Black & Blanco LIVE, Dec 21, 2025

In this episode, Led Black and Octavio Blanco engage in a dynamic conversation with uptown artists Adrian Miranda, Frank De Las Mercedes and Tom Sanford, exploring the recent Uptown Books event, the future of community theater, and the importance of supporting local artists. They discuss the impact of art on society, the role of community initiatives like Bocker Backpages, and the significance of local culture in the face of broader societal challenges. The episode emphasizes the need for community support and the power of art to uplift and inspire.

Takeaways
Uptown Books was a significant event for the community.
Feedback from the audience was overwhelmingly positive.
Future performances of Uptown Books are being planned.
Art has the power to uplift and expand consciousness.
Supporting local artists is crucial for community growth.
Art can reflect and address societal issues.
The Knicks fandom fosters a strong community spirit.
Acting locally while thinking globally is essential.
The current political climate is challenging for many communities.
Spreading love and support within the community is vital.

Chapters
00:00 Uptown Books: A Visionary Event
04:50 The Future of Uptown Books
10:03 Art and Community: Frank de las Mercedes
26:51 The Importance of Supporting Local Artists
27:53 Celebrating the Knicks' Victory
30:39 Pop-Up Event for Knicks Merchandise
36:18 Community Engagement and Support
41:35 Cultural Reflections and Community Building
54:20 Looking Ahead: Future Plans and Events

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)
What up, what up, what up, what up everybody? It's Let Black and Octavio Blanco on another episode of Black and Blanco Uptown Voices, live from the Heights edition. And ⁓ we have a good friend, Adrian Miranda, who was the man behind, the visionary behind Uptown Books that took place last week. I'm super blown away by it. I saw it before Octavio, so I kind of gave him like, yo, my man, get ready. This is gonna be an amazing show.

And like I was trying to tell you earlier that like this is, was such a special moment for it to be in Word Up books and to kind of create this thing. It was felt surreal. How did it, I know you must be super proud. How you feeling right now, Adrian?

Adrian Miranda (00:45)
I'm very proud. First of all, black and blanco. How many times have you said that on the show? Because I think it's just smooth. Right? just smooth. Yeah, exactly. Wasn't there like a parody made? Like jamón y queso, jamón y yellow or something?

Led Black (00:52)
Black and black and black and black black and black and black and

Octavio Blanco (00:54)
Blank and Blanko, Blank and Blanko, Blank and Blanko. It's like it reminds me of Black and Yellow, Black and Yellow.

Led Black (01:03)
How many kids is my

Octavio Blanco (01:04)
Pan

Led Black (01:04)
man,

Octavio Blanco (01:04)
con queso, pan con queso.

Led Black (01:05)
Mike Diaz? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Adrian Miranda (01:06)
I think that's it. was it, right? ⁓

but yeah, no, it was, it was awesome because, know, when you, you know, you're all of your creators in some form or another, right? This podcast, right? You had the idea and then now what's happening and you have, don't know how many thousands of millions of episodes and hours and minutes, but like the cool thing was that it worked.

Led Black (01:16)
Mm.

Adrian Miranda (01:28)
That's what I'm most proud about. You know, the feedback, like, you know, y'all came up to me afterwards and really enjoyed it. But more so, you know, when there's catastrophes in a production, that's what you stress out about, you know? And then I'm not sure who was in the show. Let him not let did you come to the first show on Saturday? OK, so was there somebody that came into the show like a random? So, yeah.

Led Black (01:46)
I came through the first show, I was there on Saturday,

Yeah, yeah, there was a random dude that was

like, and I had to ask Tuto, Tuto was like, is that dude part of the show? Because it was weird. Because he started like angrily, like kind of arguing a little bit, but the guys kind of worked it. But it looked like it was part of the show, right? It didn't look like it was, because you guys kept it moving. You didn't miss a beat. So I was like, was that part of the show? I don't think so. My man looks very real.

Adrian Miranda (01:59)
⁓

Right.

So that was something I thought about because you can't really lock the doors, right? Because if you have people coming in late for the show, you want to be able to kind of open their quietly and not interrupt. So I thought about like, if a random person comes in? I didn't think if a random loud person would come in that would people would question if they're part of the show. But Homeboy, like is an older gentleman with a cane and talking really loud in the middle of like the intense scene where I'm yelling at one of the actors.

And then what's funny is ⁓ he finally leaves and I'm at the door with like my final like screaming monologue thing. And then my hands opening the door and I'm doing like, do I make myself clear? And the guy's already on the outside. He's like, yeah, fuck him up. I was like, like kept it together. He said that for real as I'm the door open. He's like, yeah, fuck him up.

Led Black (03:02)
That's hilarious. ⁓ my God.

Adrian Miranda (03:09)
And then he like kind of like kind of watching to see what happens. I closed the door and he was kind of out of the picture at that point. But you know, that that kind of added to that is this part of the show? And I wanted that to a certain degree. I just didn't expect someone would be loud and kind of like a little bit off putting, you know, people. But but it worked out right. So it worked out.

Led Black (03:19)
It really did.

It worked out like it really was kind

of weird though like you said because what's interesting like alright It's already surreal right because you're in a bookstore and it's a immersive bilingual play in a bookstore So at the beginning, you know, know I to do right I know you but I didn't know everyone else right so it was like I don't know who was who you know I mean, so that guy the guy that did the disruption I thought he was part of it and he acted in a certain ways like he was part of it like he could care less about what was happening that he was on your side at the end which is hilarious

Adrian Miranda (03:45)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Yeah. I'm like, I should cast them. You're like, who is that? Yeah. But I mean, to answer your question, everything went logistics wise, right? As a producer of anything, was mostly the logistics worked out and then everybody's comments from the audience were great. And then the comments from the actors was even better. You know, after Sunday, Octavia, after Sunday's show, I think four of the actors were like, when are we doing this again?

Led Black (03:57)
for the next one, Uptown Books 2. ⁓

Adrian Miranda (04:22)
know, when's the next show? Are we doing this again?

Octavio Blanco (04:23)
That's awesome. Yeah,

Led Black (04:23)
Wow, that's awesome.

Octavio Blanco (04:25)
that is the question. When are we doing this again? Because I know that the intention is for the show not to just have been those three shows on that weekend, but for it to be more than that and for it to continue. So do you have any inkling of when is this gonna happen again? Where is it gonna happen again? How is it gonna happen again?

Adrian Miranda (04:50)
Yeah, well, the how is the easy question. You know, if we do that recirculation. So I already emailed the team of recirculation.

⁓ We may talk tomorrow, Monday or this week about the next shows, but yeah, the idea is to run it through April in some form or another. Recirculation to me is its home. However, I also made sure that it could be moved to different places. So Inwood Public Library, the New York Public Library at Inwood, I actually did reach out to them and they were like, let's talk after the holidays.

They got back to me, which is a huge accomplishment. I've emailed them before about video projects and the Uptown Actors stuff, and I got no reply. But yeah, the idea is, I changed even the script to be, this is a setting of a bookstore or library place where there's books. So like, Octavia, we could do it behind you in your home. Or in your apartment right there.

