Black and Blanco All The Way Live From Washington Heights - Recorded on November 11, 2025

This is Uptown Collective's first LIVE Black and Blanco episode, recorded on November 11, 2025.

Led and Octavio dive into a wide-ranging conversation that spans from their first live broadcast experience to heartfelt tributes to veterans. They explore political critiques, the influence of billionaires, and the importance of grassroots movements. The discussion also highlights cultural pride, the history of graffiti in Washington Heights, and community resilience. Personal anecdotes and the impact of influential figures are shared, emphasizing the power of collaboration and community action.

Main Sections:
Tribute to Veterans: Both hosts express their gratitude and respect for veterans, acknowledging the complexities of their service. Political Critique: The conversation delves into the role of billionaires in politics and the need for grassroots movements to counterbalance their influence. Cultural Pride and Graffiti: A deep dive into the cultural significance of graffiti in Washington Heights and its role in community identity. Community Resilience: Stories of community action and resilience, showcasing how neighborhoods come together in times of need.

The episode is a testament to the power of community and the importance of staying connected to one's roots. As Led Black puts it, "Spread love is the uptown way."

Subscribe now to stay updated on more insightful discussions and community stories.

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 (00:01.934)
What up, what up, what up everyone? We all the way live from the Heights. This is our first time doing the live. So, you know what I mean? Like please bear with us with the technical. We may have some technical snafus, but regardless, I got a beer today, a restripe. Haven't had a restripe in a long time. I got my water. We're gonna do some special hopefully. But yeah, man. So talk to us, man. What's the deal, brother? This is...

Octavio Blanco (00:17.461)
We're trying, we're trying this.

Octavio Blanco (00:24.971)
I've got my coffee.

Led Black (00:29.856)
Our first ever Uptown Voice is live. I think we're simultaneously broadcasting through our channels, but that might not be correct, but you know, we're working on it. You know what mean? But what up, man? I thought you was talking to me, brother.

Octavio Blanco (00:37.703)
I think we are. I don't know. I don't know if we are. I'm I see that our

It says live on my screen here. Before we get started, fully started, and we've already gotten started, but I just wanted to say that today's, you know, today's Veterans Day. And, you know, I wanted to make sure that we take a moment to say that we're thinking about you veterans out there. I know that...

in my generation, a lot of people did serve and have seen combat overseas. you know, it's different for everybody, but those wars really were difficult for people of my generation. And I just want to know, I want everybody to know out there, if you're a veteran and if you're watching this, you know, I thank you for your service.

And it's, I know it's complicated times and that your service, you know, means different things for different people. But the fact of the matter is that you served, you were out there. So thank you so much for that. It's a beautiful cold day here in New York City where we're at, uptown Washington Heights. The bridge is lit.

Led Black (01:58.947)
But hold on, let me say something for the veterans too. You don't get to, hold on, I gotta say something for the veterans too. You just let it go like I'm unpatriotic, you know what I'm saying? But let me say something to the veterans, like let black hate the veterans, what the hell? Cheers to the veterans, you know what I'm saying? You can't move on. No, hold on, but let me do my thing too. Shout out to the veterans, you know what I mean? I don't believe in America's wars, but doesn't mean that I don't love America's.

Octavio Blanco (02:03.243)
Oh yeah, yeah, no, it's just me. It's just me. I only get to... No, no, that's not it. That's not it. No, my bad. My bad. My bad.

Led Black (02:26.594)
the people that are just regular people trying to survive, And shout out to them, shout out to their sacrifice. I actually saw something today that you made me think of. I guess they do a yearly event in DC, right, for veterans, and Barack Obama, who I have my issues with, if anyone that watches the show.

Octavio Blanco (02:41.513)
Yeah, they fly them down.

Led Black (02:45.696)
Yeah, but he greeted them as they came, you know, on one day and it was was kind of beautiful to see when we have the Tyrant, you know, having fucking Gatsby fucking themed, you know, fetes Gallas, you know, on why he cuts snap benefits. it was a nice thing to see. And, you know, shout out to all to all the veterans. Go ahead, brother.

Octavio Blanco (02:45.962)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (03:05.417)
Yeah, you know, I'm so glad that you made sure that you got in there. I apologize to you for moving on, like that I'm just so excited. I've been really excited about this. So like, I got a little bit of the jitters, so, but you're right, you know, like what you say is so true when you say like...

I don't believe in the wars that my generation has had to endure. thought, you know, like especially the Iraq war, you know, it was under false pretenses, you know. I thought that the Afghanistan war, we just abandoned the Afghan people.

and our fighters have suffered for that. So I really feel for our veterans who have had to endure. And it just made me think also about what we're experiencing right now. This...

well how can I call it? This new Gatsby era, I guess.

Octavio Blanco (04:26.474)
Guess we're not we're not live. We're not I let me Folks stand by let's let's let's do a little bit of Yeah, yeah, yeah you you take it from here but I what I was gonna say was we're in a Gatsby era where we have the haves and the have-nots like never before and most

Led Black (04:37.07)
Well, you work on that, work on it. I keep talking. Yeah, I keep talking. We good.

Octavio Blanco (04:52.274)
people who serve are definitely not in the in the in the rich in the rich people They're just definitely not rich they're mostly working-class people and poor people who get who who who put in their time in the in the in the army and what we're seeing now is this You know with with

with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and all these billionaires, they control so much money and the poorest and most vulnerable people are the ones that are being used as pawns in our government. So did that make any sense to you?

Led Black (05:46.799)
Yeah, exactly. Like, they know, but I mean, that's the thing is, man, like, like I'm against American militarism, you know what mean? But again, the soldiers at the end of the day, they're just the pawns, right? Like, um.

Basically, but there's no denying that the American military is just an arm of American capitalism, right? And it basically uses it like gunboat diplomacy, right? That's way it's always been, right? And I think we're getting back to that right now, right? And you have Trump amassing massive forces in the Caribbean using Puerto Rico once again for their military adventures. And it looks like they're gonna try to get rid of...

Maduro in Venezuela. They look like they want to go after Colombia, right? Because Colombia is standing strong, holding it down. And they also look like, you know, and I think Rubio, of all people, that motherfucker, I think he would love to be the person that brings down the regime in Cuba, right? So I think we're in a really dangerous time. And again, it just goes to show you, And that's why watching, I'm not even going lie, right? Like I said, I have my issues with Obama, right? Like I've had a lot of issues with Obama in retrospect.

You know what mean? Because I really had a lot of love for that man. But to see him there interact with these old soldiers really touched me. And it was like these people gave up their lives. They lost limbs. They lost brothers. They lost a lot. You know what I mean? And that has to be, and that's not their fault. And they did what they could. And then you have right now, you have people from the military going to food pantries, not getting paid.

So it's like this talk about that they care about, they don't give a fuck about the military really, right? They just want to use it and then they discard these people and that's why these streets of this country are filled with homeless veterans, right? Because what they were forced to do outside.

Led Black (07:38.159)
They don't know how to live in this world anymore, a lot of them. know what mean? So shout out to the veterans and I'm not down with the wars. You know what mean? I'll never be down with the wars. I don't think none of these wars are good wars. I think they're all wars of conquest and it was about taking things from other people. So I don't think none of the wars are good. So just to be on that. But I do understand, you know what saying, that it's not these people's fault. And so shout out to the veterans. And again, like fucking, we got to say not a shout out to Schumer, right?

You know what mean? To Chuck Schumer, no shout out to him, right? Like what makes me mad more about Chuck Schumer is that he said, I voted no, but he's the one that orchestrated the voting of yes by all the people that were not, you know, had to have an election coming up or they were retiring and that was enough to cave and they cave, it was a historic cave, right? At the point where we just had a...

Democratic victories all up and down this country, You know, and we had a wave going. Everyone saw this as the Republican shutdown. You know, we had a lot of momentum and the senators just squandered it, squandered it, right? So now people's subsidies, didn't get nothing. They got a promise, a promise.

Right? That's fucking ridiculous. know what I mean? So, Schumer, you gotta go. I hope he get, cannot get, we cannot get rid of him fast enough. And this is a message to everybody. This is a message to Richie Torres. I heard he has a challenger. Michael Blake is gonna be running against him. He also has another challenger. So I'm interested in that race a lot, man. Otavi, what's up, brother? You got this going?

Octavio Blanco (09:15.818)
You know, I'm trying to forgive us all here. I'm trying to make sure that our live is working and I don't see it working. I don't know why that is. I don't know what's going on here.

Octavio Blanco (09:40.906)
You can't ffff... showing me that there's...

Led Black (09:41.942)
Is it on live on YouTube? Let me check.

Octavio Blanco (09:57.172)
It's showing me.

Octavio Blanco (10:04.904)
that we have three people. No, it's showing me that we've got three people on YouTube watching. and now I see we're live on YouTube. We're live on YouTube.

Led Black (10:06.22)
Yeah, I think we should just get off and then come back on.

Led Black (10:17.942)
Okay, so we're live on YouTube. That's good. So what up, three people?

Led Black (10:24.558)
Hang on, I didn't know that.

Octavio Blanco (10:26.676)
Okay, yeah, there we go.

Led Black (10:28.6)
We all away live from the heights.

Octavio Blanco (10:37.79)
Let's, all right, let me quickly check something here.

Led Black (10:53.966)
So while you do that, I'm gonna keep talking. So we got three viewers on YouTube, you heard? Yeah, but so like I was saying.

Octavio Blanco (10:54.186)
Sorry everybody.

