Uptown Voices

In this episode of Uptown Voices, Led and Octavio discuss a range of topics including current events, political dynamics, community issues, and the influence of hip-hop culture. They reflect on personal experiences, the importance of activism, and the power of people to effect change in their communities. 

The conversation emphasizes the need for solidarity among marginalized groups and the role of art and culture in social movements. The hosts also share insights on finding one's voice and identity in a complex world, concluding with a call to action for listeners to engage in the political process and support their communities.

Takeaways
The political landscape is shifting, and new leaders are emerging.
Community activism is essential for social change.
Hip-hop culture plays a significant role in shaping identity and resistance.
Finding one's voice is a journey that requires introspection and courage.
Solidarity among marginalized groups is crucial for empowerment.
The current political climate demands active participation from citizens.
Art and culture can be powerful tools for liberation and social justice.
Personal experiences shape our understanding of community and activism.
The importance of grassroots movements in challenging the status quo.
Change is possible when people unite for a common cause.


Titles
Navigating the Political Landscape

Sound bites
"The Mamdani tsunami is coming!"
"I want accomplices, not allies."
"Spread love is the uptown way."


Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Current Mood
02:57 Reflections on Local Crime and Safety
06:00 Political Landscape and Disillusionment
09:02 Community Engagement and Political Activism
11:55 The Role of People Power
14:51 ICE Raids and Community Response
17:55 Solidarity and Activism
20:56 Personal Reflections and Finding Voice
24:37 Finding Your Voice
30:28 The Impact of Hip-Hop
45:36 The Future of Activism and Community Engagement

Creators and Guests

Host
Led Black
Host
Octavio Blanco

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)
now the true Cuomo is coming out and it's ugly, right? And it's disgusting.

And now the anti-Muslim attacks, right? He just did one where he was like, you know, with Sid Rosenberg and it was straight disgusting Islamophobia,

Octavio Blanco (00:14)
what we're seeing now is the true Cuomo the full picture of Cuomo and I agree with you that that 9-eleven comment that he was laughing ⁓ about where you know they were saying that Mamdami will be cheering on 9-eleven it was

Led Black (00:17)
It's a true coma.

Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (00:30)
It was just disgusting. wasn't just ugly. It was hateful. It was hateful. It was hateful demagoguery and and and dangerous dangerous because because you know people already don't like ⁓ Muslims. They don't like brown people and when you say that kind of thing, you know, it just makes it okay for people who are already pissed off to to do horrible things. I'm just like

Led Black (00:34)
It was super hateful, super duper hateful.

Yeah.

It's disgusting, it's disgusting.

Octavio Blanco (00:58)
Yeah, it was

Led Black (01:11)
What up everyone, it's LeBlaq of the Uptown Collective and I'm here with my brother Octavio Blanco for another Uptown Voices, AKA Black and Blanco. No guests, just me and my brother. But before we go any further, I have to implore you to make sure you subscribe. You know, it helps the numbers out, helps the look. It's a good look for us. You know, we're now, the podcast is now percolating, you know, so keep showing that love and subscribe. So make sure you do that. Octavio, what's up, brother? How you doing, man?

Octavio Blanco (01:41)
Yeah, man, I'm okay. Like I was saying to you, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, but I'm glad to be here. ⁓ Things in this country are driving me crazy. Things on the block are driving me crazy. I woke up, I came out, did some exercise with my wife and then came home.

and I found that two of the cars that were right in front of our apartment building got broken into, like they smashed the windows ⁓ and went in and grabbed stuff. ⁓ So, you know, that's not good. That's not good when you see that happen. It got me feeling a kind of way. So I know you drive, so, you know, be careful, you know, where you park, guess. New York City, so you gotta park everywhere. you know, everything being everything.

It's all good though, you know, like I got my health, you know, I got my family. It's a beautiful day. It's got that full crisp weather. I'm good. What about you? How are you doing? I mean, you see me good. ⁓

Led Black (02:31)
Yeah, yeah, It is a beautiful day.

Well, I was in a good mood until you messed up my mood. No, I'm just playing. But it's

so funny that because I feel like most times I'm pretty upbeat. But when you talking about the two cars getting smashed, that's down the block for me, right? And I've had my car stolen. I've gotten my mirrors stolen. I got my lights by your block. Cause your block, we're not going to specify, you know what mean? But your block is a weird block because it's one of those back blocks, right?

Octavio Blanco (02:54)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's quiet.

Led Black (03:08)
It's quiet, but it's dangerous. Especially, it's so funny because one side of your block, it's a okay place to park and the other place isn't. And that little L you have there is just, ⁓ and I try not to park there, you know? And that's the thing, I drive and I drive every day. So most of my life is parking and driving, you know what mean? So when you tell me that, you know, like I have, like, you know, it's funny, like you see on people on social have like a, a skincare routine, right? I got like a anti-theft routine, right? You know what mean? I got the old school club on my shit, like, you know what I mean?

Octavio Blanco (03:19)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.

Led Black (03:38)
So got the club and then I got the two little sleeves for the side view mirrors like and I got to put locks on it. You know, it's a lot of stuff man. you know, like so I have a Honda CRV right? 2023 that is one of the most popular stolen cars, you know, in America right now. And ⁓ someone found it out online how to do it and it's just really easy to steal. You know what mean? So I got mine stealing for nine days and when they found it in the Bronx and a lot like nine other CRVs, you know what I mean? So luckily I got it back. So that kind of pisses me off man. But I want to say,

I am right now, like I came up with a term this morning, so I'ma share with you in the world. Like I feel like I have a front row seat to this upcoming Mamdani tsunami, you know what mean? Like the Mamdani tsunami is coming, you know what I'm saying? That tsunami is gonna clear out the Cuomo's, the Adams, like now they're step brothers, see them together now. Seven months ago they were talking shit, he's a snake, he's a rat. Yeah, now we're brothers.

