think
Led Black (54:37)
I'm just saying this is what...
Octavio Blanco (54:38)
we can control whether they can have heroin or not.
Led Black (54:40)
But again, but
the thing is, is, again, this is sometimes, and again, I used to consider myself a liberal, I'm not, right? But this is where liberalism fucks us up, right? Because we wanna be so permissive and so good, well, they need drugs, let's give them the drugs. This shit makes no sense. It's destroying this community, right? It's never made sense, hey, let's cure the heroin problem by letting them have access to heroin. Whoa!
But they prevented 500 ODs in a month. Okay, how much people did you save? How many people did you get off heroin? And again, you can't divorce it from the fact that it's done uptown. You can't divorce it from that. You cannot divorce it. De Blasio, who told De Blasio to do that? Who told De Blasio to do that? Why did he do it midnight? Even the deputy speaker was like, yeah, yeah, it's kind of weird. It's kind of weird. Right, so that's what I'm saying.
Octavio Blanco (55:18)
No, yeah, well, that's my main problem.
I don't know.
I don't know. Let's.
Led Black (55:34)
It has, we cannot look at our neighborhood right now, right now, and say, we want more of this. You know what we need? More safe injection sites. Let's put more, because we're liberals and we feel the heroin, but what if we feel the addicts? What about me and my children? What about my neighborhood? Like it's lose, we're losing it.
Octavio Blanco (55:43)
No, no.
No, how many, yeah, but how many, but how many,
how many are on 34th Street in Hell's Kitchen? How many are in Chelsea? How many are in SoHo? Zero, none, nothing, nada. So all those people come here. I mean, you don't think that there's like a huge addict population?
Led Black (56:04)
So then shut it down, shut it. But
you're making my point. It's a magnet. It say, hey, y'all don't wanna die, come up town. Come up town, because what we want you to do.
Octavio Blanco (56:12)
But why don't they
open one in 34th Street? Wouldn't that be like, don't come uptown, stay where you are, and do it safely down here?
Led Black (56:20)
It's called,
it's called, it's old as time, it's called environmental racism. Put it where the black and brown people are at. Let's do that.
Octavio Blanco (56:28)
Yes, I
agree with that. I know that that's what it is, but I'm saying that that's what we have to fight against and like be like, hey, you can't and that's what the the the Diana said was, well, we're not going to have them put any more up here because we've we're up to here with them. You know, we're up to here with them. So I want them I want them to make it fair and put these things in more neighborhoods that are not uptown.
Led Black (56:52)
That's
not fixing the problem. Again, we say, that didn't work uptown. Let's do it everywhere else. I'm saying get people help. Get them off of drugs. And that should be your main thing. Giving them more drugs and allow them to do drugs does not make sense. It makes cat sense. It makes no sense. And again, this is where the Republicans eat our lunch every time because these are pure liberal ideas that we think are good, but there's an ulterior motive.
Harm reduction and safe injection sites turn out to be Trojan horses for gentrification. And that's all that they are. And we can make it nice, but again, it can't be that the addict is the most important thing uptown. It just can't be. ⁓ you know, and that's it. And yeah, that's it. That's where we're at with it.
Octavio Blanco (57:35)
Yeah, no, on that point, on that point, yeah, yeah,
yeah, on that point, I'm in full agreement. do think that.
Led Black (57:42)
And then let me tell you another thing,
Like, I'm a, you know, this is going to be like, you know, my library 179th was my childhood library. One of the books that I've taken out most of my life because I can't buy the book is a book called The Opium Wars, right? And as a kid, you know, as a poor kid in Washington Heights, like I've said before, you know, my library card was my passport to the world, right? So I got into, I really got into, you know, Asia and the ninjas and samurais. would learn all, I would read all about it.
And one of the things that fascinated about history was the opium wars, right? And the opium wars really tell the story of how, you know, the Queen of England was the first big drug dealer. Like the East India Company was the world's first cartel headed by a narco cartel headed by a country, right? And what they did is basically they grew opium in India, right? And then they forced it down the throats of the Chinese.