Led Black (11:01.24)
Bichy Torres, Bichy Telavives Torres, right, is gonna have a primary challenge. Michael Blake, who ran for mayor, he's gonna be one of the people taking him on. And I'm looking forward to that race. We cannot get rid of Richie Torres fast enough. He does not represent the Bronx. It is the poorest district in this country and he spends all his time talking about Israel and just being just a complete shill for AIPAC. Richie Torres gotta go like he is part of the

old, old, old guard, even though he's a new face. And I'm tired of seeing his stupid face around. I recently saw a video, I forgot what news outlet it was, and he was, they asked him about Michael Blake and about the, he was like, who, who, who? I don't know who that is, who's that?

Octavio Blanco (11:38.238)
Hahaha

Led Black (11:51.759)
Michael Blake, who's that? And then they brought up the A-pack. He's like, I'm here every day in the Bronx. And then you know what's so funny about that guy, right? Because if you look, and again, this is gonna sound crazy, right? But if you look at his haircut, it look horrible. Like what I'm trying to say, it didn't look like he didn't comb it in a cool way.

It looked like he didn't comb it in a corny ass, non-Bronx way. He looks so fucking corny. That guy is such a horrible... Someone told me a while ago, a friend of mine, I'm not going to divulge, one of my sources, he told me that his seat was completely bought. And then when you look at Richie Torres, look at his ascent. He went from being nobody to being everywhere. He was on HBO, Abla.

Octavio Blanco (12:14.933)
Octavio Blanco (12:35.132)
Yeah, he was nobody.

Led Black (12:39.308)
He was nobody. And then he was, he's black, he's Puerto Rican, he's gay, he's from the projects. You're like, wow, this is amazing story. Who is this guy? He's amazing. And then he was talking that talk, right? But then what was really interesting early on, cause I was doing a deep dive on this. Whenever he, his whole social media was look like the IDF ran it. First of all, like out of nine out of 10 posts were about Israel straight up and down or about, about anti-Semitism.

Octavio Blanco (12:47.719)
Yep.

Octavio Blanco (13:04.157)
So you know what's interesting? What's interesting about that is that I'm sure that Richie Torres being from the Bronx probably didn't come from, didn't have a lot of money to support him, right? And I'm sure that if the AIPAC came in and was...

Led Black (13:06.804)
all the time. He never talked about the Bronx. And then someone I think some

Octavio Blanco (13:24.761)
Shoveling money into his campaign that they were they had demands for what he was supposed to do with that money as as Anybody does when they when they do?

Led Black (13:32.685)
But it's even beyond that. No, but it's beyond that. No, no, but it's beyond that. See, that's what we think. that's like, AIPAC what I'm realizing now is they groom people before they even get into politics. They create them.

They are creations of organizations, just like Dave Evans is a creation of Peter Thiel and the oligarchs, the tech bros. They're creations. They take them and they groom them and they marshal them along on their path. They're wholehearted creations of them.

is different than, we like them. It's funny, Cory Booker gave the secret away. I think Cory Booker was one of these people that were groomed for a long time. He says, you gotta go, he was talking to a group of, I think it was AIPAC or some similar group. He says, what you gotta go do is you gotta go into it, get those young black kids, get them early. So that thing that's what happened to him, Richie Tore is very young. again, and again, we cannot continue down this path anymore, right? Like it really, and again, it really has to, we have to expose,

The Mamdani effect is real. We have enemies. And that's why when we were talking about, like you said, you want to hold them to account and I hear you, but we get enough shit from the other side that our side needs to stop that. Right? So for example, the New York Times, the New York fucking Times, I'm canceling my subscription. My wife, reminded again, I got to cancel my fucking subscription. Right? Cause they did. They said Mamdani is not the future of the party. This guy is. And it's fucking Josh Shapiro.

Octavio Blanco (14:41.438)
Yeah.

Led Black (15:08.182)
Josh Shapiro? This is your answer, Josh Shapiro. Come on, like be for real. And it goes to show you like we have everyone against us. CBS, CBS now is just, it's wild with CBS's now. Like CBS went from being, you know, the kind of the, they set the standard and they kind of also, not that they were good or bad, but you knew when watching Sunday CBS, what the like, the way the official dumb.

Octavio Blanco (15:08.818)
God.

Octavio Blanco (15:15.249)
Yeah.

Led Black (15:37.686)
read the story, like it set the tone, right? And now it's just, they're doing like hit pieces, like just really cheap shit. You're like, they're the New York Post now? Like what happened? You know, and again, that's what saying, the mom, the beautiful, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (15:41.832)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (15:47.684)
I, well they are, they're on.

They are the New York Post. They are the New York Post. mean, CBS is now run by, CBS News Division is run by Barry Weiss. And the place is owned by a nepo baby of a billionaire.

Led Black (16:01.452)
Barry Weiss.

Octavio Blanco (16:16.737)
And yeah, it's a it's it's it's not it's not good people they they fired a ton of people from CBS all the all the channels are are being are being affected. I just wanted to say if you open up the chat Led you'll see that we have a few people in there. Some people that we most a lot of them I think that we know. So I want to say what's up to Frank. He's on there. Frank.

De La Merced, our friend and artist. Also, my mom is on there. And my mom is on here. She has a comment.

Led Black (16:50.832)
Frank, my brother, that's my brother right there. What up Frank? shout out to your mom. Saludos senora, hello. Mom's like a number one fan. Okay. What's the comment? For real.

Octavio Blanco (17:02.471)
Mom is the number one fan and one that I don't recognize, but maybe you do. don't know. Cariño, amor y respeto. What's up to you? Thank you for joining us today and thank you for watching. Please, if you have any questions or comments, do add them into the live chat. I don't know, Led, what happened with the Instagram. It's supposedly connected. I don't know why it's not,

Led Black (17:31.97)
But it's not connected, because I would see it on my end, yeah. I would see it on my end if it was doing it.

Octavio Blanco (17:32.395)
It's weird. And I don't know how to fix it. That's the main problem. Yo, what's up, Frank?

Led Black (17:51.438)
It's all good.

Octavio Blanco (17:54.185)
So yeah, bear with us. I'm glad that it's our friends and family here and bearing with our technical difficulties. Adriana, what's up? That's my sister-in-law. And so that's also my brother-in-law over there. Adriana.

Led Black (18:11.013)
what? we got that.

Octavio Blanco (18:14.78)
Thank you for joining. Thank you for being on our first episode. This is making me feel better, you know, because, you know, there's a lot of kinks that we need to sort of work out and we're doing it on the fly. I think maybe we're gonna need a producer the next time to sort of like help us maybe to figure this out or maybe not. Maybe we can do it ourselves. But yeah.

Led Black (18:14.926)
All right.

Led Black (18:26.669)
real.

Octavio Blanco (18:44.2)
I yeah, we can do it ourselves. What I wanted to say is that, it's true, both sides, what you say is, oh, there's Ruben, he's also one of our number one fans, Ruben. He's, yeah.

Led Black (18:45.25)
Yeah, we can do it ourselves.

Led Black (19:09.528)
Well, Ruben.

Octavio Blanco (19:11.6)
he's Adriana's husband, my brother-in-law. There's Eileen. What's up? That's your wife. Yeah, wifey son. I love it. I love it. I love it. So yeah, thank you for bearing with us. Look, what I think is, what you say is very true about,

Led Black (19:17.422)
wife is on? I can't talk shit about her then now.

Led Black (19:27.744)
Okay, you might see a chancleta come at my wish.

Octavio Blanco (19:40.487)
the progressive democratic, and there's my wife, Cathy, what's up?

What you say is very true about the progressive Democrats that we need to definitely support our progressive people because the corporate Democrats and the corporate Democrat establishment, which includes the major media networks, they...

Led Black (19:47.982)
I

Octavio Blanco (20:16.306)
They don't like what they're seeing because what they're seeing is a grassroots movement of people who are feeling empowered to make a change. And that...

if all of our one dollar bills add up to quite a bit of power, even though the billionaire class has a lot more dollar bills than we do. The fact of the matter in New York City is that the progressive Democrat wing has a mandate now. More than 50 % of the votes went to Mamdami.

more than all of the other candidates combined went to Mamdani. So here in New York, we certainly have a mandate. In the midterm elections that we just saw, the Democrats really swept. And that makes me think that there's more of a mandate there. You know, I think that people are

People were suffering with the government shutdown.

people were gonna lose their SNAP benefits. And that's terrible and that's horrible. But now people are gonna lose their health insurance and their health insurance is gonna be extremely expensive. And those same people are not gonna have enough money even.

Octavio Blanco (21:57.124)
if they get SNAP to pay for their healthcare and thousands of them are going to be dying. And it's to me, it's the most, cruelest, the cruelest time that we're seeing right now. And like you say, the moderate Democrat, which I think moderate Democrat is,

Becoming a misnomer, right? What you always say, think, Led is so true that the re- Yeah, it's Republican, like it's the, the, the Republican, the traditional Republican party has become the Democratic party. Right? So-

Led Black (22:24.79)
It's a Republican. It's a Republican light. Yeah, it's Republican light.

Octavio Blanco (22:39.501)
MAGA is the Republican Party now, and the Republican Party has moved over to be what the Democrats were. And the progressive side is what I would consider to be the true Democrats. But we're in for a big battle.

Led Black (23:01.774)
Yeah man, because all that other shit, they have the same donors, it's blue MAGA. Yeah, it's blue MAGA. Like it's the same shit, it's the same people paying them. And we're done. Like I'm saying, the Mamdani effects, Like again, I get they cave last, they cave Senator Schumer, let it cave even though he played himself saying he didn't vote for it, but he orchestrated that whole thing. But Schumer is from here. He needs to go. Ritchie Torres needs to go. AIPAC Shakur, Hakeem Jeffery, he needs to go.