Octavio Blanco (04:23)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

yeah, yeah, he's a snake, he's a snake, he's a rat, and now they're like,

we're at the, at the, courtside at the freaking Knicks game. Yeah, bull, it's such.

Led Black (04:38)
at the next after the debate, right? Like it was such bullshit. Like it's just such nonsense,

just bullshit.

Octavio Blanco (04:43)
You know, it

reminded me of like what you were talking about Obama and I think it was in our last episode. You were saying, you know, you were pissed to how like, you know, after everything they were so, you know, lovey-dovey with George Bush who they thought was and the whole thing is like politicians like, you know, they, they say all kinds of shit, you know.

Led Black (04:50)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Octavio Blanco (05:04)
to get elected and then once they're elected, ⁓ know, everything or once their one drops out, then they're best friends again. I found that to be so disingenuous.

The fact that Adams ⁓ backed Cuomo, I thought was like great because you know if you're for Adams, you know like you got a screw loose and if you're for Cuomo, you're also, you deserve to be with each other. So you know, I don't think that that endorsement helped a lot.

Led Black (05:26)
Yeah.

It doesn't, but what's weird about it, right, it's like, I don't know, the movie Step Brothers, that's what it made me think of, the movie with Will Ferrell, know, Step Brothers, that's the two Step Brothers, Like, remember the point where they go, are we best friends now? Like, that's what it feels like, you know what mean? But what's weird though, like, and I'll say this, one of the things that I'm very, like, disgusted by Cuomo, like, you know, so funny, ⁓

Octavio Blanco (05:40)
I love that movie. I watch it every time. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Led Black (05:57)
And I'm going to put my big daughter, my oldest daughter like on blast because she's not going to me to say this, but during the pandemic, she used to refer to Cuomo as the homie, right? Because Cuomo during the pandemic was like that reassuring voice, right? When Trump was saying wild shit. But it turned out that he wasn't that person. was put on a, you know, like what we thought we saw wasn't it. And now the true Cuomo is coming out and it's ugly, right? And it's disgusting.

Octavio Blanco (06:12)
Yeah.

Led Black (06:27)
And now the anti-Muslim attacks, right? He just did one where he was like, you know, with Sid Rosenberg and it was straight disgusting Islamophobia,

you know? And again, you got a million New Yorkers that are Muslim dumbass. you know, to me, it's like how depraved, you know, again, and also the ruling classes also feel that they could dictate to us who's going to rule us. Like, nah, hold on. No, that's not what's happening.

Octavio Blanco (06:51)
But you know,

yeah, and another thing is that it just goes to show how out of touch Cuomo is with the city of New York, right? So Cuomo, he was the governor. I mean, he got booted out of there, right? But he was the governor. So.

What we saw from Cuomo in New York was curated for us in New York City, right? But what Cuomo delivered probably to the people upstate, the more conservative counties upstate, I bet you was very different from what we were hearing from Cuomo here in New York City. And the fact that our media is so ⁓ sectionalized, so the New York City,

media isn't really listening to what Cuomo says up in like Syracuse or whatever. So like I just think it just came out right it just comes out because Cuomo isn't what he says he's what he says he is what we're seeing now is the true Cuomo the full picture of Cuomo and I agree with you that that 9-eleven comment that he was laughing ⁓ about where you know they were saying that Mamdami will be cheering on 9-eleven it was

Led Black (07:56)
It's a true coma.

Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (08:09)
It was just disgusting. wasn't just ugly. It was hateful. It was hateful. It was hateful demagoguery and and and dangerous

Led Black (08:13)
It was super hateful, super duper hateful.

Zoran put out like a six minute. ⁓

clip about it, you know, it was just him speaking to the camera and it was it was really a beautiful statement, you know, saying that like talk about the Indignities that the Muslim community has to suffer here, you know, especially after 9-eleven and and and the nonsense they have to go through every day and the insults, know, the the the the really the truly heinous nonsense the passive aggressive stuff that Muslims in the city have to do it in this country and he talked about like coming out of the shadows and you know being themselves and being and and again, that's beautiful

You know, think that's one of the you know, again, like I had a lot of these Zoroastrian rallies It's beautiful to see like working-class New York, know working-class Muslim working-class, you know people of color coming out supporting supporting this man So that's one thing that I'm hopeful for like I feel like

Octavio Blanco (09:05)
Yeah.

Led Black (09:05)
You know, I'm all in for Zoran, you know what mean? And luckily I've been able to like find my way into certain things. It's been pretty cool. During the second debate, I actually got to ride on the bus with Zoran, you know what mean? And that was an interesting experience. I'm not really know how much I can share, but I'm gonna say this, that we got on a regular bus in Queens.

I don't know Queens that much. know, gotta really be down for Zora if I'm going to Queens, right? You know what It's not a Mets game or something. You know what I'm saying? I'm from uptown. I don't go outside my... But, you know, so I went and we got on the bus with them in Queens Plaza South. That's where we met, somewhere around there. 28th Street, I think. And then we took the bus to the debate, which is really cool.

Octavio Blanco (09:33)
Yeah.

28th street,

28th avenue, 28th road. never... It's Queens and they're all intersecting.

Led Black (09:50)
Yeah, 28th Road, 28th Lane, like what? You know what mean? Queens is super straight.

I love the food in Queens, but it's just like weird trying to stand the topography. You know what I mean? ⁓

Octavio Blanco (10:04)
I mean, yeah, my

wife's from Queens, so I can't really like, you know, talk.

Led Black (10:09)
The whole world's from Queens.

Queens is awesome. I just feel, when I drive there, it's confusing. know what mean? Yeah, it have to be. You know what mean? Which one? 29th Street or is it Road or Avenue? mean? But...