Right. And when the Chinese try to say, we don't want your opium is destroying our country. They said, nah, you're going take this in the name of free trade and all of the West. the British were the primary beneficiaries, the West in general, America, like those, those new England blue blood families, they all the Forbes family, the Roosevelt's, they all made their money on heroin. Right. And what they did is they created a taste, a public taste for heroin. Heroin is unlike any drug ever.
ever, ever, ever. It has medicinal properties, right? Because you could use it as morphine. It's been used for medicine forever. But once you get a public taste, once people start doing that drug, it changes everything. So, besides the book, The Opium Wars, there's an author, his name is Amitav Ghosh. One of my favorite writers, he wrote a trilogy called The Opium, no, The Ibis Trilogy, right? And it was three books, you know, told years apart, They came out years apart.
I recently reread them, you know, and I reread them back to back. And then he also dropped a book that was a nonfiction book that kind of explained the trilogy. So it kind of explained what he did to learn about it, the scholarship, you know, his journey to learn about it. You know, it was a great book and it was amazing. And Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer. And he even said he didn't realize, you know, how China and India were so interlinked and he didn't really realize, you know,
the extent of the opium wars, right? And one of the things, it's interesting, right? Because he, the way he described it is like, heroin is alive. You know, that sounds crazy. It's different. It takes over its host in a different way, right? And what he's saying is, it's not supplying the man. It's the man is supply, meaning that the more heroin you have, the more addicts you will have.
Right? And if you don't check it, it's going to destroy everything because it's corrosive. Right? It's corrosive in a way that crack and all these things aren't. Crack is a quick cut. Heroin is different. I mean, I mean, kid, go up and watch the heights. I a lot of drugs. And I remember when when a heroin, a heroin addict was going to get his heroin, he starts farting. He starts losing his bowels because he needs it. He's sick. He's doped sick. It's a different thing. And what what the West did is unleash heroin on the world and has been unleashed.
Octavio Blanco (1:00:23)
Mmm.
Mmm.
Led Black (1:00:51)
and it needs a multi-prong effort. It needs everybody to come together and fight it, not encourage it. You have seen Kensington and Philly. Have you seen Philly and Kensington? It looks horrible, but there's places here that's starting to look like that. So what I'm saying is like, need to, I think we always have the argument of people that don't want, don't really care about our community. We stay in those boundaries.
Octavio Blanco (1:00:59)
Mmm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen.
Led Black (1:01:15)
Safe injection, it's good. Harm reduction. No, no, we don't want safe injections. No, stop heroin because if we don't stop it, we will end up like we will all be Kensington, right? This neighborhood, seen it with my own eyes since that safe injection site has been there and before when it was just not safe injection, I've seen the deterioration. And it wasn't this bad on Four Wise back in the days, it just wasn't, even during the crack era.
Octavio Blanco (1:01:15)
you
Mm-hmm.
Led Black (1:01:40)
You know what saying? So
it's like, again, we always limit ourselves between, and every argument, this is, we could only go here. This is where our argument goes. It's either good or no, safe injection is bad. I hate to say, I just, I know I'm so vehement. I respect your opinion, but I don't think it's, the safe injection thing is gonna work. And I don't think the answer is making more of it.
Octavio Blanco (1:01:58)
You know, you make a great point though. You make a really, really good point about the demand and supply and the way that heroin overtakes the host. it's an incredible, from what I hear, it's like the, I've heard it's like touching God, you know, that that's what they say when you use that drug. And,
the more you use it, then the more you need it. And the more you need to get to that level and you're always chasing that level of touching God. So I can see how it's not just like, okay, well, let's have a talk about, about drugs and whether drugs should be legal or not. I think that that's one of the, think that your, your, your point about
Led Black (1:02:25)
Mm-hmm.
Octavio Blanco (1:02:43)
being nuanced about it is extremely wise because it's a different thing. And especially now with fentanyl, it's like times 10, right? So it's like touching God times 10.
Led Black (1:02:53)
Yeah, yeah. And
if I may, right, like that's what Amitav Ghosh was saying. He was saying, you know, we tend to look at history as people are the agents of change, but heroin has been an agent of change. Heroin, it's a different thing, right? It's alive. And because we fucked with it and because the West decided to make a public taste for it, the West is now paying for it, right? You know what I mean? And what's interesting, like, so for example, right,
I'll give you an example. So you had the mighty, the mighty Chinese civilization, right? That goes back millennia, millennia. And it was brought down low. In 1917, there was more opium addicts in China than there is in the world now. Right? That's how bad it was. Right. And then again, I'm not, I'm not saying I'm pro Mao. I'm not saying that, but Mao comes to power. Right. And Mao even had like the Empress.