Led Black (05:25)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (05:45)
Hahaha.

Led Black (05:48)
Hahaha

Adrian Miranda (05:50)
The idea was to keep it simple enough that it can be moved around and put in different places. Recently, I even am looking into licensing and publishing it so that other schools and universities can use it. Maybe high schools or universities or conservatories or theaters, like community theaters, can use it. It's a one-act playing, right? So it's not a full-length play, but you can still use that as either a teaching or an experience builder or fully produced like we did.

But yeah, the idea is like we're in the Heights, we're in 120, from 125th to the Bronx. What kind of location can we replicate that? That's not enormous, but also gives the same feel as recirculation, but I would love it to be recirculation. We just do it there and get people to come, right? From all over the place.

Octavio Blanco (06:37)
I really liked the length of it. The fact that it was a one act and that it was relatively, it wasn't short, like you didn't feel like you seen something, but it wasn't long, like you had to devote your entire day to it. It was actually a really nice sort of like about 40 minutes close to that. And ⁓

Adrian Miranda (06:41)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Octavio Blanco (07:03)
and you could go about your day, could mill around the bookstore and make a purchase and see what you had there. You could go to your next event, whether it be dinner or lunch. I thought that was really, really neat. And I did feel like the acting was on point, you know? And like for community, for community acting, for community theater, you know, that can be, that can be, you know, sometimes it can be a challenge, but no, that was, you had some very, very talented people. And like, let's add the.

Adrian Miranda (07:06)
Okay.

Hmm.

Octavio Blanco (07:30)
the narrator with the music. She was so good and it was so nice for that to connect each of the little vignettes together. I thought it was sweet. And I walked away feeling, having felt something, having felt your story, ⁓ and also having felt part of the community, which I think is something that's so important. And so, yeah, I really do hope that...

Led Black (07:35)
Which is amazing.

Octavio Blanco (07:58)
that you can recreate it. recommend also that you reach out to the library on 179th Street. It's a small enough library, but it's been completely redone. could totally see.

Adrian Miranda (08:11)
⁓

Octavio Blanco (08:12)
I could totally see your play going in there and it might have in terms of timing and stuff like that and space and events it might be maybe easier than then in would which is really chock full of of you know like of community events already but check it out it's it's a it's a really cool it's a really cool space now I just want

Adrian Miranda (08:28)
Right, right.

Yeah, that's the I didn't know

I didn't know was open again. It's the my the bookstore I used to go to as a kid, you know, and then they closed down and it's always had this weird vibe, right? But yeah, but sorry, but go ahead. Tell me about the narrator. I cut lead off earlier before this was like, no, just save it for the save it for the show show.

Led Black (08:39)
Yeah, that's my childhood library too. Yeah, that's my childhood library. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (08:39)
Yeah.

It's actually, it's beautiful. It's beautiful.

Led Black (08:52)
Yeah,

you know what saying, the narrator on the show, she was so talented. She was like the glue, you know what I mean? And it's funny because that's the same song, it sounded so good live with her playing and the way she kind of seamlessly, she was excellent and brought it all together. But you did everything, you wrote it, directed, acted, what didn't you do in this thing?

Adrian Miranda (08:57)
All right.

I didn't write the first two songs, so that I didn't do, but I wrote the last two songs. ⁓ I wrote it, directed it, produced it. What else? ⁓ Yeah, everything. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Jack Romashoff, he lives near Dyckman.

Led Black (09:24)
Kudos, brother, kudos. That's a feat in itself, man. You should be very proud.

Adrian Miranda (09:35)
local, he's part of the Uptown Actors, he's a DP, director, filmmaker. His film was in the Inwood Film Festival this past run and a photographer as well. He did the photos for like the main poster where I'm sitting there kind of sleeping and other characters there and the design of the poster. Yeah. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (09:51)
Those are great by the way those photos those posters were really nice.

Led Black (09:52)
Yeah, excellent.

Adrian Miranda (09:55)
And then everything else I did, all the other graphics that I did, all the other graphic designs I made. But yeah, everything else, yeah. Acting, writing, directing, I did it all.

Octavio Blanco (10:07)
Who

was the, who played the dad? Who played the, not the dad. I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't wanna give, I don't wanna give everything away. I might've just like. ⁓

Adrian Miranda (10:13)
So there's two actors. My daddy, you

Led Black (10:19)
Yeah, you just,

yeah, why'd you do that, Kuktawe? You just, forget about it.

Octavio Blanco (10:22)
⁓ man, that was a...

Adrian Miranda (10:22)
Well, you know, you get surprised regardless, even if you know the ending, because you don't expect that, you know, like a random person comes in and they're like, are they part of the play? No. And then you see the actual actor.

Led Black (10:29)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (10:32)
Okay,

so you know who I'm talking about. Who played that? Because he was very good. I gotta give him his kudos. ⁓

Adrian Miranda (10:41)
So there's two, right? So let's saw Jonathan Allers different and then different, definitely a different ⁓ acting and choices. And then Octavia, you saw Vincent Saia.

Octavio Blanco (10:44)
⁓ two.

Led Black (10:45)
⁓

Octavio Blanco (10:52)
Wow, oh, I didn't know that. thought it was the same. That's, see, that's yet another level of depth. Look, we really enjoyed the show. Led, I know you did. We have, we're trying to pack it in here. Adrian, you don't have to leave. You can hang out if you want. But we have another guest.

Adrian Miranda (10:53)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (11:20)
in the waiting in the wings. So we're gonna try to get him on. But before we do that, let give me an update. I can't figure out if we're on Instagram. Can you tell? ⁓

Led Black (11:32)
Yeah, we are, we are, but it looks

Adrian Miranda (11:32)
No.

Led Black (11:33)
like it's a little off, I think, you know what mean? Because I see it here, but it just goes back and forth between things. I'm not, you know, it doesn't, it looks good and then it looks bad, looks good and looks bad. It's kind of like, whatever. But didn't Adrian have to tell us something, are you doing something else, Adrian? Like what's next for you brother, before we go to Frank.

Adrian Miranda (11:50)
⁓ Really, mean follow me on Instagram at gross anatomy studios and then a linkedin adrienne Miranda just look for it should be like linkedin.com slash in slash adrian mpt I share everything on linkedin like even like when they sneeze backstage, so everything is there What's next is ⁓ uptown books is we're doing other performances The goal is to run it through april and various places research nation should be its home but I understand like we have to go other places and then I'm also working on a

⁓ solo rock musical, ⁓ much based, inspired and based around, you know, my father passing away of AIDS and I just found out just a couple years ago, but it kind of reflects family histories and family stories and grief and mourning and family dynamics and things like that.