Octavio Blanco (10:13)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. It is. Even for people from Queens, I think.

So anyway,

you were saying you met him and you got on the bus.

Led Black (10:27)
So we

got in the bus with him, right? And so it was a a regular bus. It was a regular bus doing his route. There were other people, they were like, what is happening? And then there was like, what was sad was kind of wacky was one lady kind of like just hating, you know what I She was Latina and then, know.

Octavio Blanco (10:29)
And it was a regular degular bus. just like, you know, like, were there other people on there that were like, what the hell is going on here? ⁓

Led Black (10:47)
She was just like, as soon as she came in, she started talking shit, like really ugly, you know, stuff, you know, and really divisive nonsense. But, you know, it's part of the cult, you know what mean? and, you know, so, you know, no one really took it serious, but it's ugly. And it was like, for, like, again, one thing I keep going back to is for people of color to hate on other people of color, right? For people of color to say things about another group that were once said about you or still said about you and are going to be said about you is so ugly. Like the, the, the, the,

need to like note not show solidarity among like

people, minorities, it's crazy to me. I can't understand it. You know, and the lady was saying like, God bless Trump, all types of nonsense, trying to reign on another people being like, just happy with their candidate. Cause that's what I like. I feel like that, you know, is the one glimmer, you know what I mean? In politics is this movement that's being created. And again, it's about him, but it's also about us, right? That we do have power. And if New York can create an alternative, if New York, we already, New York is New York, New York is to my opinion, the greatest city.

ever ever you know I mean but if we could change the trajectory of the city and change what it means because we can right we there's a lot of working working people in this in this in the city they can't afford to live in this city and they love this city so we could change the trajectory is like we need to become the new rulers of the city you know I mean we need to change that old guard you know and put a new guard in and it needs to be us so I'm excited

Octavio Blanco (12:07)
Yeah.

I

You know what you're saying is so important. think that I was thinking about this just before we got on You know regular New Yorkers have a lot of power We have a lot of political power and we have a lot of economic power You know, we can use that if it can get channeled in the right direction You know, it's not just the billionaire class the billionaire class though They have a lot of money and they have a lot of power and they're Exerting it Bill Ackman is spending millions and millions of dollars to try to get ⁓

Led Black (12:27)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (12:42)
⁓

You know people out of the race or to have to combat Mamdani and I don't think that it's actually working Mamdani said it he said He's spending more to keep me out of the race than I would ever tax him which is so telling like Mamdani Yeah, he's gonna tax the billionaire class, but they're

There's more to it than that. The billionaire class doesn't want the working class to feel their power. It doesn't want the people to understand their ⁓ strength and doesn't want the people to know that if organized they can, ⁓ you know, make a real change. They can get involved. So, you know, this is like a real interesting time. I pray.

Led Black (13:11)
Right, right, right.

Right.

Facts. Right.

Octavio Blanco (13:34)
that Mamdani does what he's saying he's going to do or at least gives it a good try. I hope that he doesn't fall.

you know, to the Obama ⁓ example, which was say a lot and then ⁓ when the rubber hits the road, you don't fight or you get outflanked because you don't stick to your convictions, which is, think what happened to Obama. think Obama thought he was, Obama's a smart guy, right? He's smart, but I think he thought he was smarter than a lot of people. And I think he got, ⁓ you know,

painted into a corner and outflanked by people who Stick to their convictions and I think Obama was like you say too nice and the time for being nice is over ⁓ But I don't know what that means. Like what does it mean that the time for being nice is over? Like what what does that mean to you?

Led Black (14:30)
⁓ it's, it's, it's let the decapitations begin, right? You know, like within, within, right? You know, we need to, we need to consolidate. this, well, Mamdani shows is that we don't have to, we don't have to listen to the Democratic party elite, right? Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries endorsed him literally yesterday. Yesterday. by the way, hold on. We're really, we're kind of fucking up right now because today,

Octavio Blanco (14:53)
Yeah.

Led Black (15:00)
is what? October 25th and that is the beginning of early voting.

Octavio Blanco (15:01)
Today, 25th, and it is of early

voting. I'm gonna go vote.

Led Black (15:09)
Yeah, so we messin' up. It's early voting time. I don't like to vote until the day of. That's just me, because I like to vote with the people. I like to be in there and catch the vibe. ⁓ My voting place is very, very Dominican, right? So it's fun. There's always a little scene outside where the different candidates, maybe not this election, but the candidates usually compete for each other and they play Merengue and stuff. So it's fun and I enjoy that. But open voting has...

Octavio Blanco (15:27)
Yeah.

That's cool.

Led Black (15:39)
voting has begun, make sure you get out there. And again, you're right. Like the elite is not about losing an election, it's about losing power. And they're so definitely afraid of it, right? Because once we do the change, right, from their running things to the people, right? Again, and it's funny, people like talk like, it's so much hate that you get. Communists, know, socialists, people so easily triggered by words, right? But they don't look at like,

what things are happening like, so for example, know, I wanna go back to the people power thing. I don't know like, know, ICE was in the city this week. So this past Tuesday, ICE was down in Canal Street, right? ⁓ Right. Every day, every day.

Octavio Blanco (16:12)
Mm-hmm.

Well, they're in the city every, just, I just want to say this. They're in the city every day in our communities. Every day in our communities.

It just happened that they went to Canal Street and did something very, very public and the people there, it was fantastic. I'm not taking it away. I just wanted to just make sure.

Led Black (16:27)
But it was right. was a,

yeah. But it's also like to your point, it's also a staged operation, right? It was big optics that had their little like ⁓ urban tanks.

for lack of a better term, right? And they had notified, I think, Newsmax that they were gonna do it, so people were there already to kind of stage this thing, right? And what's interesting, I don't know if you saw this, but according to what I've seen on social media, there was ⁓ an influencer who I think was Latina. She might have been Filipina, but I think she was Latina. And she came, I guess she's apparently not from New York, and she was down at Canal.