Octavio Blanco (1:03:29)
Yeah.
Led Black (1:03:47)
Like in the cage, that movie, I forgot the name of that movie from the 80s about China. I think the last emperor or whatever. Yeah. They show her in the middle. Like she's a short, like this drug addict in the middle. So people will come see. Right. And the way, the way Mao did it. And again, I'm not saying this the way to do it. I'm just saying the way Mao did it. Mao gave you excellent rehab one time. Second time they were executed. Right. I'm not saying that's what should be done. I'm saying that's what happened. And that's the reason China is China now, not the sick man of Asia.
Octavio Blanco (1:03:53)
Last Emperor, I think that's the one.
Led Black (1:04:16)
because that's what it was. It was being picked apart by everybody else. An ancient civilization that spans millennia, right? That gave the world pasta, know, silk, you know, so much beauty, so much art, language, culture, so many things was brought down low by heroin. But look how crazy this is, right? This shows you how things are, right? So you had China brought down low by heroin, right? Those Chinese people went around the world, around the world.
Octavio Blanco (1:04:32)
Money!
Led Black (1:04:44)
And one of the places they came to was California, right? And they brought their opium with them, right? And what happens, they use those Chinese people to build the railroads, right? And once the railroads are built, they kick them out. And some of those Chinese people were sent to Mexico to Sinaloa right? It was interesting. They brought with them the black tar heroin that's now coming back into America. You see what saying? Once you let loose, heroin is unpredictable. And these kind of...
Octavio Blanco (1:04:49)
Mm-hmm.
Led Black (1:05:12)
half-ass attempts, safe injection. It's only gonna make the problem worse. And we see it right now outside of these windows. Our community is getting worse. We have to wake up. Safe injection site. Who wants safe injection? And why is it only here? That's what saying. We have to look at what's really happening, not be this like, oh, pie in the sky shit, because that doesn't work. We're losing. And again, when you said about...
about God, right? I remember one time, because I'm always watching, I'm always driving, I'm always looking. I remember walking behind this dude, young guy, not even 30, he's high as balls, just walking down the street like, just like, he's high as balls, right? And another dude who's older, who's also an addict, right? But he dives between selling and buying and doing, he goes, he do, tu ta electrico. He's like, what are you doing? You seem electric. He goes, I'm in the house of God, right?
That's how euphoric of a feeling it is, right? And as this Trump regime tends to take away more and more, we're gonna have more issues. The poverty is gonna get worse. So it's like, if we continue enabling these safe injecting sites, we will lose. Heroin is not the game to play. It is not crack, it is not cocaine, it is not meth. Heroin is different. It's a different beast. And like you said, when you supercharge that beast with fentanyl, right?
Right. And again, let's not forget that fentanyl, right. And the current Heroin Addiction is by the Sackler family, right. They made billions of a creating oxycontin, right. And all these things like this is where we at. Like our capitalism is predatory and is attacking us. And it is always use drugs against people. Always. The Queen of England started that trend and it continues to this day. Now, another thing is, right. You think about this. You had a war in Afghanistan.
And then you had the heroin epidemic. Wow, that's interesting. Wow. Okay. So you, go and you invade and occupy the country where a lot of good chunk of the heroin comes from. ⁓ that's interesting. Now you have a heroin epidemic. You know what saying? Like, I think we really need to, drugs are not just drugs. It's just not recreation. It's not just addiction. It is a tool of control.
Octavio Blanco (1:07:01)
Mm-hmm.
Wow, let bro you just ⁓ you just drop knowledge I gotta tell you No, no, man. Look, this is what This is what we're this is why you're here. This is why I I'm so happy that that you're here I think you know the the issue is Historic complex
Led Black (1:07:24)
I'm sorry, I get crazy with this shit,
Octavio Blanco (1:07:40)
It goes way beyond our windows. I agree with you that the addict centric solutions that ignore the community are a huge problem and possibly, you know, like you say, a Trojan horse for gentrification. And let's be clear what that means. That means creating an environment that is so untenable in the community that the community leaves so that eventually
in 10, whatever many years that can be taken over by others who want, who are looking for those apartments and for that housing. it's a hugely complex issue. We're not gonna solve it tonight, but it's definitely something that we are grappling with in our, in front of our doors every day. I see it every day. I'm not happy about it. And it's true. It's gotta be treated with nuance.