Octavio Blanco (23:06.629)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (23:24.23)
Yeah.

Led Black (23:29.794)
We need to primary all of these. And again, we may not be able to control nationally, but what happens in New York City, it's gotta change. It's over for these people. Like, Richie Torres has Michael Blake who's running against him. We need to support Michael Blake or whoever else because we need Richie Torres has to go. We need to put an X on him. Just like we said, Bada Cuomo forever. We gotta do the same thing.

We gotta keep going. Like again, this is a new time. This whole like you know, half measures and incrementalism, we can provide in New York City an alternative to what's happening nationally. We can provide an alternative to the tyrant and we have no choice but to do that. But that also means, you know, cleaning up our own house, right? We have, the calls are coming from inside the house. Schumer's a fucking traitor. Schumer needs to go.

Chuck Toomer needs to go. needs to be excised from the body politic of the Democratic Party. The whole leadership, all of them gotta go. It's a new day in New York City and it's time for a new day in this country. Like we cannot play these games anymore.

Octavio Blanco (24:34.555)
Yeah, don't, you know, I have to agree with you. I do believe that Chuck Schumer, I mean, look, I don't know what happened. I wasn't there, right? So I can't say that he orchestrated it. But if I were to orchestrate something, this is what it would look like From my understanding is that there used to be, there were eight senators.

who were looking to go against the democratic hard line. But those eight senators or seven senators were vulnerable in their states. And so it sounds like

Led Black (25:21.88)
He's a minority leader. So wait a minute, hold on, hold on. So you telling me this just happened? That somehow these eight people that happened, hold on, hold on. all, they all, so that was orchestrated. And who was gonna orchestrate it? But Schumer, But Schumer.

Octavio Blanco (25:25.025)
No, No, no, I'm not.

Octavio Blanco (25:32.625)
Note.

Yeah, no, what I'm saying is I'm agreeing with you. I'm saying that the way it worked was that there were different, it was different senators, but they were all under threat. So these senators were all either retiring from their states or they don't have elections for a long time. And so they took the stand instead.

And that gave Chuck Schumer apparently cover to say, I voted against it. And please don't primary me. But it's not a good look on Chuck Schumer. It's not a good look on our country. It's not a good look for Democrats. I am encouraged, though, if

this is going to go to the House for a vote and that that's going to cause the House to swear in the Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalda.

And she's gonna be the final signer of the petition to force a house vote on releasing the Epstein file so if there's a silver lining it's that that at least the the Epstein files There's gonna be a vote because she's gonna vote to make that happen and and they'll be released and we'll see what's up there I mean, I'm sure it's I'm sure that I'm sure there's a lot of interest

Led Black (27:04.554)
That's also fanciful too that somehow it's just gonna be released just because they said, yeah, it's not just gonna come out. that's all, yeah. You make it seem like it's a foregone conclusion. Yeah, tons of entry, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (27:09.955)
Yeah, I was gonna say, I was gonna say there's gonna be a lot of intrigue.

Octavio Blanco (27:18.231)
I do and I don't think and I really don't think it is I think that there's gonna be a lot of intrigue and a lot of a lot of fighting on that but It's gonna be interesting because even on the MAGA side they want those Epstein files to be released and it's causing a lot of friction on their own side, so it's Whatever you want to say it's it's it's getting hot in here, you know, even though in my apartment It's freezing cold. It's getting hot in Congress

Led Black (27:37.432)
Yeah. Yeah.

Led Black (27:44.173)
Yeah. Middle finger to Trump forever. Middle finger to Trump. You know what mean? Because you're right. Like I think, I think that things are changing. Like there's cracks in the walls. Right. So I don't know if you saw he was at a commander's game this weekend. Right. And he was booed. He was booed like decisively booed. Right. But what's really interesting, people were going about the booze and the booze were important. But did you hear his speech, Octavio? Did you hear the speech that he gave? Go back.

Octavio Blanco (27:47.961)
Forever.

Octavio Blanco (27:54.639)
Yeah. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (28:00.494)
I did see that, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (28:12.289)
I... no, I...

Led Black (28:14.008)
Go back and listen to it. He was actually asking people to pledge allegiance to him. Look at the speech. He was like I want you to, and you, he said, I solemnly swear that I, and he said, your name, that I pledge allegiance to the flag and this and that and to my president. Like that was some weird shit. Like, like all the stuff that they said about Biden that was well-deserved. Biden was, I used to call him El Muerto. He was El Muerto, right?

Octavio Blanco (28:39.076)
Yeah.

Led Black (28:40.45)
but this guy is not El Muerto, he's El Cuco. Like this dude is dimension out, right? I really feel like he's dying soon, but he's crazy. And I think that needs to be talked about as well. Like this man is not well.

Octavio Blanco (28:58.888)
he's, he's, he's been... The problem about saying that he's like not well because of all that is that that's how he's always been. So he's always not been well. That's the problem. He's always been a nut.

Led Black (29:11.278)
No, No,

Octavio Blanco (29:25.4)
yeah. Yeah.

Led Black (29:26.732)
Like have you seen the hands where they give him an IV? So I mean, like he hasn't been this bad. And he makes, he says things where like I know I'm not going to heaven. He said like a few weeks ago, he also says, this dude, really feel like again, I know what you're saying. Like don't be so hopeful that he's gonna, you know I mean? But, but, but still like he's, he's evil. maybe, but he, you know.

Octavio Blanco (29:42.574)
Hahaha!

Octavio Blanco (29:47.279)
I gotta say.

Octavio Blanco (29:51.503)
Yeah, I gotta say, I'm sort of like infatuated with trying to like analyze, is he wearing like a colostomy bag? Is he like, everybody's like trying to like show like how he's like wearing all these like devices that are like basically like weakened at Bernie's keeping him alive. I don't know, I have no idea what's going on there. I do know that I saw his hands and they look.

Led Black (30:17.694)
Yeah, you know.

Octavio Blanco (30:18.444)
majorly messed up. I do know that I saw his ankles and they looked like elephantitis. So like I know that those issues are there. I know that he's wearing way, way too much makeup for somebody who's like, you know, okay. But you know, not, I'm not ever, I am like infatuated with trying to like analyze him. Like as I see the pictures, like what is that? What is that bulge?

Led Black (30:32.79)
Yeah, he's a fucking fraud like

Led Black (30:38.922)
Yeah, you know it's so funny you say that.

Led Black (30:44.786)
Yeah, you know what's funny? You said that there was a picture that I saw like the next, like right after the whole, I think Schumer went to the White House and it's a picture of like, it's Trump with his hand on Schumer's face and Schumer looks like a payaso, which he is. But I was thinking, cause I've heard that Trump really stinks, that he smells like shit. So I was wondering if like, do you smell it when you're that close? know what mean? Like, that's kind of interesting. You know what I mean?

Octavio Blanco (31:05.601)
I've heard that.

Octavio Blanco (31:11.078)
I want to know if I want to I wish I I wish I knew somebody in the administration who could like who could confirm whether or not the Trump aroma is a thing or not but I've seen it on on social media people people reacting when he when he gets when he gets there we got we got somebody on the on the on

Led Black (31:15.19)
I don't know,

Led Black (31:28.834)
The drone.

Led Black (31:33.568)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (31:39.904)
on the chat.

Led Black (31:41.262)
Space 227, what up? What up, what up, what up? Yeah, I don't know who this is, but what up, man? What's the deal, brother?

Octavio Blanco (31:45.316)
Yeah, talk to us. I don't know you, but I'm glad you're here.

Led Black (31:50.722)
But yeah, man, but thanks for being on the show, man. Broadcasted live from Washington Heights.

Octavio Blanco (31:53.784)
So anyway, so yeah, I'm just, I'm just trying to, that's right. I do want to talk about something that got snuck into that, into that Senate vote, which was interesting. senators whose phones were, whose phone logs were taken senators whose phone logs were seized by the January 6th investigators.

can now sue the government for up to $500,000. Like that was one of the line items in the continuing resolution that the Senate passed. So.

Led Black (32:24.482)
Mm-hmm.

Led Black (32:31.682)
What?

Octavio Blanco (32:45.668)
You know, if you were a senator and you were trying to collude with people in, you know, the January 6 rioters and you were under investigation and your phone messages got, got,

seized, you can now sue up to $500,000, which is really a disgrace. And that was in the law, which I read today, by the way. I took the time and poured through that. Look, the law does, there are things that are being, you know, there are...

a lot of stuff like SNAP benefits are gonna be available, but they're gonna be reduced, but they're gonna be available, they're not gonna be frozen anymore and that's great. I don't know, I think it was an opportunity for this country to really like stand up for what it believed in. And I think that's what was...

I think that that's what was, that's what's so scary for the establishment is like, we were seeing like bookstores starting food pantries. We were seeing like those, know, individuals getting activated to feed their neighbors in their neighborhoods. I have a friend and he's a veteran.

and he's also a federal worker who's been working without pay for all this time. And his neighbors were all chipping in so that his family could have food. You know what mean? This is a guy who I went to high school with, who I stay in touch with on Facebook. And for me, what that showed was just like...

Led Black (34:28.994)
one.