And she was seeing how many people selling counterfeit things and she kept saying, they're Africans. I think they're from Senegal. And then within a day or two, the raids happened. there are thoughts that this might have triggered it, which is crazy that some right-wing social media influencer is going to trigger something. But that's the world we live in now, right? But what's interesting is

Octavio Blanco (17:27)
No, no, but it's

it's so true because I mean, I don't want to take you away from your for your discussion, but like we live in that world where like if you're a Canadian ⁓ state and you make an ad showing how tariffs are going to be hurtful that the president says, okay, well, I'm done discussing tariffs with the whole country. And it's like, it's not like the whole country made that ad. It was like Ontario or something. Anyway.

Led Black (17:39)
All right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But not only that, he

announces it on social on on lie social. You know what mean? Not true social lie social. Yeah. Yeah. I got I got that from the I had it podcast. Shout out to them. They're amazing. But, you know, back back to my point, right? Like that, I forgot what my point was, actually. What was I saying?

Octavio Blanco (17:55)
Yeah, like social.

We were talking about how, you know, there was very public and it was on Canal Street and then the people power.

Led Black (18:11)
yeah, but but

the people power, right? So what's interesting about that, there was a homegirl coming from work. She was in a dress business casual with flats and a polka dot dress. And she was like, she was throwing the middle finger to the little tank and she's pushing people around, right? And that's what's needed, right? And you know, that thing that I find interesting, like almost every ice thing I've seen, there's always a few people of color, like men, either black or brown men or Dominican, and they're usually jacked up and they're just being jerks. And then there's a bunch of like,

Octavio Blanco (18:20)
I love her. I love her.

Led Black (18:43)
out

of shape, like just rednecks. And it just feels like it's like non-soldiers cosplaying. Like they just took the worst of the worst and then they're putting them in our streets, right? Like I've seen so many scenes across the country where like they are so unprofessional, so untrained and that these tactics they're using are gonna backfire, right? That you're gonna grab the wrong person at the wrong time and this could end up ensuing into harm. But I think that's what they want.

Right? want ⁓ a reaction so they could...

Octavio Blanco (19:11)
Absolutely, that's what they want.

We need

to be careful. We need to be very careful in how we react. I am all for the way that New Yorkers reacted ⁓ to ICE on Canal Street, but it was very much on the edge, right? It was on the edge of what you should be doing because you don't want to be violent towards ICE. don't want to like, you know, because anything that can happen can push it to the point where the president then decides to invoke martial law, which is what he wants.

Led Black (19:42)
But I think,

but the thing is that's the beauty of this, right? The beauty of this is that you really can't beat people power, right? Because we can all have our phones, we can all record what's happening. So we can always have a counterbalance to whatever they say. So what I'm saying is like, you're right, to the edge, but to the edge, we must go, right? We have to go to the edge, you know what mean? Like, let's be honest. Like, you know, they came out in force.

Octavio Blanco (20:02)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Led Black (20:10)
And it was just regular people. was kids. was everybody that said, nah, you're not doing this here. And they look shook. They look shook. And again, this is what we must do right now. I saw a story where it was Hexef talking about that by spring of next year, they're going to have like special National Guard troops ready to quell urban disturbances. They're ready to go. That seems like, so you're ready for the election. Like what I'm saying is that

Octavio Blanco (20:17)
Yeah. Yeah.

Led Black (20:38)
It's now or never, like every day it's coalescing, it's hardening, it's coalescing more. The dictatorship is just, taking, we're the beginning of this dictatorship and it's taking form and it's taking shape and it's calcifying. And every day, like, you know, with the whole Doge thing at the beginning thing where they went into every government, that was about taking data and putting it in there taking that data and making it theirs, using that data for whatever they want. They have all our data, right? We're like,

Octavio Blanco (20:49)
Yeah.

Led Black (21:08)
This is where it must be. Again, no violence because violence is not going to help. Chris Hedges, who I'm a big, I love Chris Hedges, he always says like violence is not going to help you in lot of these situations. Because you cannot, you don't have the violence to meet the masters of violence. They have too many tools. I saw a story where ICE has just spent all their money on weapons. They got like all types of new weaponry. You're not beating the government that way. And we don't need to get people killed in the streets, but we could be there.

Octavio Blanco (21:28)
Yeah. Yeah.

So.

Led Black (21:38)
and show solidarity when we see things we don't like, can protest, we can record, we can stand up for others, you know what mean? And I wanna say one thing, another thing, I don't like the term ally. I don't want allies, I want accomplices, you know what I'm saying? Cause we're all in this together, you know what I mean? So when they get me today, they're gonna get you tomorrow. So stop playing like they're not ally, we're all in this together. We need to fight for each other.

Octavio Blanco (21:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

You want comrades?

Communist comrades?

Led Black (21:59)
No, no, I know, I know, no. I didn't say that. No, you know what saying? Like, yeah,

comrades too, whatever. You know what I mean? But the point is we need to show solidarity with one another, whatever way you want to call it.

Octavio Blanco (22:06)
Yeah. No, absolutely.

I want to say this, you know, ⁓ I went to the protest the day after the ICE raids that was down in Foley Square and I took some video there. ⁓ One video that I didn't take, which was there was a Trump supporter there. One.

sole Trump supporter there who was screaming, yelling at the top of his lungs how we how we were ⁓ terrorists, how we were ⁓ traitors. I mean, yelling, yelling, yelling and like he was a New Yorker through and through like he he knew just like he was loud boisterous unabashed. And of course, all the cameras were on him, right? Because he was doing that. And it was awful.