And the fact that it's heroin is a different animal than crack or even cocaine or marijuana or whatever you want to call it. It's a completely, it's a different animal and it devastates lives and it devastates and it devastates families. And even the city council member, the deputy speaker Ayala, she lost her brother to.
Led Black (1:08:39)
Hmm?
Octavio Blanco (1:09:02)
to that disease. And so, you know, we can't, we can't overlook just like the disastrous consequences that, that, that work that they have. it's, and it's part of what you were talking about, about we're over the cliff and we're not looking down. You know, we have to, we have to look down and it's not fun. It's a scary, it's a scary thing to do, but ⁓ you made some really, really good points there. Thank you. Thank you. Yo.
Led Black (1:09:25)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And again, I want to get positive
again. Let's get positive because you gave me my heroin back.
Octavio Blanco (1:09:28)
Yeah, let's get positive.
Let's bring it back to music, right? Because last episode, you teased us. You teased us. I want to know, what is your number one album of the year? You just brought it up, and then you're like, no, but I can't talk about it now.
Led Black (1:09:37)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. I did, I did.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'm not ready to disclose yet. Should I just say it? All right, let's go, let's do it.
Octavio Blanco (1:09:51)
What? Are you, I mean, are
you, it's up to you. I don't know. To me, it sounded like you were ready.
Led Black (1:09:58)
I'm ready, you know what mean? So it's my album of the year for 2025. It's Exile by Chronixx. It's just to me like a perfect album. I've been a Chronixx fan for a long time. A few years ago, Chronixx is a reggae artist from Jamaica, Spanistown, Jamaica. But he's like a throwback. I wanna say it's it's roots reggae.
Octavio Blanco (1:10:12)
Okay, is, what is Chronixx? What is?
Led Black (1:10:23)
but it's Neo Roots reggae, right? He's just a, yeah, he's a dope artist, you know, because he reminds me like early 90s, early eight, like late eighties kind of reggae dance hall music. He has a gorgeous voice and he just, just one of these artists that knows how to bring it. His last album was Chronology and I played that nonstop. Like I have a thing that when I like something, I listen to it over and over. I drive my people, my family crazy.
Octavio Blanco (1:10:25)
Okay, I think I like this.
Yeah, yeah.
Led Black (1:10:50)
Like, cause I have to listen to it.
No, it's, really sick, right? Like when, with Chronology came out, all the albums like it, like AM by the Arctic Monkeys, you know, albums like that. I have to listen to it over and over again. And then when I stopped listening to it, everything else don't sound right to me. You know what mean? So it's like, it's like a really like a fixation that I have. And Chronology, his last album was that for me. And it's funny because before Chronology dropped, Chronixx dropped like a mixtape before the Chronology album.
And the mix tape was just so amazing. And let me go back a little, right? Because, you know, like I said, my dad was an audiophile. So he was this poor working factory worker, but somehow, you know, he was always saving his little pennies to buy the best stereo equipment, right? And then I would get his hand me down. So for most of my youth, you know, I had like a big boom box on my bed. And when I was wanting to listen to hip hop, hip hop wasn't on the radio. So when I would put WNWK, which is 105.9, it was Gil Bailey.
And Gil Bailey is like an old school reggae DJ who was putting reggae every night. You know what saying? So I got into reggae dance hall in the late eighties. You know what mean? I didn't know Jamaican people per se, but I just loved the music and I loved what they were doing with it. So-
Octavio Blanco (1:12:00)
Yeah, it's great
music. I love it too. I love reggae. I love dance hall. I love roots.
Led Black (1:12:03)
Yeah, and like,
yeah, me too, I love roots music and my brother had bought the Bob Marley album like in the early eighties, but I didn't really pay attention to it. And you know, sometimes when we would go to, I don't know if there was a thing called Anthony Wayne is like a public park like in upstate and I would go with my family and we would be playing, I'm at Angan and the Jamaicans would be playing their music. And I always kind of liked the music, but then as I started listening every night.