Octavio Blanco (34:42.669)
the, the, that we were shifting into resilience gear. You know what mean? We were shifting into people's resilience gear and that we were as a people going to definitely give that middle finger and say, you know what? We got this. We got this. Don't worry about us. We got this. Save our freaking healthcare. Right. But instead for whatever reason,

it's it's like, you know, gotten shut down. and, and, that's because of, that's because of Schumer. He's the leader and he let it, and he let it, he let it go. So I gotta tell you, I am really like disappointed. I am so disappointed. I mean, I was already disappointed with the corporate Democrats, but I'm just so disappointed more so now.

Led Black (35:24.886)
Yep.

Octavio Blanco (35:40.14)
And I felt for the people who were suffering, but I think that they were, well, I don't wanna speak to anybody about, I don't wanna speak for anybody, but if I was in that position, I would want my healthcare to be.

to be protected because especially if my neighbors were getting activated in a way that we haven't seen people. In New York City, we have seen it. We saw it on 9-11. We saw it during the blackout. We've seen neighbors get together. We've seen neighbors help each other. And I think it's such a beautiful thing in New York of all places. We have the rep of being such a rude, know, a rude society here in New York City and unfriendly, but that's not the case.

You just have a different personality, you know what mean? We'll tell you how it is, but if you're, from the littlest things, in New York City, if you're a mother and you have a stroller, somebody is gonna stop and help you to.

Led Black (36:32.425)
Yeah, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (36:42.851)
take that stroller from the subway platform up to the sidewalk. They're gonna stop and do that. They might not even say a word to you, but they're gonna help you get it up to the sidewalk. And then you guys are gonna go on your day. Thank you, goodbye, right? In New York City, we saw people during that blackout.

Led Black (36:44.536)
Facts. Facts.

Led Black (36:51.086)
Mm.

Led Black (36:56.418)
Facts.

Octavio Blanco (37:02.649)
get together. We saw bodega owners like say, you know what, all my ice cream is going to melt anyway. Here, take the ice cream. People were having a party eating ice cream in, in, in, know, on their, on their blocks. was like such a beautiful moment. You know what mean? And forget about 9-11, like 9-11, we saw like people get together and help each other out. So like, I think we were like at, in a moment where that same kind of like feeling

Led Black (37:14.604)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (37:30.339)
was starting to permeate into neighborhoods not New York, into New Jersey. It was happening in Maryland. It was happening in Virginia. It was happening in the southern states. People were helping each other out. And...

Led Black (37:45.831)
I think it helped out electorally too. I think that helped. I think that solidarity, we got each other helped electorally. But I gotta say, before we go any further on this, space2277, he's from Dyckman and he lives overseas. So shout out to him, Dyckman in the building. He said he loved the show. So my brother, thank you so much.

Octavio Blanco (38:07.799)
Yeah.

Led Black (38:11.5)
Mad love wherever you at, man, for real. Endankment forever, you know what mean? But yeah, you know, and off topic, but I have to bring this up because, so I don't know, you don't know this Octavio probably because it's not really like part of your, know, like the things you're into, but a big Harlem like.

personality just came out of jail. Like he did an 18 year bid. His name is Max B. He's like a, you know, just like a personality. He raps, he makes music. He makes some mixtapes that really popular back before he went away. And he came up with the term wavy.

where he's credited for coming with the term wavy. So he just came out Sunday and on Sunday he went, you saw him in the jets game, dripped out in Louis Vuitton and that same night he was making music with French Montana. So I gotta say that cause it's a big uptown thing. know, shout out to Max B. You know, that's a big Harlem thing. know, so that's shout out to him. You know what mean? And then also shout out to my brother Snowman who did these shirts.

Octavio Blanco (39:02.946)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (39:08.14)
Yeah, that's great.

Led Black (39:12.406)
Yeah, Snowman did this shirt for some type of NASCAR thing. Yeah, Snowman, that's my brother. He's killing the game. He's done a bunch of collabs with the Nets. He did one with Modelo and he did one with this NASCAR. I don't even know what Grillo's Pickles really means. don't actually even put like usually, but it's because of my brother Snowman. So shout out to Snowman. You know, I bought this, I saw it out. I got an E-man, just bought it. Shout out to Snowman.

Octavio Blanco (39:12.728)
That's cool.

Octavio Blanco (39:37.769)
I think it's literally a pickle company actually. I think it actually is like literally a pickles, but yeah, I see snowman stuff all over the place. Yeah. Just like, mean, I don't...

Led Black (39:47.916)
I don't know what it got to do with racing. You know what saying? Yeah, yeah, snowman's dope. Snowman's so dope.

Octavio Blanco (39:53.637)
But yeah, I see his stuff all like the bodegas that are like painted snowman is so cool Like I love it and the vans the the the the car wash vans that are on the side a lot of them get the snowman treatment and That's so cool. So colorful. So so wonderful You know, I'm a I'm a fan of graffiti and so I love it when graffiti like transcends the You know it transcends and gets it becomes like

Led Black (40:01.422)
Yeah, yeah.

Led Black (40:07.532)
Yeah, he's the man, he's the man.

Octavio Blanco (40:22.496)
something about your neighborhood that you just like, it makes you feel warm and fuzzy. I think that's how it makes me feel when I see the snowman stuff. pretty happy about that. So.

Led Black (40:33.394)
Yeah, but to me, what makes Snowman dope is that he's part of a continuum. I think that people don't really understand. Washington Heights is crucial to the whole graffiti movement and tagging. The first credited graffiti artist was Taki183. He was a Greek kid from 183rd.

Octavio Blanco (40:40.483)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (40:47.672)
Yeah.

Led Black (40:55.66)
You know I'm saying? And so this neighborhood has always been a street art, a graffiti neighborhood. know what mean? And to me, like my brother Dister, who's to me probably the greatest graffiti artist to come out of the heights in terms of just impact, like his murals still stand. You know, they usually don't get buff. People don't really, you know, shit on Dister's murals because I love my hood, he gets real respect. But to me, there's a direct line to me between Dister and Snowman and what they do because it's really community oriented.

Octavio Blanco (40:55.843)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (41:15.627)
Yeah.

Led Black (41:25.594)
It's really, you know, just really about the culture. So I think I would love to one day work on an exhibit that kind of goes from Taki to Dister to Snowman and everywhere in between because I think graffiti is so important uptown and we're part of that movement, know what mean? We're the birth of that movement.

Octavio Blanco (41:38.606)
Yeah, yeah

Octavio Blanco (41:44.101)
I think that's a beautiful idea. You know what would be cool? The GWB complex, you've got a north side and then you've got a south side, right? So the north side is 179th Street and it goes from basically Wadsworth to basically to the end, to Cabrini, you know? And all of that is a wall.

It's all a wall. And you've got the same thing on the south side, 178th Street, from Wadsworth to, you know, basically like the, to Cabrini, where Cabrini is interesting. got sliced by the, the, by the GW, by the Cross Bronx. I know that there's a movement right now. I think Noma is part of it, to choose walls to do murals.

Those walls in particular are pretty ugly, you know? And I think they could use some color. So let's hit up Noma and talk to them about doing something and getting Dister and getting Snowman and getting those folks to do something on those walls to brighten them up. That'll be cool. Local graffiti artists, even like going to some of the old heads that are still doing their thing and getting them to participate.

that would be so cool getting getting that continuum that you're talking about and Getting them all to do some like really cool comes some really cool stuff on that wall about the Dyckman houses

Led Black (43:12.398)
Yeah, I agree.

Mm-hmm.

Led Black (43:20.546)
Yeah, man, I could think right off the top, just.

Octavio Blanco (43:24.588)
Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

Led Black (43:26.798)
And I was gonna say like right off the bat.

Art Man Dan, who's local, you know what saying? Grouillon Concepts, who does Love Yours. You know what mean? We have the talent. My cousin, know, Kron, he's nasty too. He's a tattoo artist in Riverdale, in the Bronx, and he's also a graffiti artist. So we got the talent, you know what I mean? We definitely have the talent, and I think it's important to highlight that talent, because we're important. know what I mean? Graffiti is a bedrock of hip hop, you know what I mean?

Octavio Blanco (43:34.574)
Yep.

Octavio Blanco (43:52.962)
Yeah, yeah.

Led Black (43:58.507)
and you know and we were at the beginning we were there we were part of the originators you know I think that's important to highlight that but yeah Dyckman houses what you saying about Dyckman houses

Octavio Blanco (44:03.054)
We were there, this neighborhood, this community. What I want to say about Dyckman Houses is that, you know, Dyckman Houses have been there for a very, very, very long time. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is from Dyckman Houses, you know. And one of my family friends who's no longer with us,

Led Black (44:19.276)
Yeah. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (44:26.243)
he grew up in the dykeman houses way back when and like what was it it's gotta be like the

the 40s when he was in the Dyckman houses. And then he went and he volunteered in the army and he went to World War II. And then he lived all over the world and he just passed away a few years ago. But he would always tell me, yeah, yeah, I grew up in the Dyckman houses. So it's interesting, those Dyckman houses have been there for a very long time and they've seen

And they've seen the like the neighborhoods history pass through them. So so it's really cool and space 2277

Led Black (45:12.108)
Yeah, you know, it's funny. It's funny you bring up. Yeah, you bring up you bring up Kareem. You know, what's interesting about Kareem was Lou Alcindor back in the days when he lived in Dykman houses, right? But what's interesting is he couldn't he was he couldn't walk. West of Broadway because he was black.

Octavio Blanco (45:22.263)
Yeah, Lou Alcindor

Led Black (45:33.293)
and the Irish kids were trying to kill him. So he would say that his mom was to walk behind him, like not knowing, know, like with him not knowing to make sure he got okay. But like, it was that real, like you couldn't go, you know, like Inwood was an enclave that didn't want black and brown people there. So sometimes he would forget like, you know, Kareem went through some stuff as a kid, you know what mean? Like it wasn't, it wasn't, you know, it was kind of hard scrapped on certain ways, right? Like the racial animosity, you know, he felt it uptown, which is wild.