It's a solo rock musical. recently literally just finished the band. So we have a guitarist, which is Delson Hernandez. He's local. Greg German is a drummer. ⁓

⁓ D who's a bassist and Wiley who's a violinist. So we have a violinist, electric violin in the show. And trying to do it, my goal is to do it as a dine-in experience. So I'm looking at different venues in the neighborhood that have like kind of like a chill atmosphere in the evening. And as you get to eat, drink, and then watch a rock show about, you know, kind of a solo theatrical storytelling rock musical. So that's my current project as Uptown Bliss is kind of like has legs and then kind of move on. And I'll be in that not every

single show but I'll be in that and do the rock musical but that's like the next theatrical stage amongst a million like five other films that we're doing in Uptown Actors in 2026 but as far as the theater those are the next two updates and you follow me on Instagram you'll see small bits on LinkedIn you'll see everything you know that I'm that I'm working on like day by day

Octavio Blanco (13:41)
And

don't forget that parody of In the Heights. I think it's a great idea. I think you should keep it going.

Adrian Miranda (13:45)
Mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah,

so that's exactly one of the six movies that I'm working on in 2026. So that's...

That's definitely happening. as far as the movies, there's In the Heights, a movie musical parody. There's a Lindy Hop, ⁓ it's called the Lindy Hop movie. ⁓ And then there's, my gosh, I forgot the other two. There's two other ones that were, vertical drama, a vertical, sorry, a vertical micro drama about, based on stories of Open Hands, which is a legal firm in the neighborhood that helps a lot of different people, pro bono. And so it's a vertical kind of dramedy micro drama that we're doing.

Octavio Blanco (14:04)
So you're not busy at all. You're not busy at all.

Adrian Miranda (14:22)
So based on that, collaborating, probably filming at Juan Pablo Duarte Foundation. And those are like the three I can tell you like off the top of my head right now at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks so much. do have to get going, but I'll be watching and listening on the side. And thank you so much again for coming and for being at the show and for having me back on here too. All right. Take care.

Franck De Las Mercedes (14:28)
the context.

Led Black (14:30)
Gotcha.

Octavio Blanco (14:30)
Awesome, awesome. That was right down the block from our house, lad.

Led Black (14:33)
Yeah, it's right there. Adrian, thank you so much for being on the show, Appreciate it,

Octavio Blanco (14:36)
Thank you, Adrian.

Led Black (14:45)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. See you soon, brother.

Octavio Blanco (14:45)
Awesome. Yeah, friend of the podcast.

Thank you. See you. See you.

And ⁓ now I want to introduce without further ado, our brother from another mother, long lost, our long lost compay, Frank de las Mercedes. Frank, thank you for coming on. I know that you have an open studio. I wanna hear all about it. Let, know, you go way back with Frank. I'll let you do your greetings now.

Led Black (14:51)
Without further ado.

Franck De Las Mercedes (14:52)
Hahaha

What's the deal, man? Gentlemen.

Led Black (15:04)
Frank, Frank, what up, brother?

Franck De Las Mercedes (15:15)
You

Led Black (15:16)
No,

Frank, brother, what's this deal, man? How you been? We talked about your Christmas party, the holiday party you had, how great of a time you had, man. Like, dude, you're so amazing. I'm glad, you you're doing the Lord's work in a lot of ways, right? Like, you're doing the work that we need for the community, for us as humans. So, Frank, man, talk to me, brother. How you doing?

Franck De Las Mercedes (15:18)
What's up, brother?

I'm glad. Thank you for coming, man.

Hahaha

I appreciate it good man, ⁓ just you know, ⁓ getting through the holidays. It's, ⁓ you know, I think like everybody, I think I speak for a lot of people when like we're ending this year like, all right. You know, it's like, you gotta keep the joy though, but you know, that's what the arts gotta keep moving forward, you know?

Octavio Blanco (15:44)
I know.

Led Black (15:58)
You have to. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (15:58)
You gotta keep the joy.

Led Black (16:02)
For sure, no, for sure. I mean, I think

Octavio Blanco (16:03)
Yeah man, for sure.

Led Black (16:04)
you have to find joy, right? And it's weird sometimes, right? That like, I feel like professionally, you know, in terms of what we're doing, this is the best time of my life, right? In terms of all the creative outlets that I'm involved with, you know, I think, but you know, on the level of where you live, like as your whole existence is changing, like every day, something new, something gross.

Like it's just like, you know, it's so wild. Like that speech that that motherfucker gave like a few days ago. Like what was that? Like, you know, like it's just a strange world and it's just like nothing anymore is sacred, but at the same time you might be doing well personally or you see your family blossoming, you know, it's a strange kind of surreal thing, man.

Franck De Las Mercedes (16:46)
Yeah.

Yeah, yesterday I was at a friend's holiday party and we were talking about how like, yeah, we go through challenges, right? I mean, it's part of life. We all face challenges. We all face it. But it's now like, now it's like they're announced. You know I mean? Like, this is what's gonna be happening, you know? Like, it's really, it's really a...

Led Black (17:03)
Yeah.

Franck De Las Mercedes (17:08)
Weird existence, know, like you just mentioned the word existence and it's like yeah, it's it's sobering, know, like to think that all of these ⁓ Things that are happening We're told you know, like they are gonna happen and it's always like a new thing Yeah, it's ⁓ it's crazy, man

Octavio Blanco (17:25)
They were telegraphed.

But you know, the truth of the matter is that joy and experiencing joy and finding joy, that's like a choice that we, it's really a choice. We could very easily go into despair and it's understandable, but despair isn't the only choice. know, joy is there as well.

And joy doesn't mean ignoring the realities of what we are experiencing. And I want to tie it into the work that you do, Frank, because I experience joy when I see your artwork. But your artwork ties into the realities, the very difficult realities that we may see in our life. But when I look at your artwork, I think that's joyful because that's beautiful. It's vibrant.

But the messaging behind it is powerful. And it's not just like, everything's beautiful. Everything's great. It's like, look, there's reality here. So ⁓ I want to make sure that more people can see that artwork and own a piece of it or a version of it. So I want to give you the opportunity to expand a little bit on this concept of open studio. What is it and how can people get involved?

Franck De Las Mercedes (18:28)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I

much appreciate what you just said about, the thing is, I look to the art myself when I'm facing challenges, right? I look to the poetry, I look to the plays, I look to stuff with substance and context that can uplift, you know? And I think that that's what the art can do. It can uplift, it can expand consciousness as well.

You know, and the idea, the real ⁓ idea behind the virtual, because it's virtual open studio, ⁓ came from when I was doing the residency at the East Village. I created this one room, which I think you saw it, Octavio, the room full of prints, right? And I wanted the idea behind that was to create a room where like people were immersed with art.

Octavio Blanco (19:33)
Yes, yes, and we have some too.

Franck De Las Mercedes (19:41)
Not in a digital way, right? Like so like people walked in and be like, wow, I'm looking at all the prints and the portraits so I did ⁓ know people were able to purchase prints from like the wall and ⁓ Then that came down and I had like all the prints here at home And they were just sitting there and it's like, you know, should just like make them available for the people and I actually made them available at a real affordable price because

It's about the closeness to the arts, right? Like everybody should get a chance to own at least a print, you know, of art. Because I do believe art is life changing. Life is light and whatever you post something, it illuminates, right? Like a work of art. So ⁓ that was the idea behind it where I was like, you know what, let me do ⁓ a tribute to this room because the room was really special when we were set up in the East Village. I said, let me do something with this and just, you know, have people... ⁓

give people an opportunity to own a print, you know? And so like I put them up and it's on my website, it's called The Print Room. ⁓ And that is the story behind it, you know? And it's like, ⁓ I call it like my greatest hits, because it's at work, it's print from works spanning from 2014, which is when I started painting again, up until like 2020. So it's like, you know, some of the...

some oldies book goodies and greatest hits of like my paintings, know, from like some of my original paintings.