I really got into the music and Chronixx to me makes me feel like a little kid again. Like in a sense, listening to that music is a beautiful album. mean, like every, like there was two songs that at first I was like, ⁓ and now I love them too. You know, it's just full of positive, good music. It's a great way for me to get the year started, right? Like I really thank God for Chronixx and for that album, Exile. Exile is the first song on it and it's really dope. It's funny because he had a song.
Octavio Blanco (1:12:44)
All right.
Led Black (1:12:55)
last year and I think it was called Never Give Up and I heard it and was the first song off this album was like an early single before I knew this album was coming out and I loved it. I loved the sound on it and the sound like I said is super distinctive, it's super old but new, you know what saying? Like classic and timeless and really like, you know, important.
Octavio Blanco (1:13:16)
How did you get put onto it? How did you get put onto Chronixx? Like where,
Led Black (1:13:19)
So like again,
I heard the mixtape somewhere, you know what I mean? And I was like, what's this? It's dope. And then I digged, I started digging, you know what I mean? And I was like, this is dope. And then, then Cronology came out. And like I said, Cronology is an interesting album because it's him, but it's also very like, it's reaching different, it goes every different place. Some of it is slightly kind of like rockish pop a little bit, you know, had a lot of different things on it. And then Exile comes along and Exile is just, it's a whole vibe from beginning to end.
Like the second song is called A Market and it just got like that super cat like kind of flow kind of style, you know what mean? And then he has so much other songs that are amazing. There's a song on it called Resilient, right? And what makes this resilient amazing is that basically it's him on a guitar, right? Just singing, right? And then it starts off very simple, simple talking about, you know, that him and his significant other, they're resilient and God's love, you know,
Like a lot of reggae roots music is very spiritual. It's very much about togetherness and love and God. And I love all that stuff. I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual in that sense. So I love the album. But what makes it, as a song progresses, it starts going to, it's just all the percussion is people clapping or foot stomping. the chorus that he has, the people singing just eat up the record. mean, there's so many good songs. This song called Scheming.
Right? And it's talking about people that scheme. Right? And it's funny because now I'm 15 years in with this Uptown Collective, right? And I've gone through my series of schemers and haters, right? And that's who they are. That's what they do. They can't do any better, right? But it's funny. He has lines in that he goes, they will laugh at your vision, then tell you not to dream.
Octavio Blanco (1:14:48)
Hahaha
Ha ha ha ha!
Led Black (1:15:07)
You know what saying? I've had that in my life, right? When they're laughing, you're like, I believe this. I'm like, that's bullshit. That's crazy. And they're trying to tell you, don't dream. Don't think bigger than that. So there's so many records. They're just outstanding music. Yeah, it's Exile. You have to check that album out. It's 17 cuts. I think 17 cuts is a lot of songs. know, sometimes a lot of songs don't work. I like Drake. I Drake me putting like 30 songs in it, like eight are good. But for me,
Octavio Blanco (1:15:09)
Yeah, yeah.
That's dope. That's dope.
Led Black (1:15:33)
from one song to the next, like I said, there was two other soft songs that like, they had Hurricane and Genesis. At first, didn't, those were songs that would skip. And now I'm like, I don't even skip those. So I listened to the album through and through and back and back and back. It's a straight perpetual rotation, you know what mean? I love Exile by Chronixx It is my album of the year. It would have been the clips, but you know, Chronixx eclipsed the clips, you know what I mean? So.
It's the album, it's my album of year. I know my daughter Imani was, you she pushed that Cliffs album really hard and then she forced me listen to it. But, it's a great album and it would have been my album of the year, but it got to go to Chronixx and Exile. Shout out to Chronixx. I can't wait for the tour and the vinyl comes out in January. So I can't wait to bring the vinyl home and throw it on the turntables for real. So Exile by Chronixx, album of the year, Left Black. Yes, sir.
Octavio Blanco (1:15:58)
Yeah.
wow, all right, all right. Well, I don't know if I have an album of the year. I'll have to think about it because I listen to a lot of music. I've been listening to music on like, you know, Google music streaming and it just is like one song after another. And I just, it's like all over the place. I don't really listen. I haven't really like sat down and like listen to albums. I should do that. I used to, I used to love the record store. I used to go to the record store and I would get onto all the new.
Led Black (1:16:35)
Hmm?
Mm-hmm.
Me too.