Octavio Blanco (46:02.06)
You know, absolutely. mean, Inwood was an enclave of Irish people and they were protecting what they considered, I guess, to be their turf. You know, it's such a dog-eat-dog world in New York City. Block by block, can be, it's such a city of opposites. Like on the one hand, we're saying how nice.

people are in New York City, you know, and they are, and if you're lost in New York, you're gonna get help. But at the same time, we are also, you know, a city with a lot of layers. And race and culture is one of those layers that is very, very...

Telling in in New York City like people like to say that New York is a melting pot, but I it's not really a melting pot it's more of a of a of a garden salad everything's mixed together But you know the tomatoes the tomato and the lettuce is the lettuce and they just happen to be next to each other

But it's it's, love it here. think, I think this is a great, we were talking about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and then I was saying how, how, it reminds me of salad. I guess I'm hungry. No, I was just saying how, how, you know, New York city is, is, supposedly a mixed, you know, a, melting pot, but it's, it's not, we don't all just meld into each other. Our cultures remain vibrant. Our cultures remain strong and there, there are, there's definitely,

Led Black (47:21.206)
What are we talking about?

It is a salad.

Nah, I'm joking.

Octavio Blanco (47:49.037)
pride and cultural pride and racial pride and that sometimes comes with with its share of of problems. I mean it's a swirling swirling place you know I don't think there's anywhere else almost like it in the world where you've just got so much change happening at every moment of the day so many different people that are just like living next to each other and dealing with each other it's just a it's just a wild place to live.

Led Black (48:10.626)
Yeah.

Led Black (48:19.274)
And it's funny you say that, right? I put it in the chat. There's a good, it's a YouTube video from like 1968. It's called Good Bly to Glockamora. And what makes that video super amazing, right, is basically it was done by the BBC of Ireland, right? And they did a show where they would highlight Irish communities across the diaspora.

So this one that I found years ago, it was basically focusing on the Irish of Inwood in the late 60s, like while they're in the cusp of change. You know what I mean? And it's a fascinating look, because what's interesting about it, when you watch the video, the people there are referring to places in Ireland, like I'm from Dublin, I'm from here, I'm from there. And it was very reminiscent of the way Dominicans uptown now.

Octavio Blanco (48:56.653)
Yeah.

Led Black (49:12.142)
talk about DR, You saw their mouth, you saw their appearance, you saw their capita, right? And it's interesting, right, because those people, those Irish people are no longer here. They have long ago left. So it makes you also wonder, like, is that gonna be what happens to us? But what's also fascinating about that, goodbye to Gakamora, you you have like a young Irish person, and he was kind of like, he's driving right down Broadway. So you've seen him, like, so you see, in would,

Octavio Blanco (49:13.708)
Yeah.

Led Black (49:38.863)
in the late 60s and it's interesting because he was a very smart person, was very eloquent and he was saying a lot of these young older Irish people don't want black people, they don't want, he he referred to them as Puerto Ricans because that's what he saying, they don't want it, but you know that's not, he wasn't saying that, that's what he was against, he was saying the older folks and it was a very interesting look at Irish Inwood. So I recommend if people should check it out, goodbye to Glocka Mora, I put it on my site but you could also just check it out on YouTube. I think it's a fascinating look and I think if we don't

take care, you that could be the same thing for Dominicans, right? This could one day not be Little Dominican Republic, right? And I think that it's important for Dominicans to, know, Washington Heights is the epicenter of the Dominican diaspora and I hope it remains so forever, you know what mean? And I want to do my part to keep it that way.

Octavio Blanco (50:27.062)
Yeah. And you're doing your part. You've been doing your part and you should, you know, you know.

you're getting some recognition. know, you're getting a lot. You know, I've seen that the community, they know who you are. You're getting accolades from our electeds. You are like the voice of the community. Whenever ABC Channel 7 or NBC Channel 4 wants to get like a non-elected person to actually speak about what the community is about,

they'll come to you and I think that that's really because of all the work that you've been doing. I recommend to everybody who wants to know about what's going on to make sure that you hit up UptownCollective.com and you see what he posts because not only are you a great sharer of other people's successes but you're also an excellent writer and I think that your words, they...

Led Black (51:19.778)
Thank you, brother.

Led Black (51:32.546)
Thanks, brother.

Octavio Blanco (51:32.802)
They deserve to be spread and read globally. And also, just to keep on the love for Led, I always want to say, make sure if you're watching this, make sure you look up The Moth and Led Black. His stuff, his moth performance at United Palace. And he did one in Princeton as well, but the one at United Palace.

Led Black (51:42.858)
No, I want to say, yeah, no.

Octavio Blanco (52:02.709)
It was really powerful. really... But still, it's really...

Led Black (52:05.26)
It was the same story. was the same story. Thank you, brother. Thank you. And I want to say thank you to you, right? Like we wouldn't... Yeah, but...

But I want to thank you. Thank you so much, brother. I appreciate it. The Morph really kind of that changed my life. You know, I've always been a Morph fan to do the Morphers though. But thank you to you, right? Because we wouldn't even be on here talking to the people if it wasn't you pushing, you know, the Uptown Voices podcast. You came up with the name. You pushed me to do it, right? Because it's like I got again, it just like I got a lot of I got I'm doing a lot of things all the time. Like I'm never not working. You know what saying? So but but I enjoy this. And this has been a game changer for me. Like I enjoy I think it's a way of like, you know,

Octavio Blanco (52:36.108)
Yeah, yeah.

Led Black (52:43.694)
being even more in touch with the people. So thank you for coming up with it. And I wanna tell you, I wanna tell the audience one of my favorite stories about us, right? Which was, I remember when you were working for CNN Money, right? And one of your writers, cause you were editor at CNN Money, one of your writers got the Bentley Mulsane, right? And then you say, hold on, I'm the editor. I need to drive it as well.

Octavio Blanco (52:52.952)
Alright, alright.

Octavio Blanco (52:57.836)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (53:07.99)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Led Black (53:12.078)
I need to do it. So then you pick me up, where I think I forgot where you picked me up. And then you picked and then you and then I went to pick up my wife and I pulled up to my block on 192nd and Wadsworth in a $280,000.

Octavio Blanco (53:15.03)
Yep.

Led Black (53:26.764)
Bentley Moussane, right? Then I was like, everyone in my block just their mouth was just like, like they don't even know what to say. And then I came down with my wife and then you dropped us off at La Marina. We looked like the fucking like, like just the greatest. So I remember that I took pictures in that car. I've never been in a car so fly in my life. Like I would never buy that car ever, but it was, it was an experience just to be in there. The amount of craftsmanship was, was crazy. I wouldn't buy it.

Octavio Blanco (53:32.182)
Hahaha

Octavio Blanco (53:37.512)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (53:49.438)
Even if I was a millionaire or billionaire, that car is amazing. That car is amazing. I would also, even if I could afford it, I know me too. And I remember, you know, I remember that. I was so gassed about it. And one of the things is when I had it uptown, I parked it in the parking lot up here on Cabrini by the...

Led Black (53:56.665)
But it was fly. I took pictures like that shit was mine. I put that on Instagram like, yeah, I would never buy it.

Octavio Blanco (54:19.711)
by the Cabrini apartments over there. And then I, whatchamacallit, I remember, you know, I had something downtown.

and I had to park it on the street. I was like, oh my God. Cause I didn't own the car, but I had to park it on the street. And I just went to my event and left it on the street. And I was like, well, I really hope that it's there or that like a box truck didn't like scrape up the whole side.

Led Black (54:38.888)
Ugh! Ugh!

Led Black (54:57.966)
Yeah, that was gorgeous. It was a beautiful car. Beautiful, beautiful car. I would never buy it, but it felt good to be in it for a little bit.

Octavio Blanco (55:00.449)
Now, yeah, I would never buy, I wanna talk a little bit about this Mamdani transition. You down to keep going on the show?

Led Black (55:12.362)
Hold on, hold on, hold hold hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, we could keep going. could keep going. we got to, Maria Betancourt put a comment. She says, I love listening to you both talk about these important issues affecting us all. I live for 10 years Uptown. The people there are very special breed of people. Thank you, Maria. It's so true. Uptown is very special. And, you know, thank you for sharing that love and thank you for tuning in. We're to be doing these lives every once in a while, but make sure you tell everyone about the Uptown Voices podcast. Me and my brother.

Octavio Blanco (55:19.814)
yeah, Maria.

Octavio Blanco (55:40.959)
Yeah

Led Black (55:42.006)
is a black and Blanco night live. You know, we can stay long as we want, but I just got to make sure I'm quite the next game.

Octavio Blanco (55:44.115)
Yeah. And you know, I...

Yo, yeah, the Knicks is tonight the Knicks versus the Grizzlies Maria I just got to say also, you know, this is a lot of family friends and family Maria is my sister-in-law. So Thank you Maria for Suji. We call her Suji. Thank you for being on But I do know that there's I know that there I know that there's I know that there's so many other people that are that are

Led Black (56:03.49)
Thank you, Maria. Thank you, Suji. That's a cool name.

Octavio Blanco (56:09.323)
that are probably watching us and I appreciate everybody for being here. So I feel the love and I think this is gonna probably be like a monthly thing. This is our first time. So obviously there's some kinks. Unfortunately, it seems like we were not live on Instagram and we also were not live on TikTok, which I wanted to make happen. But we'll work on that. I gotta figure out how to make sure that those connections get made and all that good stuff. I thought I had it down, but.