He was so annoying and so like he was inciting he wanted to incite people and I could feel my blood boiling but I didn't do anything but one of the great things about the way these the protesters and the protests are really well organized events to be to be frank because they had a whole group of people that were like diffusers waiting for somebody like this to come and he they just basically like

stood in front of him and started to sing like all these hymns like we shall overcome this land is your land this land is my land and basically just ultimately drowned him out with all these like beautiful songs and they were like this guy was like this real like rough looking dude you know like

⁓ Looked like you know looked like I don't want to like stereotype, but he looked like he was like from a construction site You know like very you know big guy or whatever jacked up kind of dude ⁓ and all the like diffusers were all these like ⁓ Grandtifas, know like the grandtifas ⁓ All these all these like like gray-haired grandma's and grandpa's were like just like

Led Black (24:07)
Grand Tifa, that's hilarious.

Octavio Blanco (24:18)
holding hands and singing and just like shutting him down. And I thought that was, I thought that was beautiful. But the people that spoke at the, the ⁓ protest were really interesting. And the mood there was definitely one of, you know, we can't let this happen. We've got to fight. ⁓ And I'm for that. You know, I got to say, you know, one of the...

One of the difficult things that I found doing this podcast is Is finding my voice my own like actual voice? Because we've said a lot about you know, I I'm a trained journalist, right? So I've had my voice kind of like ⁓ Trained out of me right like so I'm

Led Black (25:01)
Bye.

Right, I can see that, that makes sense.

Octavio Blanco (25:12)
It's hard for me to like actually connect to like my ⁓ feelings and my voice, which sometimes makes it.

Sometimes it's like what makes this podcast interesting because I bring you know that sensibility that that way of being and and and I think that's okay But you know you I really like love the fact that you have your voice and you're so you know ⁓ Connected to it and that you're so unabashed and so I wanted to ask you about that about your voice and

Led Black (25:31)
Right, agree.

Octavio Blanco (25:53)
And maybe like to help me and some other people too, who may be struggling with how to like find their voice. You've mentioned that your reading has really helped you to to sort of like hone your message. You've mentioned that when you were a teen, you were like turned on to, you know, the writings of Malcolm X and how that helped to tone your message. But now you're, you know, a grown up, right? You have a family.

and you live in a society, you live in a neighborhood. And I want to understand a little bit about where do you go or how do you stay connected to those true feelings and to that voice of yours, which you like utilize so effectively.

Led Black (26:44)
Well, thank you, brother. I appreciate that. You know, I've always been this person, you know what I mean? You know, so I was a kid, like again, once Malcolm comes into the picture, right? Like I was always a smart kid, you know what mean? I but growing up, when I was a kid, like my library card was my passport, right? I was a poor kid in Washington Heights, you know. You know, we were poor, but working poor.

You know, so I didn't have a lot of things, but we always ate. We didn't miss a meal or nothing, you know what saying? But a lot of the luxuries of life, you know, we didn't have. And I was very smart, you know what mean? So I was born here, about three months, and then my mom sent me to D.R. and I came back like a four and a half. I didn't know English, you know what mean? But I stayed, I stayed, but I was so young that I learned English really fast. And like from third grade on, I was always like in the accelerated classes. But I was just reading, you know, I was going through the school system, you know I mean? And, and, um.

Octavio Blanco (27:12)
Alright.

Mmm.

Led Black (27:37)
whatever that was. But I always, had a teacher in third grade, her name is Mrs. Altman. And Mrs. Altman was kind of like a former hippie.

And ⁓ she was really big into Native America. So I got really big into Native American culture and reading about all the tribes. And my favorite tribe was the Apache tribe. Right. And then from that, I got into like martial arts because of, you know, the Sunday movie, the Saturday films with the martial arts, know, films from China. You know, I really got into that. And then from that, I went into reading about like Japanese feudal society and ninjas and samurais. really got into that. So I knew all the different, you know, and it's always been a person that like to learn just to learn to

grow. then, Malcolm changed the trajectory, you know, of the way I looked at the world. since, since, since like a teenager, you know, in high school is when I've been looking at the world a certain way, you know what I mean? And, ⁓ always contrary. And I think, I think I was very lucky in a sense that my, mom, my mom was a rural Dominican woman, right? Meaning that she's from a little town called Esperanza, which means hope. and, and, ⁓ she, you she didn't really go to church a lot. So, you know, she was, I call her a

Dique Catolica, you know what I'm saying? Because, you know, she didn't go to church often, but she always had like an altar. We always had an altar in my house where the different saints and candles, and she lights them up. And she would say her devotions every day, you know, when she woke up, she was very spiritual person, but in a very rural Dominican slash African kind of way, you know, with Catholicism as the kind of like the over, like what you think it is. I think the term is syncretism, you know what mean?

Octavio Blanco (28:44)
Yeah.

Mmm.

Huh, uh-huh.

Yeah.

Led Black (29:13)
But you know, it's been so long, you don't see the syncretism. You just see it as Catholicism, but it's not right. I never went to church. So I was lucky that I was not person that was forced into church. You know what mean? And I remember even, you know, when she tried to get me into St. Elizabeth, St. E's or 186th, mean, yeah, 186th, 186th, 187th and Wadsworth, they were like, oh, we don't have no more spots, but if you give us some money. So I didn't go to, I didn't go to Catholic school. went to, you know, 189, 143. I went to the hood schools, you know what I mean?

Octavio Blanco (29:30)
Huh.

Led Black (29:43)
But I was always a smart kid. But again, the Catholicism never felt right. Even when I tried to do my communion, you got to do your communion classes. And they were like the Holy Trinity, right? was the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. There's like no woman involved in that Holy Trinity. was just, it never felt right. It never felt right in my soul. So I never was born. I think that one of reasons that I'm able to think freely is because I'm not religious. You know, I'm deeply spiritual. I pray often. I talk to my ancestors. I talk to my dad who passed away years ago. I talk to my grandma who

Octavio Blanco (30:00)
Yeah.