Octavio Blanco (1:16:52)
and I would listen to albums. That's how I would listen to music. And I miss that. I miss listening to albums and I miss the record store. Do you miss the record store?
Led Black (1:17:00)
for sure. I definitely miss the record store. You know what's interesting that Rock and Soul used to be my childhood record store back on on 34th, 36th I think it was, but they're still open. They just moved like really close by. But yeah, I miss the record store. I miss that's why I'm like with the vinyls to me is a throwback. You know, my dad passed two years ago, gonna be three years in this coming July. like records to me and listening to music and putting it loud and saying, I'm gonna listen to my music. That me reminds me of my dad. So I'm really like,
Octavio Blanco (1:17:03)
I have the record store.
Led Black (1:17:29)
You know, like again, and having that album to look at, I think is really good. So I can't wait to get that, that, that, vinyl, you know what mean? For real.
Octavio Blanco (1:17:36)
So
that's my resolution. That is my resolution for 2026. There's a lot of big things that we're gonna do. But my resolution is I'm gonna listen to albums and I'm gonna select my favorite album of the year too so that next year when we're right here doing this, I'll be able to tell you what my favorite album. I've been all over the place with my listening, but I haven't really listened to albums. But next year,
Led Black (1:17:41)
right.
Octavio Blanco (1:18:02)
That's what I'm gonna do. And I'm gonna go to the record store. I'm gonna go to the record store and I'm gonna make that, cause I miss that. I miss that. That was like a meditation for me. And they were always playing something that I had never heard before. And I'd be like, what is this? And they would tell me, I would find it, I'd buy it, I'd bring it home. And I'd listen to it until the needle broke. look, what's your resolution? What's, yeah, okay.
Led Black (1:18:03)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But hold up, before I tell you my resolution,
I want to shout out Clippers and Cappies, Clippers and Cappies, where Cappies were like old school record stores uptown. You know, I bought Biz Markie, Make the Music with Your Mouth Biz. And I also bought, I think I bought that in Clippers and then at Cappies, yeah, I bought them the first KRS Booking Down Productions album, you know what mean? Criminal Minded, I bought that uptown. So you're right, like it's something about
Octavio Blanco (1:18:39)
Make the music with your mouthers.
Yeah
Led Black (1:18:49)
Copping that, you know, all those albums with my childhood, you know, and record store super important, man. But my New Year's resolution, for real, my New Year's resolution for 2026 is, you know, to continue with this podcast, to keep growing it, right? I think this has been very promising. And, you know, I also want to continue to amplify, continue to do what I'm doing in terms of, you know, just being...
Octavio Blanco (1:18:56)
Bring back the record store.
Led Black (1:19:16)
being steadfast with community, know, steadfast and getting the word out, steadfast and helping to shine a light on people that I rock with, you know what mean? I also wanna, I'm working on something with two of my sisters, you know, not my actual sisters, but my sisters. And we're gonna talk more about that. Yeah, exactly, you know, we got a little project. We were doing smoke signals before.
Octavio Blanco (1:19:28)
Yeah.
Sisters from another mister.
Led Black (1:19:39)
So we're going to do more of that soon coming year. I want to do more in uptown in terms of doing like events, live events, you know? And I also, I want to put out music this coming year. I want to put out some of my music. I'm going get back into making music. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. And then I also want to do a Moth I want to do another Moth. Yeah. Yeah.
Octavio Blanco (1:19:47)
Yes.
Yeah! Yeah! Yo!
All right. All right. All
right. I love it. I love it. That's those are great, great aspirations. Those are great resolutions. And we didn't get to your your New Year's rituals. I gotta I gotta start to to wind down here because I smell dinner and I'm really hungry. did not. All right. Tell me after you did it. Yes, sir. YouTube to your family. Spread love and happy.
Led Black (1:20:06)
for sure.
Yeah, yeah, time to go. Yeah, we'll do it another time. I'll tell you after I did it. All right, brother, tell everyone to say hello. Spread love, it's the uptime way.
Octavio Blanco (1:20:28)
Happy New Year everybody, you know, let's let's let's make it. Let's make 26. Let's let's do it is the answer. All right.
Led Black (1:20:29)
Happy New Year everybody, for real. Let's bring it in, community is the answer, for real. Let's do it. Yes, sir.