You know, I do, you know, for the folks like

like space 2277 who aren't living in the city, you know, I'm so glad that we can be a resource for you. And so that's why I wanted to sort of talk a little bit about this Mamdani transition, because it's a special kind of time here. So we've got, he just announced his transition team, which is all female.

All women and all super, all super high caliber, high power.

Led Black (57:14.616)
Fire. Fire. Super duper stars.

Octavio Blanco (57:20.263)
Superstars we got grace bonilla president and ceo of United Way, New York City. She she's integral in in helping food pantries get the food that they distribute to the people in need so having her being on there Is is a huge huge thing Melanie Hartzog is Ex-deputy mayor for health and human services again on a mover a shaker somebody who really makes things happen in the

Led Black (57:25.324)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (57:50.11)
here. Lena Khan. Now this is like a huge name. know, let's go. Former Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. And you know, led that before, after CNN, I went over to Consumer Reports and Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Reports, you know,

Led Black (57:54.671)
Lena con let's go. Let's go

Octavio Blanco (58:11.989)
there's a lot of symbiosis there because a lot of things that we were doing and stuff that we were doing on the money side is stuff that Lena Kahn is really interested in. like making sure that websites that take your money are not being shady about how they direct you towards making different choices. Because sometimes you don't know, but there's little things about how they present things and folks don't know that they're being guided along so that they'll make

Led Black (58:32.91)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (58:41.993)
the choices that they want and Alina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission was really you know instrumental in trying to address those things. Things that we don't always see in our everyday life or understand so they're kind of complicated, they're kind of heady but she found a way to address them and so it's really great that she's here in New York City because she's got that viewpoint and she can really address those issues really well. Maria Torres Springer?

Led Black (59:00.515)
Right.

Led Black (59:10.67)
Yeah, and know, the billionaire and the bill But hold on before you say that the billionaires become they become they become bedwetters when they hear her name, Like they they they go to therapy sessions and they talk about Lena Kahn They are so fearful one of the reasons that the the oligarchs the tech oligarchs hated Biden was because of her

Octavio Blanco (59:14.054)
Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, cuz it's important. Yeah

Octavio Blanco (59:25.511)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (59:34.047)
Yes.

Led Black (59:34.147)
Right? Because she was a bulldog on the ass and she will go back and look at what laws she could use to apply. Like she went in the books and said, what can we use against them? How do we slow down them? So Lena Kahn like what I'm saying, and please finish the rest of this team. But what I'm saying, this shows you this man is not playing. He is not playing. He's going day one with a transition team that's all stars, all stars about fixing the other problems in the city.

Octavio Blanco (59:37.739)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (59:43.509)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (01:00:00.81)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:00:03.754)
Let's go. Tell me the rest of them, because I'm super fucking excited. Let's go.

Octavio Blanco (01:00:05.502)
Yeah, Yeah, all right. And I just want to say also to that point, a lot of people are so drunken by their own like, know, I'm smart. I know how to do this. I know how to do that. What I love about Mamdani is that he knows that, know, yeah, he's young. Yeah, he's not got the experience that a lot of people might.

wish for a mayor to have. What he does have though

is he has the ability to bring smart people together and this group of people, if he can make them all play nice and play hard and get things done, which I'm sure he can, that's just gonna show you how collaboration can be so much more than dictatorship. it's like we've got these two really interesting things happening in this country where we've got on the one hand at the highest level this.

Pseudo dictator and here in New York City. We've got this like mega collaborator. So anyway, I'll keep going Maria Torres Springer She's the ex first deputy mayor of New York City and she's also an ex Ford Foundation Executive so she's of the Adams

Campaign folks. She was one of the good one of the good people in my humble opinion she she seemed to to to stick around and make sure that things were getting done because you know God bless us that that mayor was not getting it was just

Octavio Blanco (01:01:46.855)
I don't even want to talk about it. I don't even want to say his name anymore. And finally, Elena Leopold, somebody who I hadn't really heard of before, pretty young.

She's the executive director for the transition and she was a former senior member of the de Blasio administration. So those are really, you know, some powerful, powerful women. Now, there's a couple of more additions to that that have recently been made. Dean.

Fulehan, I don't really know how to say his name, but I think it's Fulehan. He was just appointed the first deputy mayor. He's deputy mayor, he's deputy mayor now. And he's former de Blasio. And that was a little bit of a surprise because there was some other folks who were...

Led Black (01:02:30.092)
He's deputy mayor.

Octavio Blanco (01:02:51.536)
wanting that position. Ellie Beesgard Church, she's the chief of staff for Mamdani. And Jessica Tisch, we still don't know. She's the NYPD commissioner. Mamdani says that

that he's open to keeping her on. She hasn't said whether or not she will be coming back. It looks, if you're reading tea leaves, you know, I can't make predictions really, but you know, we'll see. I don't know, she's part of the billionaire class, Led so you're gonna like her.

Led Black (01:03:35.215)
I don't like her. I don't like her. I don't like her. I don't like her at all. I don't like her at all. Her family's responsible for a lot of shit. I don't trust billionaires and it sucks that in certain ways I've heard that she's been effective because she's not part of that corrupt bureaucracy before.

Octavio Blanco (01:03:53.396)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:03:56.621)
But sometimes I feel like she's effective because she's a billionaire and I just don't trust billionaires. But again, I'm going to defer to this mayor, right? Because if he chooses to move that way, I mean, I'm not going to, but I don't, I don't trust her. I don't trust the suit, the billionaires either, billionaire class either. I don't trust them either. I think they just don't want to pay taxes. They don't give a fuck about us. So I don't like billionaires and now I don't trust billionaires. And that goes for all that goes to fucking Beyonce too, right? Because like, you're like, listen, man, like my kids, like,

Octavio Blanco (01:04:19.867)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (01:04:24.714)
Jay-Z 2, Jay-Z 2.

Led Black (01:04:26.688)
My kids love Beyonce. But we're talking about Beyonce right now, but Jay-Z too, right? But Beyonce, like my kids love Beyonce. Like, you know what mean? Like my kids, I've taken my kids to Beyonce concerts and spent a great deal of money, right? But she just went to, what's her name? What's her name? The Kardashian wife, Kris Jenner, whatever her name is, the woman. And she went to a party for her.

Octavio Blanco (01:04:30.259)
Hahaha!

Octavio Blanco (01:04:50.827)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Led Black (01:04:54.446)
at Jeff Bezos house, right? So it's like these people are partying while your people are struggling. I just, tired of this billionaire bullshit. Like we need to get back to basics because these billionaires, they're the ones destroying this country. Like I hate to say it because they bought everything. again, like it's no war, but class war at this point.

Octavio Blanco (01:04:57.075)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:05:15.926)
Right? it's either we're gonna, the people are gonna be sovereign or the billionaires are gonna be sovereign. It's no more, there's no, it's either or. And I'm gonna go with the people, in my opinion.

Octavio Blanco (01:05:23.528)
And yeah, I think we have to and we're, I mean, I don't wanna go off the rails, but Elon Musk, the board of Tesla just basically said, okay, if you can achieve these benchmarks within this time period, then we're gonna approve a pay package that would make you the first.

trillionaire. And when we start talking about a trillionaire, it stops, it stops making sense. It's like, it's like using fake words like googly doogly jiggly -onaire, you know, like, it's just like, okay, well, now you're a trillionaire, like, he's not a trillionaire yet. But but

Led Black (01:06:06.484)
But, but even, but even.

Yeah, but even the fact that even the fact, but no, but the fact that he's he has a possibility of being a trillionaire, right, without actually it's based on potential is based on the dreams he's been selling, not on anything tangible, right? It's based on projections.

Octavio Blanco (01:06:21.779)
Yes.

Octavio Blanco (01:06:29.095)
I mean, okay, look.

Led Black (01:06:29.302)
Right? And again, this is what I'm saying. He has been, if anybody, he's getting welfare. Like every, like that's the welfare we've been giving to him. Like this is what I'm talking about. Like this is enough. Enough. This guy was buying people's, giving a million dollars for people to vote. Like he needs, if we're not going to deport anybody, deport his ass, deport Peter Thiel, deport Melania, deport all these fucking people. I'm fucking done with all of them. Like I'm really so fucking fed up.

Octavio Blanco (01:06:47.518)
Ha ha ha ha!

Led Black (01:06:55.756)
And again, need, like either, either your capitalism controls your democracy or your democracy controls your capitalism. It's either or. And this shit is all fucked up. We need to, we need to, we need to turn it up. We need to, we need to change things. It needs to change.

Octavio Blanco (01:06:55.977)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (01:07:11.059)
Yeah, no, absolutely believe, I mean look, certainly I have no love for...

Elon Musk, like he's been getting like $50 billion in subsidies from the federal government. If he wanted to save the federal government some money, he could have just stopped getting $50 billion in subsidies and maybe I would have kept my job. But then I wouldn't be doing this. so I'm so, I'm not, look, can I just say something? I'm gonna say something. I wanna say something. It's.

I love that we're doing this. I'm really enjoying this. I'm having a great time and you know, like more and more like I'm finding my own voice and more and more and I have great plans for beyond this podcast. You know, I really do. I really want to do more. You know, I really want to keep it going. There's a lot more plans that I want to do and you know, I've talked about those plans. I've talked about the, you know, but I really want to go beyond, you know, this

Led Black (01:07:50.636)
Likewise. Me too.