Led Black (21:12)
Yeah, and I copped one of those prints, Frank, so thank you, brother.

Franck De Las Mercedes (21:15)
And people are very surprised because you know, because of the price, because I priced them out of like just because I had like a stack of them. So was like, want them to go. Right. People are like surprised how great of a quality they are because they're archival quality prints. So I'm very happy about that. And then the other thing that happened was it ties to what you just said. People. Who also collect my like original work came back as like.

So are you like really sold out of that? you know, was, I want like, you know, so like they have extended it. It's really like people who have responded so positively and want one, you know, that they have extended the, what I'm doing with the print and you know, them purchasing them.

Octavio Blanco (22:03)
And tell me, like, how do people do, where do they go to make a purchase or to view the prints or to do all this stuff? Like, how do people get involved?

Franck De Las Mercedes (22:13)
Yeah, it's direct from my website

direct from my website by the way, I i'm very grateful to ⁓ Uptown collective man when when you post it when you posted the the the I believe it's a story or something but you reposted something when I when I first put it like There were quite a few like local addresses and i'm like that has to be the uptown collective There's no way like this this came from because it was like people uptown like just getting a print

Led Black (22:23)
Of course, brother.

So that was beautiful. Thank you.

Franck De Las Mercedes (22:41)
They can go to FDLM studio FD is probably backwards here, but I got like the these are the labels from the shipping but it's like FDLM studio That calm FDLM for Frank de las Mercedes FDLM studio comm and then they can click on shop and it's the print room is right there and they can find it there so You know

Led Black (22:41)
That's beautiful.

Octavio Blanco (22:51)
Okay, yep.

Led Black (22:54)
Nice.

Octavio Blanco (23:04)
And talk.

Led Black (23:04)
And

I want to say real quick, I think it's important to support local art. This is going to beautify your home, beautify your soul, right? And then help a local artist who's in our community, I'm not going to tell you your address, but you're on the same avenue that my mom still lives in, right? Like maybe a few blocks away, right? And I think a lot of times we talk about, the arts, the arts, but the arts is not if we don't support it, right? And not only that, we really need to really get into it. Like 2026 got to be the year of supporting our own.

Franck De Las Mercedes (23:10)
Thank you, yeah.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Led Black (23:33)
Right. Stop talking. Stop. Keep those uptown dollars uptown. that. It got to be normal. Like, and we have to be strict about it. Like, you got to tell your man, why you buying art somewhere else? Come uptown. Support Noma. Support Frank. Support Tom. We got all these all the shit up here. And not to say we shouldn't support other people, but we got to support our own at the end of the day. Right. Because if we don't support, who's going to support?

Franck De Las Mercedes (23:52)
No, that's that's more that is true and much appreciated because I mean like when you when you go to a noma show, right? You're always I am personally as an artist Always in awe of the amount of talent uptown, right? And like how great that we have this platform that support us right and that champions what we're doing, right? Because the the reality is

Octavio Blanco (23:53)
Yeah, absolutely.

Franck De Las Mercedes (24:12)
Social media, you know and it sounds like that joke that mean but like, know, like support living artists because the dead ones don't need it Right and like if you are on social media, for example, you get thrown like the same five artists all the time you they're coming at you, right and

Led Black (24:22)
Thanks.

Franck De Las Mercedes (24:31)
That's great, right? But it's like all the major galleries, all the blue chip galleries, all the auction houses, all. Yeah, that's all important. But there's also a wave of artists that have been here that have been doing their thing for many years. You know, I've been doing this since 2002. I have fellow artists who have been doing it for a lifetime, you know. So it's really important. And I really appreciate, you know, the invite for this because I, you know, Octavio texted me and I was like, sure, let's do it. You know, but it is important.

to continue ⁓ expanding the consciousness of people through art because I think that that's what art ⁓ can do, know, and expand understanding and we need much needed understanding these days about

everything even the things that we don't like there's something there to understand you know and so that's that's kind of like the the route that i've taken with with my work where i want to kind of like just bring understanding ⁓ through my work to people and not preach but rather this is the things that i'm myself trying to understand or deal with what do you think right so that's that's pretty much what what i've been doing

Octavio Blanco (25:21)
Yeah.

Led Black (25:40)
That's dope, Frank. That's dope. That's dope.

Octavio Blanco (25:42)
Yeah, and I just want to say, Frank, that, you know, in terms of the way that art is ⁓ life changing, it's definitely something that has changed your life for the better. And I love to see that story through your artwork. ⁓ you know, I think that there's so much of that, and we are doing what we can little by little.

Tom (26:07)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (26:10)
to chip away and to have a say and to highlight the people who are in our lives and who are ⁓ important to our communities. And so that's why you're here, Frank, not just because you're our friend, but because you're somebody who's really ⁓ doing the work.

Tom (26:23)
Thank you.

Franck De Las Mercedes (26:26)
Thank you.

Octavio Blanco (26:33)
putting the work out, putting the art out and making a statement about what's going on in your life and in our lives. So thank you for being here. Frank del Azmer, ⁓ once again, tell the people they can go to your website and how long is this gonna be going? Is it indefinite or is there a deadline?

Franck De Las Mercedes (26:40)
Thank you.

Mean I'm gonna go with what people say, you know, so ⁓ as of right now is gonna go through the end of the year ⁓ FDL studio.com and then click on shop and you'll see that the print room But I just want to say how how grateful I am for this and also the importance of what you guys are doing I am NOT saying it because I mean I've said it to you separately without any cameras rolling. It's really important. It's a fresh voice ⁓ It's important for our community

Tom (26:57)
Thank

Led Black (27:20)
Thank you,

brother.

Franck De Las Mercedes (27:21)
and it's important that it's out there because it is what you guys are doing is really special. I trust that it's going to grow and and you can count on me to support in any way that I can. have a great Sunday guys. All right. All right brothers. Take it easy.

Led Black (27:33)
Thanks, brother. Appreciate it, man. Frank, we'll talk soon, Say hello to the family, brother. All right, till later.

Octavio Blanco (27:35)
Thank you. Thank you. Say hello to the family.

Peace.

Led Black (27:42)
Peace, brother. And this is no joke, man. We're going from Frank to my man, Tom Sanford. Tom, what up, brother? NBA Cup, we got the NBA Cup in the bag now, you heard?

Tom (27:46)
Thanks

We sure do, man. We sure do. And for me, it's almost a real championship.