Led Black (30:12)
past 20 some odd years ago, you know, I talked to my people and I talked to God in my own way, but I'm not religious, you so I think not being religious has helped to free my mind because a lot of religion gives you constructs you have to believe in, you know what mean? And this is what it is and this is what it is and a lot of those constructs weren't created for your liberation.

Octavio Blanco (30:25)
Yeah.

Led Black (30:30)
Right? So it's like, so that's one of reasons I think my voice is what it is. You know, and so since 13, 14 years old, I've been feeding, you know, like you look at the books, you know what mean? Malcolm was the gateway is my gateway to blackness and to being indigenous being, you know, I'm all those things, right? You know, so, so, so all those, so again, I just think that's part of it. I a lot of reading Democracy Now. I watch Democracy Now or try to watch Democracy Now every day from Monday to Friday at 8 a.m. Eastern. You know, Amy Goodman is

Octavio Blanco (30:46)
Yeah.

Led Black (31:00)
amazing, she's been doing it forever, know, she's a, that's the best news program and I think if you want to get an understanding of what's happening in the world, I think you could do no better than every hour Democracy Now, at least, you know, at least if that's the least you do, that's what you should do. But yeah, that's where it comes from, man, you know, and being a father.

Octavio Blanco (31:17)
And you stay

connected to that sort of, because you know, we...

It's we're easily distracted nowadays. I mean, it's easy for us to get distracted and to forget those things or to not yeah, guess forget is the right word but like to be connected to that you do you have like a You know, said you have like a parking like What's it? What did you call it? Like a puck when you park it you put the the things on the on the on the on the mirrors and what's it got?

Led Black (31:34)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the

auto theft routine, you know that I have, Anti-theft.

Octavio Blanco (31:51)
Yeah, do you have like, ⁓

do you have an anti theft routine? Do you have like a ⁓ mental?

presence routine that keeps you like kind of like connected to to that and and staying true to those ideals like you know because it's hard to it can be hard I think to stay sort of like connected to those Those ideals when we're confronted with the realities of life, right?

Led Black (32:22)
Yeah, I mean, listen, I think in certain ways, like, I feel like a lot of stuff that I was talking about in the 90s, right, have all come to pass. You know, I feel like a lot of stuff is, being validated. There's a lot of confirmation happening now. You know what mean? Like, I remember, you know, in the 90s when no one was talking about.

Israel and Palestine, right? I remember reading about that, you know, and having thoughts, you know, thinking about it, really thinking about what that part of the world means to the rest of society and what was being done. So I think I've been ahead of the curve and now I'm seeing, you know, the veil being lifted and everything I was thinking for the last 30 years is now coming into fruition, right? We're living through collapse. We're living through what?

the culmination of these policies, right? Like this is the path that America has been going down for a long time. And now we see it, right? We wanted to play dumb. You we wanted to divest from people. We didn't want to spend money on people. We just wanted money for the billionaires. And you know, our cities are what our cities are because it doesn't matter Democrat or Republican, we have not invested in the people of this country.

You know what mean? And that's where we're at. So for me, a lot of what I see now just confirms it. You know what mean? It's so funny, right? So I get a lot of hate because it's like, you only go with Trump. No, you just don't read my shit. You know what mean? You don't read me. Because I remember it was January of last year, right? When Biden was still in office. And I remember I wrote in my newsletter, I sent a paragraph where I was just despondent.

I was like, I hated Biden. was like this, this, I called him a muerto. Like I feel like this, this guy is leading us to this thing and no one's seeing it. And that was so mad to the point where like people, my brother, Mike Fittelson said from the United Palace he he sent me a text, yo, you okay? You all right? John Ulman my other friend was like, yo, man, you okay? Because they were like, what are you doing? Again, I feel, I've been saying it. Like I've been saying these things. So I think sometimes seeing confirmation of the things you've been saying for the last 30 years, you know, makes you even more, more,

more like I feel like I want to be more Led Black every day you know what saying like

Octavio Blanco (34:31)
Ha ha ha ha ha!

Led Black (34:33)
I wake up, let black and I go to sleep, let black. And my wife is like, again, sometimes we had a fight today because she gets too much, Led Black in her life and she gets mad. You know what mean? But this is who I am. You know what mean? My kids, I drive my kids crazy talking shit all day. I like to talk shit because I feel like I have a unique view towards these things because I've been since I'm 13 years old. I've not been indoctrinated in a lot of these systems, you know, starting with religion or starting in the the myths of America, you know, because Malcolm said, yo, that's that's nonsense. What you've been taught up to this point is

Octavio Blanco (34:41)
hahahaha

Led Black (35:03)
not true. Right. And but I still think but I still think what's funny is like I think the beauty of America is its ugliness. Right. That that after all these these the twin genocides is a term that I think I came up with I don't know is the twin genocides of the Native American and the African that we could still have a country where a majority voted someone named Barack Hussein Obama. Right. That we had a country and taken away from my feelings now about Barack. But the fact that the United States twice

Octavio Blanco (35:04)
And so.

Yeah.

Right.

Led Black (35:33)
voted, the majority of people in this country says that there is people power, right? He took that people power and just used it for himself and then didn't really use it to change the system, right? But it shows you that it's possible. And even Trump shows you what possible. Trump is remaking the world in his image. He's doing whatever the fuck he wants. Like, there's no limits and there's lawsuits, but he's still doing what he wants. So that means that when we get in power, we could do what we want too.

Octavio Blanco (35:44)
Okay, I, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

⁓ Yeah, that's true. And ⁓ let me ask you another thing about Led Black and how you became who you are and how you stay connected. I mean, I understand.

