By Led Black
November 25 – November 30
Our Time Travel Tuesdays post takes us back to a story that was first published in The NY Times on May 15th, 2009. Imagine you move into an apartment that unbeknownst to you happens to be the former stash house of a now deported drug dealer with ties to a crooked cop. It gets worse. Said crooked cop has a plan to break into the apartment, jolt you with a stun gun, handcuff you and take what he believes is a hidden cache of $900,000 in cash. That is exactly the predicament that Jason B. Holt found himself in when he moved to his first New York City apartment in Inwood from Minnesota.
Our Monday Mood Music selection is an über sweet rendition of Holy Grail courtesy of Tess featuring Arinn Aldo. This was also a great week for Uptown Hip-Hop. First, Tellie Floydd dropped his latest song Akuma. Then on Black Friday, we posted new videos from both Glory and Dark. Did you know that over 1,000 people came Uptown to the United Palace recently to watch a 71-year-old black & white movie and had the time of their lives?
I recently had the honor of attending 14th Annual Latin Grammys in Las Vegas, NV. The Latin Grammys is the Super Bowl of Latin Music. According to Nielsen ratings, the 14th Annual Latin Grammys reached 9.8 million viewers and @LatinGRAMMYs was the most mentioned program account across all of Twitter TV. Check out my recap of the festivities.
This week we also took a glimpse into the life of Mike “DP” Jones, The Mayor of Washington Heights & Inwood, courtesy of our very own Productive Ray. From hosting at the groundbreaking WHIN By Any Means events to coaching his basketball team Dominican Power at the biggest streetball tournament in NYC at Dyckman Park, it doesn’t get more Uptown than Mike Jones. Not to mention that Mike is also the astute businessman behind the Dominican Power brand.
We ended the week with a great video profile, courtesy of The NY Times, of renowned sex therapist, Dr. Ruth, speaking about her apartment of the last 50 years. Dr. Ruth has lived in Washington Heights, in that same apartment, since she came to this country in 1956.
Keep checking us out at www.uptowncollective.com.
Led Black
Editor-in-Chief
The Uptown Collective
The UC’s mission is to become “the” definitive, transformative and community-based force impacting the arts, culture, business and New York City’s overall perception of Upper Manhattan. Its objective is to reset, reboot and positively redefine Uptown’s artistic, political, cultural and business spheres via the online space as well the collective’s initiatives and functions.