Led Black (27:59)
It is. Hey, listen, man, it's a trophy, you know what mean? And you know, Dovahkatt gave his money to D.R., to a program in D.R., which I thought was so special, you know, so was like, was a win for everybody. It was a win for New York, win for D.R., win for NBA. So, you know, I'm happy about that.

Octavio Blanco (28:00)
It felt like one.

Tom (28:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't be more excited. know, got bigger things are coming. But that's the first trophy we've gotten in my 50 years of life. So that's incredible. I'll take it. I'll take it. You know what? We put up a banner for winning the Eastern Conference and for winning the Atlantic division stuff. Why aren't we putting up a banner for this? I want the banner.

Octavio Blanco (28:25)
I will take it. I will take it.

I agree, I agree. I want the banner, put the banner

Led Black (28:39)
And

Octavio Blanco (28:41)
up.

Led Black (28:41)
it was a great game, right? Like the Spurs were winning it. You know, to be honest, look, as much as I love the Knicks, I love the Knicks and I hate the Spurs, but Wemby is a special player. Like I don't think I've ever seen anyone do what he did. And to be honest, I think his team froze him out of the fourth because they just didn't get to him the run. But the Knicks, you know, persevered, showed leadership. That was a great, great game.

Tom (28:43)
Yeah!

Yeah, no, a lot of players came through, you know, obviously Mitchell Robinson with all those rebounds like out rebounding the entire Spurs team in the fourth quarter, you know, incredible. Even Jordan Clarkson, he showed up incredible play. Yes, really is. Tyler Cowlick. Rhode Island's finest.

Octavio Blanco (29:11)
He is a beast!

Led Black (29:14)
Wild, wild.

Yep, probably one of his, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (29:20)
And Tyler Cosek, man, Tyler Cosek. Colick, Colick. He's...

Led Black (29:24)
Tom Colick, that guy's amazing. He does the things, he does

things that don't go on the score sheet, right? He'll just get in front of a player to defend. He's a really smart player. I really like him.

Tom (29:37)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (29:38)
I will say this though, before we move on to your, where you're headed to right now, I think, if Wemby was.

Tom (29:44)
I'm actually headed right

now, I'm running downtown to a dog training with my wife and our dog. yeah, anyway, continue.

Octavio Blanco (29:50)
Okay.

I was just gonna say if, if when he was full strength, that's a whole different story. That guy's a beast. I don't know if he's once he's healthy, it's going to be a scary situation.

Tom (30:04)
Yeah, I was worried in the first

half. He was altering our shots a lot. You you saw all the players trying to do these like teardrops over him and they were all coming short. But in the second half, we got tough. We, they, our guys got tough. Yeah, yeah. I was, I was on the bench.

Octavio Blanco (30:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Led Black (30:17)
Us, it's we, it's we, it's we, it's we. They went cause of us.

Octavio Blanco (30:17)
I was there. I was there on the court.

Well, yo, listen, I appreciate that you're here. ⁓ You know, we're we want to give you as much shine as we can. I know that you've got a pop up event today. ⁓ And so tell us all about it right now. ⁓ What's going on?

Tom (30:39)
So yeah, so Bacher Backpages t-shirt pop-up, it's down on Orchard Street at 147 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. So I guess that's like right by Stanton Street, I forget the Cross Street, but 147 Orchard at a place called Nowadays Creative Lab. it's, we're doing from one until seven, we're doing a print on demand thing. So you come down, you pick out your t-shirt, you pick out your design and we print it up for you while you wait.

so you can grab a few t-shirts if you want for that special Knicks fan in your life just in time for Christmas. You can still order them online, but sometimes there's a little bit of backup and they take a few days to come, sometimes a few weeks. But if you want a shirt for Christmas or more, come down to Nowadays Creative Shop and we will be there talking Knicks and printing t-shirts for you.

Octavio Blanco (31:12)
Hahaha

Led Black (31:32)
And let me ask you question. Do you still have like Captain Clutch? Are you gonna able to print those?

Tom (31:36)
yeah,

every single design we ever made is available. you know, because we have a, we got a hard drive. We probably got certainly well north of 50 designs at this point. We're probably approaching a hundred designs. So anything that anyone wants, they've seen on our, on our Instagram, we can make anything for them. They've got like, they've got like these incredible, what are called DTG machines, like direct to garment printers, which are kind of like a big ⁓ like inkjet printer, but it prints on a t-shirt or whatever you want to print on.

Led Black (31:39)
Wow.

Wow.

That's amazing.

Octavio Blanco (31:52)
I want

to see

Tom (32:05)
and they make incredible t-shirts and ⁓ we'll have those things running all day.

Octavio Blanco (32:10)
Yeah, and I hope that there's gonna be a line around the block of people, Knicks fans looking for their t-shirts. Go ahead, Led.

Led Black (32:11)
Yeah, go ahead, because I will.

Tom (32:19)
Well, yeah,

I'm sure we'll get a few. ⁓

Led Black (32:20)
Yeah, especially

after the NBA Cup, but I really want that blackness monster. I wanna cop that. I thought that was really, really cool, man.

Tom (32:26)
yeah, yeah, we'll have to get you one of those. And you

know, we got Miami this evening at six o'clock. I think Tyler Hero's out. Either way, we should beat them. But, ⁓ you know, big game tonight and big day down at Nowadays Creative Lab.

Led Black (32:42)
Nowadays created a lot of you heard what's the website if I can't make it to that kind of family engagement? What what where do I go to cop if I can't make it?

Tom (32:50)
So bockerbackpages.shop, but if you just Google Bokker Backpages, it comes up. Or if you go to our Instagram, at bockerbackpages, there's a link to it. And yeah, you can get any of the shirts we've made on there as well.

Octavio Blanco (33:04)
And we've talked, we talked in the last episode, last episode when you were on about, about Bacher back pages. Now he's an uptown, he's an uptown cat too. He's an Inwood, Inwood resident, so.

Tom (33:15)
Yeah, yeah, Stephen Delakian.

Yeah, he's like, you I'm, I am sort of number two, maybe, or maybe number three, because his girlfriend is very instrumental as well. Chelsea, Chelsea Turner, she's awesome. But, but yeah, Stephen has been, he started off Bokker like during the pandemic. And initially, it was kind of more like he was doing a fake back page of the New York Post or whatever, but like kind of like an onion meets the...

It's the post thing where we're making like spoof headlines about the Knicks, but it's turned into like a much bigger thing where we do that and we also make the t-shirts and all sorts of content and ⁓ yeah, just kind of growing.

Octavio Blanco (33:56)
Man, well look, man, that's so cool. I'm really psyched that you were able to squeeze us in in between your events.

Led Black (33:57)
That is so amazing.

Tom (34:03)
it's...

No, it's like, you you guys know when you have kids and a family, there's always something going on. It's like, been crazy. I had, I don't know if you guys know the well-known Knicks fan, JSB Mad Hatter. He's an uptown guy from Harlem. He came over and cut Simon in my hair this morning. And so it's been a hectic, hectic morning.

Octavio Blanco (34:11)
Yeah.