Hip-hop had a big influence in your life too, right? I mean, we both, mean, mine too, but, you know, I didn't live in New York City next to the Bronx where hip-hop was born like you were. ⁓ So you must have been, and you're of our generation, and you, so you've grown up with hip-hop and you used to...

Led Black (36:18)
sure.

Octavio Blanco (36:36)
You used to rhyme too, right? mean, you probably still do in your own time, but. ⁓ So tell me how to hip hop. How did it happen? How does hip hop sort of influence that? Because I think I think there's like a little bit of. ⁓

Led Black (36:38)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, still rhymes. I'm nice with it. I'm nice, yeah. No, no, yeah, no, that,

Octavio Blanco (36:53)
So like hip hop is complicated too, because hip hop isn't just one thing. You know, there was like gangster rap and there I've read lately about like how, you know, gangster rap sort of evolved and how, who was funding it and why. that there's like, I was, was a little bit concerned about that, but, hip hop to me, you know, is different than.

than Gangsta Rap and Gangsta Rap is different than Hip Hop. It's all part of the same kind of like culture, but you know, there's different factions. But to you, how did Hip Hop impact you and for you, what does, what is your view on Hip Hop?

Led Black (37:32)
Well, I mean, like for me, I was born into a world where hip hop was at its infancy, right? So I was born into a New York city where hip hop was just at the very beginning of that culture, you know what mean? And like, yes, the South Bronx is, you know, but in a lot of ways, Washington Heights is right there. Like, Washington Heights, South Bronx have always been connected, not just by bridges, but by culture and love and family.

Right? So if you look at Style Wars, the beginning of Style Wars, you know, super seminal film about hip hop, they're shooting it right in front of the Dyckman Projects, the very beginning. Right? So we have always, these neighborhoods have always been connected. You know what mean? So, but like, when I would look out my window on the second floor, you know, growing up in the one nineties at Wadsworth, I would look outside in the basement, the kids were breakdancing. You know what mean? They would have the cardboard on the floor. So I saw

hip hop from the very beginning, you know what mean? And I remember like, I was always, first of all, I grew up in a household of music lovers, right? So my dad, being a poor Dominican dude from DR that worked a factory job, he always saved his money and was like, I forgot the term, he was an audiophile.

Right? So no matter like, you know, he always had like the top notch stereo equipment. He would, don't know how he did research. You know what I mean? He didn't write, he didn't read in English. He spoke a little bit of English, mostly when he was drunk or whatever cursing, but he was somehow knew what was the best equipment and he would have the best equipment. And then luckily what happened was I would get the hand me downs. Right? So, you know, so my dad buys a boom box.

Octavio Blanco (38:44)
Mm-mm.

Hahaha

Led Black (39:09)
Right? When he got the new boombox, I would get the old boombox. So in my room, I had a boombox on the bed. You know what mean? And the thing is that people don't realize that. You know, now we get now you could turn on the radio, 97, you know, you could put power 105 and you listen to hip hop whenever you want. But that wasn't the case. That came about in 92.

Right. So when you didn't get hip hop on the radio except for certain times. So back then before Kiss was a sports station, you know what saying? 98.7 Kiss used to be, you know, black music, you know what mean? Black radio. And on Fridays or whatever, you know, you will have DJ Red Alert playing hip hop and Chuck Chill out playing, you know, on BLS, you know what mean? And that's when you will put your tape and record and listen to it. And but again, it was the records. It was a creative force. Right. And it's interesting.

thing that you know in that same time the hip-hop is being born salsa salsa's hip-hop's you know older brother right born in the streets of New York City right they they they these cultures were coming out of out of New York City you know I mean so is this this amazing creativity is people saying like you know it was the depths for the 70s were really low places and but but people found a way of expressing themselves to say hey I matter

Octavio Blanco (40:13)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Led Black (40:23)
Right? That's what hip hop was. It was saying, hey, I matter. Y'all may not care, but we don't care about y'all either. And we're to do our own thing here in our hoods. Right? That's what hip hop was. It was a music that at first did lot of those artists, they were more like party artists. didn't want, they didn't want to record songs that wasn't their thing. They wanted to rock the jam.

Octavio Blanco (40:23)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Led Black (40:42)
You know, and it was those entrepreneurs who said like, yo, this is, might, a lot of thought it was gimmicks, right? Like, let's take this, so, know, like Sugar Hill, the first, the Sugar Hill gang, you know, the song that they made, right? That was, they got rappers for that. Like, they weren't really rappers. They got, they just put them on a record because they saw the interest. But what was interesting, like, that gangster stuff really was in response to how woke.

Octavio Blanco (40:59)
Yeah.

Led Black (41:11)
hip hop became, right? So you know, you had in the late eighties, you know, you had Big Daddy Kane, right? Right? And Big Daddy Kane was, you know, so you may not know this, right? But there was always been like a, ⁓ it's called a 5 % nation, right? The 5 % nation is kind of an offshoot of the nation of Islam, right? So you had a person called Clarence 13X, who was part of, I think, Mosque number seven in Harlem. He kind of left it and started an offshoot.

Octavio Blanco (41:28)
Yeah.

Led Black (41:41)
Right. And it became the 5 % nation. Right. The 5 % nation was interesting is that like I had a cousin who was a 5 % and you know, they had their own language, their own ways of speaking and it became very influential in early hip hop. You know what I mean? And it also became very influential in the jails. And what was interesting about that, so you had Kane who used 5 % terminology. Rakim, his full name is Rakim Allah.

Octavio Blanco (41:41)
Okay. Yep.

Mmm.

Led Black (42:04)
Right? He was a 5 % and he used 5%. Even someone like Karras-One who wasn't a 5%, but his name means knowledge reigns over nearly everyone.

Octavio Blanco (42:04)
Mmm.