Octavio Blanco (01:08:15.841)
podcast but what I'm saying is like

I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to do this and that I have a partner like you to join me in this. And I know that you're doing so many things, but I'm gonna keep pushing you, you know, with my plans. And hopefully you'll be able to like, you know, you'll find them worthy and you'll be, and we'll continue this, we'll continue this journey together. Anyway, well, so yeah, so, and so let me just say this about Elon Musk though at the same time. And Elon Musk,

Led Black (01:08:26.37)
Likewise, brother.

Led Black (01:08:35.052)
Yeah, for sure. Let's do it.

Led Black (01:08:43.084)
Yes, sir.

Octavio Blanco (01:08:49.061)
is a genius, but he's a genius not of like doing the things that he, like he doesn't, he's an evil genius, but he's also a genius in like finding the really smart people to like do his SpaceX.

Led Black (01:08:57.173)
Evil genius.

Octavio Blanco (01:09:07.603)
to design his Tesla cars, to all these things. He's not in there making those things work. He's not the engineer that's making things happen. If it's left up to him, it turns into Twitter X. It just becomes a shell. I don't know. I don't use Twitter anymore, personally. It's not something that I have a one-man...

a one man, you know, ban on Twitter. Anyway, back to Mom Donnie. Mom Donnie, great team. Tish, I hear you. She's a billionaire class person. But as a billionaire, she was also like sanitation commissioner. I think that says something. I mean, you know what mean? Like you.

You know, like, you're a billionaire and you're talking about trash.

Led Black (01:10:06.804)
No, it says he wants fucking power. wants power. Listen, man, I'm sorry. She's a plant as well. She's the rich putting someone up there. What's interesting about that role, right, about the police commissioner role is very interesting. Let's look back. Let's go back to de Blasio. During the Blasio era, right, all the police commissioners were more powerful than de Blasio.

De Blasio will come out once, say one thing, and then you see the police commissioner saying something else. They have more power. And that's the thing is like, I'm not anti-police, right? But I'm anti-police calcified power, right? And their power during the De Blasio era showed in a sense, right? Because the police commissioner who changed hands a few times was more important than De Blasio. De Blasio was just seemed to be following the lead right?

They would turn their backs on him and everything. During the Adams campaign, he's a former cop. They didn't need to have, they had him in there. You know what mean? And now she's in there. And while I agree that in a way it disrupts the police control, like that top hierarchy, but I just don't trust her. She's a tish.

Octavio Blanco (01:11:09.661)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:11:22.83)
They're super billionaires, right? If they're doing things, it's not for the general good of the city, it's for the general good of their class. And again, like, I'm gonna say this again, as a person that's been focused on race most of my life, I'm late to the class, the class party. But I'm fully on board on the class party now. And I don't think she represents our interests, because she's one of that class. She's not part of our class.

So that's my only thing with her. think, but again, it is what I'ma defer to my mayor. If he sees fit to have her, that's fine, but I don't trust her and I don't really fuck with her.

Octavio Blanco (01:12:05.212)
No, that's fair. That's fair. And I think what you were saying about like them partying together, Beyonce, Jeff Bezos, all these people, there's so much good that can be done with that money. I'm not saying that they have to spend it all on doing good, but there gets to be a point where it's like, what's point of all of this? What's the point of having all this money? Like, what is it really?

Led Black (01:12:31.618)
Billionaires, billionaires should not exist. Yeah, billionaires should not exist. They should not exist. They should be taxed because they made, yeah, they made their billions off of people. There's no reason to have these billionaires that, fucking Bezos went out of space. We have people starving right here. You you can eliminate poverty just with a fraction of their wealth, right? But we don't do that. And that's the problem. You know, that's the problem.

Octavio Blanco (01:12:35.23)
Yeah, yeah That's a certain point. Yeah

Octavio Blanco (01:12:56.67)
And you can still go to outer space. He can still go to outer space and he doesn't have to.

Led Black (01:13:03.596)
Yeah, go do what the fuck you want. But what I'm saying is, but what I'm saying is like.

Yeah, yeah, but as they know, you don't have to go fucking out of space because what they're to do is out of space is pollute and destroy out of space like they've done this planet. We don't we don't want billionaires anymore. We don't want to give. No, don't go out of space. Don't go to the bottom of the ocean and die at the bottom of the ocean. Spend your money on people that are living right now. That's I think I think that's part of the problem, though. It's like the lack of like these people are not here to help us. They're not here for us. They're here for themselves. And we need a full on

Octavio Blanco (01:13:11.026)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (01:13:19.037)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:13:40.247)
revolt where we stick out for each other because if we get together there's no power that can stop us and that's where think my Dami shows are like the people united we can't be divided like we really could like you know we really could change things but I'm done with the billionaires no don't go to outer space you don't need to go out of space that takes too much money stay here on earth fix earth because you can you have so much money

Octavio Blanco (01:13:48.83)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:14:08.742)
It's either, listen, we're gonna either tax the rich or we're gonna eat the rich. Those are the choices. You choose. You choose. And again, that's why I'm saying no war but class war. That's it.

Octavio Blanco (01:14:14.494)
I mean look, I don't agree with...

I don't agree with you that we shouldn't go to outer space. I do agree with you that it shouldn't be outer space tourism, go out and just like spend. Okay.

Led Black (01:14:32.982)
Yeah, no, no, hold on, hold on. That's not what I'm saying. No, no, no. I'm not saying not going out of space. That's not what I'm saying. First of all, I'm saying fucking Bezos going out of space for little little trips, right? That's not about good. But I also want to say that, you know what? Fuck it. We shouldn't go out of space. You know why we shouldn't go out of space? Because it's only going to be for war. It's only going to be to pollute that. Right. That's so that we shouldn't go out of space. You should leave that alone. Because if it was purely for scientific knowledge and for growth for the humans, the human race.

Octavio Blanco (01:14:42.909)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:15:02.53)
then it's different, but it's not for that. It's for war and for control and for profiteering. So no, we shouldn't go out of space. We should not be that, we should really work on the terrestrial problems we have here. And if we're not gonna go to outer space for the general benefit of humankind, then we should not be going out of space because it's gonna be just another theater to play war games in. And I don't trust the billionaires with outer space. So no, fuck outer space. Let's stay here.

Octavio Blanco (01:15:29.63)
I mean, you do have a point, like the fact that it's gonna be weaponized, think, you it was a pipe dream to like say, no, you can't go, we can't put weapons in outer space. They're putting weapons in outer space, you know, there's stuff like that.

Led Black (01:15:45.005)
Yeah, but look, but you're looking again. I just think like one of the things that I think we have to like, we have a veil. We've living in the last few years have been years of revelation, right? The veil has come off and what people are saying is let's put the veil back on. Let's pretend, right? That these things are good, that they're doing things good. But no, NASA was started with a lot of.

former Nazi scientist, right? And it wasn't for the good of mankind. It was to control and was control and war. What I'm saying, I never, like again, the idea, no, no, no, hold on. No, hold on. Octavio, Octavio, no, what I'm saying to you is I think, no, Octavio, I think we need to look at all of our preconceived notions about things. Everything is under review. Everything.

Octavio Blanco (01:16:16.303)
Yeah, but.

Well...

It was, no, but it was control. It was control for, we couldn't have that.

Octavio Blanco (01:16:40.432)
Yeah, no.

Led Black (01:16:43.724)
And this notion that NASA was doing it for the good of mankind. that's bullshit. It was doing it for white supremacy and American dominance. That's it. Not for the good of mankind. And again, that's only where we're headed. This does not work that way.

Octavio Blanco (01:16:48.509)
Well

Octavio Blanco (01:16:56.989)
I think.

Octavio Blanco (01:17:04.697)
I think that it, I think it's complex. So let me just start with that if we're gonna debate that. But at the time, at the time, I would rather have the bomb be in American hands than in the Nazi hands. Of course, we fucked it up because then we flew over to Japan.

And we actually used the nuclear bomb against the Japanese. Twice, twice. And there's still debate about whether or not that was necessary. The Japanese fought really, really hard against the Americans. And so the Americans didn't wanna have more bloodshed of their own.

Led Black (01:17:36.462)
Twice. Twice.

Octavio Blanco (01:17:57.998)
in Japan and they were able to demonize and dehumanize the Japanese to the point where Americans were like okay let's do that and then everything else so

Led Black (01:18:09.198)
No, I'm sorry. I gotta stop you. I gotta stop you. I gotta stop you, Octavio, please. That's not what happened. They didn't have to drop those bombs on Nagasaki. No, saying that the government, they didn't have to drop those bombs. didn't. The war was over. The bombs were dropped just to scare, just to show you what America was willing and capable of doing. There was no necessity for this. It was completely gratuitous.

Octavio Blanco (01:18:14.885)
What? What do you, what do you mean?

Octavio Blanco (01:18:24.765)
Well.

Octavio Blanco (01:18:36.394)
Because why? Because the Russians could have come in? Because the Russians were like at the border.

Led Black (01:18:38.706)
So let's please the... No, what I'm saying, there was no... First of all, okay, hold on, hold on, hold OctavioLivis, hold on, stop. Again, I'm sorry to tell you this, but again, it's like you keep going through this white framing, and I know you don't mean to, right? But drop the bomb on Germany then. Drop the bomb on Russia then, right? Why don't you bomb it on Germany? Germany was the problem. Why'd you drop it on non-white people? Twice. The only time it's been done.