You know what's funny before

we let you, you know, go about your day. It's like, you mentioned this in the last episode that that the Nick's fandom is a community. And that right there shows me that like the realness of that. That's truly and how

Led Black (34:30)
Hahaha

Tom (34:42)
yeah. Yeah, no, so

JSB is a guy I've known through for like maybe five years or so from going to Nick's watch parties and stuff. And you'd recognize him because he always is wearing like the most like souped up Nick's gear. He like he has these crazy hats sometimes he has like ones with like horns coming out of them. But he's a little dude. He looks a lot like Spike Lee. He gets mistaken for Spike sometimes because he also wears like

big glasses like has like gazelles normally and ⁓ yeah he's super cool guy super nice and he loves to cut hair so comes by my studio occasionally and cuts me and Simon's hair

Octavio Blanco (35:23)
And by the way, and by the way, did see, was watching the last game on Amazon Prime and they've got the promo and I didn't know that was you. I didn't know that was you. It's hard to tell. ⁓ Yeah.

Led Black (35:24)
That's awesome.

Tom (35:35)
Yeah, it was me. You only see the back of my head. You know, for that shoot,

I brought down my big Jalen Brunson cutout, which you saw in the last episode. Sorry about the train going by. ⁓ But ⁓ yeah, I brought that down to the court and we filmed me and George the Messiah standing with it a little bit.

Led Black (35:49)
You're good.

Tom (35:58)
But that didn't end up making the cut, unfortunately. But you do get to see me getting clowned by George, which is the best part.

Octavio Blanco (36:03)
Hahaha

Well, listen, Tom, we'll let you go on about your day. there anything, tell the audience again ⁓ where you'll be this afternoon and what they can do to acquire their next t-shirt.

Tom (36:19)
Yes, so come by Nowadays Creative Lab at 147 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. If you take like the F train to Second Avenue or the G train to Grand Street, those are the two closest trains I think. Anyway, so we're gonna be, we're gonna be printing Bacher Back Pages shirts. You get to pick out your t-shirt and then you get to select your design and then we print it while you wait there. And you know, you get to hang out. There'll be a lot of Knicks fans there you can talk to.

Maybe grab a slice of pizza next door. There's a good pizza place right there. And just come and enjoy the brisk but beautiful New York's winter weather. We are indoors, but it's kind of a small store, so sometimes people are hanging out outside.

Led Black (36:57)
That's right. That's right.

Octavio Blanco (36:57)
Awesome.

Led Black (37:03)
And like I said before with Frank, make sure you support Tom. Tom and and Baka Pages, they're uptown. Let's make this money. Like, let's make sure we support. And I don't think you even need that right now because the Knicks are killing and you found that groove. But Tom, it's always great to like know you, to do what you do for uptown. Mad love, brother. See you soon.

Octavio Blanco (37:03)
Alright.

Tom (37:20)
Well, likewise,

guys, you you guys are a real asset to the neighborhood.

Octavio Blanco (37:21)
I do have a, before I let you go, I do have another question. This one comes from my wife, Kathy, who loves your stuff, by the way. She was like blown away. And she wants to know, is there ⁓ a solo show in your future, Tom? Do you have an exhibition coming up?

Led Black (37:24)
Likewise. Thank you, brother.

Tom (37:38)
I

don't have a solo show lined up in New York at the moment. I would like to do something during this season, know, to show some Nick's art. So I'm sure I will line something up, so I will let you know. But, you know, follow me on Instagram, uberkunst ⁓ on Instagram, and you can find out everything that I'm doing there.

Led Black (37:56)
Perfect. Thanks a lot, brother. See you soon.

Octavio Blanco (37:56)
Awesome, awesome.

Tom, thank you. Thank you. Bye.

Tom (37:58)
Have good one, guys. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Later. How

do I leave?

Octavio Blanco (38:04)
There you go. Good job. Good job. Good job.

Led Black (38:05)
There you go.

So by the

way, the reason we weren't live on IG was my fault because I had to go live. So we've been live since Frank. We miss Adrian. Yeah, yeah, so we live now. It actually looks pretty good on IG. You know what mean? It doesn't look bad. It's just weird because the interface, and the interface, looks weird, but it's been pretty good. Like a lot of people I know joined, so know, shout out to them. But yeah, man, I think this was pretty cool, man. Like this was awesome. We had like three creatives.

Octavio Blanco (38:12)
⁓

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

All right.

That's good.

Yeah!

We

just threw it up. We just decided, hey, let's go live. And then I just called these guys up and then we just made it happen. I love it that we could just do that. That's power, brother. That is real power because you bring the audience, man. You've got such a great audience. You've got such a, you you've spent so much time building this community around you. And I'm just glad to be a part of it. I'm just glad that you teamed up with me and I'm

Led Black (38:47)
It is.

Thank you.

Octavio Blanco (39:05)
that we can flex here, you know, in whatever way we can and it's chipping away, right? We just chip away at it. This was just another another

Led Black (39:07)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (39:14)
Another try another chip in the another chip another brick in the in the wall, you know We're just we're just going at it day by day Trying to trying to do better and better trying to like highlight our highlight our neighbors and frankly trying to highlight ourselves because like we want to bring our perspective we I think that we have got something Important to say like I said it before about you. I respect your perspective so much I don't always agree with everything you say, but I do I do respect it. I do respect it

Led Black (39:23)
I

Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (39:42)
And I find myself agreeing more and more to my own chagrin sometimes.

Led Black (39:45)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have some intense arguments offline. know what mean? But yeah, you know, and again, like I want to thank you, right? Because this has been such an amazing experience doing this podcast with you. You you do all the really heavy lifting, right? Like I get to just come on and talk. And I like to talk. I'm a talker. You know what mean? So this has been really good. Now this has been a great experience.

And you know, I also think that like, what you're talking about before, and I always told my oldest daughter who's a filmmaker, you know, and I try to do this for myself, is like, I create vehicles, right, for my community, to help my community, right, that helps other people in my community, but also helps myself, right? Like, I feel like I have something to say, I feel that it's important to get my feelings out. So a lot of ways when I do create something, I'm also thinking that in mind, like, because if you don't create the vehicles for yourself, people may not create them for you.

You know what saying? then, you know, they may come, those vehicles might, they might come, but you have to create it first. You have to create that interest. And I think that's what Uptown, you know, it's now 15 years, right? Uptown Collective, right? Like 2010, 15 years. It's gonna be really 16 in March. I mean, February. So, you know, it keeps growing. This podcast, I think is a really important tool, you know, to document, you know, what's happening here, right? Years on the line, you'll see,

you know, what's what, how things happen, right? Like that we left a mark, that not just me, I'm saying we as a community, right? You know, right on this call, we had Adrian, we had Frank, and we had Tom, like people grew great things that are from up here. So I think that's super important. And as you know, it's inspirational, right? Because once you see someone else do it, you're like, I could do that. You know, I could also do that. I could dream, you know, different, you know what mean? So I'm excited about that. I also want to say I had a, we did a Muy Soñando this Thursday at United Palace.

Octavio Blanco (41:14)
Yes, the community.