Led Black (42:15)
Right? So there was a consciousness to the music. Right? One of my favorite groups back then was there was a group called X Clan and there's a guy named Brother J and Brother J was like African, very African. Coming step of brother's temple. See what's happening. Like he was dropping like real like pro black, pro African, pro indigenous shit like and that's that's what scared them. Right? So what they said is, hey, this is scaring us, but we still need to this is. Oh yeah.

Octavio Blanco (42:21)
Mm-hmm.

Huh.

Who who who

was getting scared? okay. Okay. Okay.

Led Black (42:42)
The record execs, the record execs, the powers that be, right? So they

didn't like the direction that it was taking, but they knew that hip hop was an unstoppable force, right? So what they did is they, and you don't know that at the time, right? You don't know, you just groove into this music, but you see that the music changed. The music went from public enemy, right? To other things, to NWA, right? Why is that? Is that a natural switch, right? No, it's that the music business decided to fund something else.

Octavio Blanco (42:55)
Right, no, at the time we didn't know.

Led Black (43:11)
Right? Instead of funding something that helps the people making the music, let's fund something that helps us that further divides us. Right? Like I heard a term, I don't remember who said it, like dancing to our own destruction. Right? And that's what it did. Like, like I love hip hop and I'm not, I'm not hating on NWA, but, the music in a certain ways became a liability to us, you know, in certain ways. Right? It was detrimental. And it's interesting that, that the hip hop that got exported around the world is not the woke

Octavio Blanco (43:34)
Yeah.

Led Black (43:40)
progressive, you know, resistance rap. It's more of the, you know, the nonsense, know, every woman's a hoe, you know, materialism, you know what I mean? Just every man for himself, you know, and that's what, you know, you have someone like Diddy, who's the epitome of that, right? So what I'm saying is like, I think that the music and the art form was co-opted, you know what I mean? But still, it's still there. It's 50 years later, right? And 52 years later now, I think,

Octavio Blanco (43:43)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Led Black (44:08)
53 years later, even maybe, but it's there and it's still a viable music. There's still great.

And that's what I like. I don't really listen to regular radio. I got satellite radio. I like, you listen to hip hop. There's a lot of great new hip hop being made. There's a lot of dope artists being made. And I still think hip hop is a tool for liberation. I think you can make music to move the masses in the right way. And I think it's all hands on deck. So I might drop some new shit. You never know, Octavio. I might have some songs next year. I'm trying to do everything next year.

Octavio Blanco (44:28)
Yeah.

hahahaha

Let's get the

street team together.

Led Black (44:43)
They're the street team, you know what saying? But no, but

seriously, like, I don't, like you look at someone like Nas, for example, you know, I remember when first, like before that album came out, you know, Nas was already like that guy, like everyone was talking about. Like the first time I heard Nas, he was, there was a song, he was with Main Source, right? And there was a line, so he was just an appearance on that song, right? And he said, when I was 12, I went to hell for snuffin' Jesus.

And I was like, my God, it was like so amazing. So sacrilegious at the same time. It was just saying, fuck everything. Like, and it just struck me. I was like, this guy's the greatest. You know what mean? So before the album came out, there was like an album in the streets percolating, right? And Nas was just that person. me, Nas was a certain, so Rakim was the older generation. Rakim, Kane, G-Rap, KRS-One they were that older generation. Here comes Nas. And his name is Nasir, like Rakim. So it was like, to me, he was like a second,

Octavio Blanco (45:34)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Led Black (45:41)
coming and I to love Nas, I still love Nas but Nas to this day is still dropping. He dropped like three or four albums like in the last two years. He's doing amazing stuff so it goes to show you that age is not a thing right like you know rockers could rock forever right if Bob Marley were alive today Bob Marley be making the greatest music alive right yeah exactly

Octavio Blanco (45:47)
Yeah.

No. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rolling stones, rolling stones. Look, Led,

listen, I know that you've got ⁓ something coming up. So we're hitting up against your hard out right now. So it's been a great conversation. Obviously, we have a lot more to talk about. There's a lot more going on in the world, but I'm just so glad that we got to learn a little bit more about you and what, what, what, ⁓

Led Black (46:12)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Likewise.

Yes, sir.

Thanks, brother.

Octavio Blanco (46:28)
what shaped you ⁓ because you know I really I really feel like this is just the beginning for both of us but also this is kind of just the beginning for you I love the fact that you're getting so involved with Zorhan Mamdani I love the fact that we're that we're able to elevate your voice in particular I think it's important voice and you know I'm just looking forward to doing more of that ⁓

Led Black (46:36)
For real, for real.

my guy.

Octavio Blanco (46:54)
I think we're gonna need to end it here because time is tight this week for Black and Blanco, because you got things to do. But I'm glad that we got to sneak this one in. Do you have any last words? Any last words before... Oh, by the way, yeah, I'll remind viewers, please subscribe. Don't miss any episodes. Subscribe. Yeah, stop playing. We're gonna probably be doing cool stuff, like doing live episodes where we're just gonna be...

Led Black (46:54)
Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Let's go.

Subscribe, stop playing, subscribe.

Octavio Blanco (47:24)
talking on ⁓ it'll be on YouTube most likely and ⁓ You'll be able to ask us questions too because that that's how YouTube works on the live episodes You're subscribed you'll be we'll have the little chat there and you can ask us anything ⁓ As we as we do our thing so keep an eye out for that, but definitely subscribe so you won't miss it when that happens All right, what about what so any last words?

Led Black (47:42)
Subscribe, for real, for real. Yeah, yeah.

So just again, know, the Mamdani Tsunami is on its way and we're gonna clear house and we're gonna create a new paradigm in New York City and we're gonna, from New York to the world. And we can and we will and we have to. So spread love is the uptown way.

Octavio Blanco (47:52)

Yes, sir.