What I'm saying is this, notion that they did it because they had to, they didn't have to, they did not have to. That was, it was purposeful and it was done on purpose and it was a show of military might. What I'm saying to you is this notion that this, this, this, this American thing is, has any good intentions for people, like regular people. I think it's nonsense. And I don't think the times warrant just giving them this kind of, that the benefit of the doubt anymore. Like,

These things weren't done because they had to do them. They did not have to drop two atomic bombs on people. You know, it didn't drop one, you dropped two. The only country to ever done it, it wasn't out of necessity. It was done on purpose, right? It was done, again, and why don't you do it in Germany? Why don't you go do it? Because they're white people. That would be considered wrong, right? That's what I'm saying, like,

Octavio Blanco (01:19:46.321)
Yeah.

Yeah, killed hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands of...

Led Black (01:20:05.638)
That's why we're in this situation because we keep underestimating. We always make excuses for white people and Americans, white Americans. We always make excuses. We always say, it's for the good. No, it's not. It's to further white supremacy and white control. And we're not ever gonna get away from that. And it's not to the benefit of all white people either, right? It's not. We see that right now. We see white people suffering in this country right now just like everyone else.

But I'm saying it's done for white supremacy and white rich people to run the world. It's not done for anything nice. They didn't need to drop those bombs at all.

Octavio Blanco (01:20:43.773)
white rich people, think is the, but I think that it's not just white rich people, it just happened to be at the time, mostly, most of the rich people were white. I think that we're seeing now, like what you were talking about,

Is it white rich people or is it just rich people? Because now we've got Jeff Bezos and Beyonce and all color people partying, partying together and hanging out. So are the, are the corporate.

Led Black (01:21:14.07)
It's it's still, it's still, but hold on. It's, no, no, but it's still white supremacy. It's still white supremacy. So you have, you could have people of color upholding white supremacy, right? So there, and again, they're just tokens. Like again, all these people, they just platform until they're not platform, right? I hate Kanye. I used to love old Kanye. Kanye's a fucking coon. I cannot fuck with Kanye at all. But they took away that platform when he became, so he was a billionaire until he wasn't, right?

Octavio Blanco (01:21:26.257)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:21:43.151)
And again, he deserved it to be deplatformed. I don't like Kanye, fuck Kanye. But what I'm saying to you is these people are not, they're just tokens. They're just playing their part. At the end of the day, it's white supremacy. Doesn't mean that every white person benefits. That's not what I'm saying. it's still the, but white supremacy is the operating system of America, right?

And if we try to say it's not, that it's for good, no, none of these things are for good. Even the fact that you have women working in this country, it wasn't because they cared about women, right? It's because you needed someone to work because the men were off to war, right? And as soon as the men came back from war, they wanted to put women back in there, but women said, no, we're not going nowhere, right? So what I'm saying is you can make it seem like capitalism cared about women, but they didn't. They cared about capitalism.

and it's always going to care about itself. So all the things they do, they're not doing it. NASA wasn't for the plan and the scientific exploration. was most, it was a lot of fucking Nazi scientists. It was about domination and control. And again, I just think whenever we deviate from domination and control and white supremacy, we're getting lost and we're believing the nonsense. And I just, I just think we're, we're don't, let's not put that veil back on. Let's just take the veil off and deal with everything as it comes.

Octavio Blanco (01:23:01.818)
No, I think it's important what you're saying. I think it's important that we do look back and put everything in review and that we do ask these questions about, was it about the good or was it about domination and control? And yeah, I think it was a lot of it, you know, about domination and control. I can't argue that point that it wasn't. I think the fact of the matter is that the United States original sin,

slavery, then it was Jim Crow keeping people subjugated, especially black people. And to say that race doesn't have a, to say that we don't have a race problem with.

Racism in America is is is is Absolutely, absolutely wrong and that's not what I'm saying. I hope you don't think that that's where I'm coming from that I'm thinking like everybody's hunky-dory. I don't believe that What I do Want to do is like look for the hope look for the hopefulness and I think that there is a better

although still nascent and small understanding of what.

white supremacy is all about and how to like be aware of it and how to like try to try to combat it. I think it's interesting what you say that for a long time you were about race, race, race. And lately you've been more sort of like bringing in class into that into that discussion because those two things definitely go hand in hand. And so it's a, it's a

Led Black (01:24:50.221)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (01:24:56.75)
It requires ongoing discussion and that's great that we can do that here. you know, more of that, more of that coming up. But, you know, it's interesting when you look at all cultures in the world, it seems that skin tone and...

Led Black (01:25:05.236)
Mm-hmm. Of course, of course, brother.

Octavio Blanco (01:25:23.868)
class always seemed to have like some kind of uh some kind of meaning i mean even i don't know if though i want to i'll save that for another day i'll save this for another day a story a personal story about about how how in my face race became and culture became although not class it was more about race um i got a very very

I got a very, very like intense view of how quickly we retreat into our corners of race and culture in certain circumstances. More on that another day. It's getting to that time, Led. It's getting to that time. It's seven o'clock almost. It's almost...

Led Black (01:25:58.927)
you

Led Black (01:26:19.266)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah, my wife made tacos. So want to go eat my tacos that my wife made. You know what mean?

Octavio Blanco (01:26:22.715)
Yeah, you gotta eat your tacos. We're gonna do a Friendsgiving here and I'm gonna make tamales for that Friendsgiving. So hopefully you guys will be here enjoying some of the tamales. Yo.

Led Black (01:26:29.048)
Yeah.

Led Black (01:26:35.256)
What? And I gotta say one thing too, Octavio.

Before we go, wanna say that Moris Oñano's coming back to the United Palace. Sasha Mercy and Glorelis, you know, they're gonna come back December 18th, so tickets are available now. You know what mean? You can pick them up. It's gonna be the United Palace. It's gonna be a great night right around Christmas. I'll put it in the chat for everyone that wants to purchase tickets. It's gonna be dope. We've done a few, like don't know how many at this point. We've done a bunch of Moris Oñano's United Palace.

I was instrumental, bringing them into there. So we always have a good time in United Palace, man. So make sure you get your tickets, whoever you want to pull up. December 18th, Moris Onyondo, United Palace.

Octavio Blanco (01:27:11.309)
Yeah, we should all go. think we should... Also, I want to say a shout out to one of our good, good friends, Frank de la Merced, one of our uptown artists. He... Congrats, Frank! He is gonna be having his art displayed all over New York City.

Led Black (01:27:27.522)
That's right. Congrats, Frank. Congrats, brother.

Octavio Blanco (01:27:38.457)
He's in the New York City Art Underground, literally, because the MTA is gonna...

Led Black (01:27:44.866)
the man, Frank. Yeah, so he's be on one of first, the elevator, right? He's gonna be on one of first.

Octavio Blanco (01:27:50.076)
I think it's more than just the elevator. think it's gonna be on trains as well. I'm not sure. Frank, if you're still on, correct us. But I'm not sure. I think it's gonna be all over the underground. If I'm not mistaken, those paintings go everywhere. But even if it's the elevators, it's the only time that I would ever wanna be stuck in an elevator is looking at Frank's artwork.

Led Black (01:27:59.427)
Welcome.

Octavio Blanco (01:28:20.827)
You

Led Black (01:28:21.813)
I'm sorry. I love Frank, but I want to be stuck in the elevator. I hate fucking me stuck in elevators. I'm sorry. I love you Frank But I don't I'm gonna get mad if I get stuck in your elevator. So but yeah, no Frank is the man. No child to Frank. He's the man

Octavio Blanco (01:28:29.147)
love you, Frank, but we don't want to get stuck in an elevator. And everybody, if you're here, thank you so much. Yeah?

Led Black (01:28:37.518)
Yeah, I don't wanna, I hate you. It's funny you say that. You know what's funny you say that? Like about, I wanted to say real quick about elevators, right? So I have a thing like, so I, you know, again, for people that don't know, Broadway is the dividing line of town, right? So, know, Easter Broadway's poor, more.

more Dominican, more people of color, Western Broadway is wider, more affluent. I had a rule for a good chunk of my life. I didn't get on elevators, West, Eastern Broadway. Cause I got, I lived in the Eastern Broadway and elevators were like super shady when, and luckily I lived on the second floor. So I would always never take the elevator in the hood cause they would smell like piss or it'd be really bad. So I have a thing with hood elevators. So I don't like elevators. So as much as I like Frank, would not want to get stuck in the elevator. Just saying.

Octavio Blanco (01:29:14.21)
You

Octavio Blanco (01:29:20.699)
No, you know, I was being hyperbolic. I also don't want to be stuck in an elevator even if Frank's artwork is there. it's gonna be my fault and I'm gonna be like elevator. Anyway.

Led Black (01:29:28.854)
No, but now you're gonna get stuck and it's be your fault.

Led Black (01:29:36.334)
No, but he's got that's where he's gonna be on the elevator. That's what it's gonna be

Octavio Blanco (01:29:41.655)
Okay, okay. Well, congratulations, Frank. I love your artwork. know, me and Frank go way back. You didn't know this, Led, before, but now you know it now. We go way back to our, we were both CNNers back in the day and we're just...

We're just so lucky to have you in our community, Frank. And I know, I didn't know this, Frank. I'm talking to you like you're on the show, but I didn't know this that you were actually like, you know, raised in the community on Wadsworth. So anyway, we'll have to have you back on, talk about more good stuff. Led, is that it? Are we done? Is that it for our live show?

Led Black (01:30:04.28)
before I could be the fucking man.

Led Black (01:30:21.026)
That's it. Spread love is the uptown way. We done. Our first live was beautiful and wonderful. Spread love is the uptown way. See y'all next week. Bye.

Octavio Blanco (01:30:25.434)
Hahaha

Octavio Blanco (01:30:36.348)
All right.