Led Black (41:35)
It was an amazing show. Shout out to Glorillaz, Morda and Sasha Mercy. know, I mean like, and at times like when I say people don't realize what it takes to do things, right? So, you know, it was in the United Palace. But before the show started, Sasha and I, we're really Sasha, really. We're putting the step and repeat together. She's holding, I'm holding it. She's screwing the stuff from the bottom, right? And that's what it takes. That's what you gotta do, you know? But it was a great show. There was a bunch of new comedians that I hadn't seen before. think Ashlyn.

I wanna say, I don't wanna mess up her name, but lastly, I think of Salzano. She was amazing. The whole lineup was incredible. Splu, who's been killing it on social. He was the headliner, really. It was a great show. Shout out to Mike Fittleson, the United Palace. Like, Mike Fittleson, I've known him forever. We gotta get him on the show. But him going, being a part of the United Palace has opened so many doors, right? And, you he's always one that's like, yo, Lev, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna do uptown? Like, he always asks me, you know, and I tell him and...

Octavio Blanco (42:12)
he was there.

Led Black (42:33)
And he does that for me, which is crazy. know what mean? And we had a really good conversation that I don't wanna talk too much about yet, but there's some exciting things that I'm gonna do next year at the United Palace. We're gonna do more on Mourinho Sognan at the United Palace, but there's some other really cool things that we'll be announcing soon. I'm having the meetings early next year about that. But again, the United Palace is super important. It's the people's palace and it's about creating these things, like just highlighting. We could win just by ourselves, right? It's uptown versus everybody every day. Like that's how it gotta be.

Octavio Blanco (43:03)
And if not just by ourselves, we can actually make sure that the people who want to support us, who are curious and interested in our community and want to be a part of this, where they can reach and be a part of this, know, like where they can reach and see what's going on up here and they can be a part of this. I do think that like keeping us going and making sure that we're attracting, you know, the money and that we're attracting the eyeballs and that we're attracting people who want to know. mean, you've said it before and it's the truth, know,

whether it's Harlem or Washington Heights or South Bronx or Inwood, we're not just communities, we're history, we're culture, we're like the epicenter of culture for a lot of the United States. The United States and the world look to us to see what's going on in the culture, whether it's urban culture, whether it's...

Led Black (43:47)
Mm-hmm.

Bye.

Octavio Blanco (43:55)
whether it's the arts culture, whether it's all kinds of spoken word culture, whether it's hip hop, you know, like there's so many folks here, uptown and all over New York really, but I, you know, we're focused on the uptown people who are trying to make their voices heard, to try to like impact and create the culture. ⁓ And so it's not...

It's that old adage, know, ⁓ act locally and think globally. I think that's what you can say that we're all about is we're acting locally because we're trying to like focus in on this community. But the issues that we're bringing up, the cultural aspects and the cultural wins that we're bringing up are not just about this community.

Led Black (44:26)
Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (44:42)
They're the same issues or similar issues that many, many, other communities are experiencing. And I really hope that other communities will do this as well, that they'll also find some way to highlight their own stuff so that we can all learn from each other. It's not just about just us. It's about learning from each other. It's about seeing what's on everybody's mind in an unfiltered way, right? Like everything about mainstream media, it gets filtered through a certain.

Led Black (44:59)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Octavio Blanco (45:12)
⁓ prism and, ⁓ you know, that's fine for what that is, but this isn't that this is us filtering it through our own personal prison prism of people who live, live in this community.

Led Black (45:22)
But it

actually isn't fine, right? It isn't fine, right? Because what's happening, right, is you have this consolidation, right, that's happening with the media that's, Barry Weiss, like, you know what's funny about Barry Weiss being the head of CBS? She is not fit for the job, right? When she said she started the free press, I thought it was this big, it's a sub stack. It's a fucking blog.

Octavio Blanco (45:30)
Yeah, you're right.

Led Black (45:43)
And this woman is the head of CBS, right? And then Ellis controlling Oracle, controlling everything, it's not okay, right? And I'm glad that we're doing it, but it's messed up that when you turn on your TV, all you see is lies from both sides, right? From CNN, MSNBC, none of them are really telling the truth, right? Like there's protests against Trump all over this planet, but you don't see that when you turn on the TV, right? Even from the stations that are supposedly on your side. But again, you know, that's why, what you saying before about the...

Octavio Blanco (45:54)
I mean, yeah.

What I, yeah, what I,

I just let me just say when I said it was fine, I didn't mean that I'm okay with it. What I mean is we get it. We understand that that's what's going on. It's not okay. You're right. It's not okay. It's not okay. It's, it's a shame and it's, it's terrible. But to the, to the, the, the, the fact is though, that that's been the, the way it is even before Trump. It's not.

Led Black (46:22)
Yeah, it's not okay. It's not, right?

Octavio Blanco (46:35)
something new ⁓ it's always gone through the prism of corporate ⁓ news and Whatever the corporations are okay with then that's what gets that gets on on the air and whatever doesn't

Led Black (46:47)
Yes, yeah,

it's always been bad, but I'm saying we live in a different era, right? In the sense that like when you're not seeing it, what you see on your TV screen and what you see on your phone screens are two different realities. And it's gotten to another point. And I wanna say two things. First of all, you were saying about learning from other people, like that's what this is about, right? Because as ICE comes in and mirage in our community, right? ⁓

Octavio Blanco (46:53)
Absolutely.

Yeah.

Led Black (47:16)
that we see what works in Chicago, what works in LA, and then we do some of those things as well, like having whistles, being looking out, look out for each other, recording everything we can, right? And telling your neighbors, I think we're learning a lot from that, you know what mean? I think that's super important. As we enter 2026, as the machinations come forth, right? I saw a thing where they're trying to push a bill where...

You know, they're going to try to denationalize you. So if you're if your parents are not US born citizens, right again, that hasn't happened. But the fact that we're even talking about that in 2025, right, about the fact that they are taking citizens. And, know, if you get caught up in this, it doesn't matter if you a citizen or not, you're going to go through it. Some people, you know, you may be some people might be lucky to out of two weeks. Some people are doing months. They just put a little six year old boy like.

Last week, they grabbed a pregnant woman in Minnesota and dragged her. Like, this is insane what we're living through. Insane.

Octavio Blanco (48:17)
Yeah, that's the point. I think that you very eloquently clarified is that right now what's happening in the media, this consolidation is not that new, but what's new is when it's happening and who it's protecting. It's protecting ⁓ basically an administration that is a dictatorship, that's authoritarian, that is looking to take away rights from Americans, right? American citizens. It's not about

You know, in most of American history, you know, as problematic as it is, we've been gradually, you know, adding to the rights that we have. was gay marriage. There was ⁓ the right to vote for everybody, for women, for blacks, you know, little by little, as backwards as it was when it started, little by little, we were adding.

and adding more and more rights for people to live freer lives. And what's happening now is we're in an era of repression. And the era of repression is not just an era of repression against ⁓ undocumented immigrants. It's not just an era of repression against documented and legal immigrants. It's also an era of repression against all Americans because all of our rights are being, being

Led Black (49:36)
Thanks.

Octavio Blanco (49:39)
taken away or trying to be chiseled away. You know, I really pray for this country. I really pray that we can keep our voices heard. really pray that everybody can unite and I hope that the pendulum of politics will swing back to the to somewhere where it's

Led Black (49:58)
To what? To what? To

what? What are we gonna swing back? Like what are we talking about? So we want Biden again? No, we need to go, we need to go. Again, the thing is, you know what I realized? I was thinking about it yesterday. That first of all, like, you know, like, again, Trump hasten the decline and he supercharged it, right? So, and because he's special in the way that no one ever has been like him, right? No one has concentrated so much power, has done so much.

Octavio Blanco (50:01)
To the

Hahaha

Led Black (50:27)
like harm. And this is what what the what, you know, the people in power, the corporate power, the oligarchs, what this works for them. Right. But what I realize is that like this is we're 10 years in now. This is the Trump era. Right. And I would say even the four years that Biden was president, he really even wasn't president. Trump. What I'm saying during the time that Biden was president, Trump was still more important to him. Right. And Biden did nothing. Nothing like in Brazil.

Octavio Blanco (50:40)
Yeah.

He was, yeah.

Led Black (50:57)
What happened to Jaya Bolsonaro? My man got hemmed up, right? That's what should have happened here. As soon as January 6th happened, Trump should have been under the fucking jail, right? But we don't do that because he's a white man, we let it, we, again, Trump is everything that's wrong with America, right? There's this kind of elevation of white mediocrity, right? Allow, and again, there's no norms, You could destroy the East Wing of the White House. that's okay, right? Imagine, I mean, just like really, again, I hate to say that, but what if Obama had taken the East Wing

Octavio Blanco (51:07)
you

Led Black (51:26)
for a ballroom, right? Or had called, you know, to say something disgusting like Rob Reiner. Or if Obama had given that insane speech that Trump gave the other day, which was completely ludicrous and basically saying, it's not my fault, it's all Biden's fault, right? But you say you could fix everything in a day, right? What happened? So what I'm saying is that that's why this 10 years has been Trump's era. And we've all, and again, instead of Biden and the Democrats doing anything to counter it, right?

Octavio Blanco (51:27)
you

Yeah.

Led Black (51:56)
They just just they just wallowed. again, they put Israel before America had to say that they did that again. Right. It was funny. I don't know if you saw this. The Democrats are not refuse are refusing to release the 2024 autopsy of the election that came out. They're refusing to release it. Right. It's already done, but they're not releasing it. Right. Because the Democratic Party died in Gaza. Right. Because they refused to do the right thing. Kamala Harris is not it. She is not it.

Octavio Blanco (52:05)
Mm-mm.

Led Black (52:24)
A lot of these people are not, like we need a restructuring on both sides, right? The whole both sides thing is just ridiculous. A lot of times it feels like they're just playing together and they're playing in our face together. And I want for 2026, I want there's a lot of things that I don't want to see Chuck Schumer no more. I don't want to see Hillary again. don't want it, just shut your fucking mouth. Shut your mouth. I don't want to see you anymore. I don't want to see a lot of these people. again, we need, the thing is that like sometimes Trump is like, oh,

not Trump, it's gotta be not a lot of this stuff because all these other things led to Trump.

Octavio Blanco (52:56)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, look, man, look, I know that that's I think you're right. I do hope that the that the pace of the decline is scaring enough Americans, those Americans who voted for Trump as like, ⁓ I don't know, like a middle finger, but they didn't really believe in him. I hope that it's scaring them to see like what the true power

was that they gave up by electing this, this desperate is and ⁓ that, those folks will have a, ⁓ a change of heart. It's 10 59. I know you got to get going and I want to, and I just want to say ⁓ one thing about what I've been going, what I've been doing with uptown voices podcast. We do have a under construction, a new Instagram page. It's going to be dedicated to this podcast. ⁓ And so just keep an eye on that.

And we're gonna be sharing stuff that we talk about on this podcast. We're gonna be elevating our community. so please, if you haven't started following us on Instagram, please do. It's at Uptown Voices podcast. And as always, you ⁓ got any last words before we let you go about your merry way on this ⁓ Sunday, December 21st, a couple of days before Christmas?

Led Black (54:05)
That's right.

Nah, happy holidays to everyone. We're gonna keep rocking out. I have a few things that I wanna talk about. Another point, I wanna talk about my favorite album of the year. So I've been listening to an album, I'm not gonna say what it is. It was, I'll say this, my favorite album was gonna be the Clips album this year. Cause when that came out, my daughter, my oldest daughter, Monty, just kept like, dad, you gotta hear it. But I was listening to an audio book and I didn't wanna interrupt it.

Octavio Blanco (54:28)
Hahaha

Led Black (54:44)
And then when I finally heard it, I had to give you money credit. The album was outstanding and it was gonna be my number one. And I think maybe not a lot of, if you're not a hip hop head, you might not have made that number one, but think unanimously, if you're a hip hop head, that should be your number one. But this album came out in October, the one that I'm gonna mention at some point next week, before the year's over, and it's blown my mind. I feel like it's the album I needed to get in my life for 2026. It's one of my favorite artists.

Octavio Blanco (55:04)
Okay, okay, okay.

Led Black (55:12)
And, but it's going to be a take. No one's going to have this as the album of the year, except maybe the artists themselves. Right. But I, if you're, if you're, if you, say it this much, it's a reggae album, reggae dance hall album. And, and, and it's my number one, number one album of the year. And then we're to keep going. Right. We're going to keep rocking out, hitting you at least once a week, maybe twice a week and keep supporting, subscribe to our YouTube and show love, follow the IG. You know what I mean? And just stay up because we're going to do a lot of stuff.

Octavio Blanco (55:23)
okay, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Led Black (55:42)
I also have a lot of

Octavio Blanco (55:42)
Yeah.

Led Black (55:42)
plans next year to do a lot more events, ⁓ you know, and do a lot of more like live things. You know, we also have live things for Uptown Voices. We're gonna be doing some in-person cool stuff, you know what I mean? So stay tuned, keep following, keep showing love, and spread love is the Uptown way. That's all I gotta say, brother. Thank you.

Octavio Blanco (56:01)
All right, yes sir. Thank you all. Thank you to our viewers. Thank you to the community. Thank you to our supporters. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great, great Christmas and stay tuned on Tuesday. We have a new episode coming that we're dropping with incredible guest, Diana Ayala. She's the city council deputy speaker representing East Harlem.

Led Black (56:24)
He's Harlem.

Octavio Blanco (56:25)
El Barrio, she's an incredible, incredible interview. You're not going to be disappointed. She's really, really her story is, I didn't realize her story until we spoke to her. And ⁓ it's, it's something to be to be wowed by and to be impressed and to be inspired. So thank you, spread love, let thank you. I'll talk to you soon. bye.

Led Black (56:45)
Alright brother, we'll talk soon brother, see you later.

Octavio Blanco (56:48)
All right, now we're just uploading.