July 7, 2026 • 6 mins
When most of us say "New York" we're really talking about the five burroughs. But there's another city that helped shape Black History, launched legendary artists, and served as one of the final gateways to freedom n the underground railroad. This episode of IDKMYDE is all about why it's time to put some respect on Buffalo.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I welcome back, no at als to another episode of
the most anticipated podcast on the Black Effect Podcast Network, entitled.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I didn't know, Maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And we just celebrated our two hundred and fiftieth birthday.
For the fourth I had a yacht party on Lake Norman.
When I tell you that bit was lit like a firework.
One hundred and ten professionals looking great, throwing ass out
there on that Lake Norman with a fireworks show going
off right above us. I think we're gonna bring that
(00:33):
vibe back for New Year's Eve next month. Were going
back out on the yacht, but we're bringing the water
toys out, the jet skis and the jet cars.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh yeah, beat out in the boat and business.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You can go to Sunset on the Lake dot com
and see the events we got lined up.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But that's how I spent the fourth of July.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
The fifth of July, one of my homegirls, Crystal, had
a pool party in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So I pulled up.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You know, I've been in the gym, just give me
a reason to take my shirt off two days in
a row. When I got there, it was a bunch
of different people man with mixing and mingling chopping it up.
And it was two dudes in particular from Buffalo, Dre
and Bo And they start bragging on Buffalo and I'm like,
bro like outside a West Side Gun and Benny the
Butcher and Conway and RMANI seas are like, I don't
(01:15):
really know much musically and sports wise. Your football fans
is probably more depressed than us cowboy fans. I was
in middle school when y'all went to four of them
things in a row. My best friend, Jeremy Lane, he
stayed next door to me, biggest Buffalo Bills fan I knew,
had to start a jacket and everything. Whole middle school
career was ruined, and his mama was going through a separation.
(01:37):
Whole house depressed for three fourth straight years. But I've
derailed us. Let me get it back on track. They
start telling me stuff about Buffalo that I didn't know.
Maybe you didn't either, So I immediately said, I gotta do
an episode about this. But before I get into the episode,
I gotta give you three of the most useless facts
you'll never need, never, not a day in life life
(02:00):
about animals. Now, this is gonna be a little different
because I'm gonna be giving you differences you'll understand up. First,
do you know the difference between a frog and a toad? Well,
frogs got smooth, moist skin, toads dry bumpy skin. Your
(02:21):
second useless fact, do you know the difference between a
seal and a sea lion? Well, sea lions they got
visible ears and they can walk on their flippers. Seals
don't got no visible ears, and they can't.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Walk like that.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And your third and final useless fact, do you know
the difference between a rabbit and a hair? Well, hairs
they're bigger, they got longer legs, and when they born
they're furry. Rabbits born small, and they blind as hell,
and their butt naked ball hairless. Those have been your
three useless facts about animals. And here's an animal, chicken.
(03:00):
Chickens have wings. And when you think of chicken wings,
you might be like me and like Garlic Parmjan or
Rick Rose the Boast, and like Lemon Pepper, or like
my daughter, like Buffalo. But the city say, don't just
think about wings when you think about us. We got
roots to blackness in Buffalo. And I didn't know, I
didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know I didn't know.
(03:28):
I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I didn't know. All right, this episode is to put
some respect on Buffalo's name. Cause when the urban demographic
talk about New York culture, we almost always talk about Brooklyn,
Haarlem Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, and.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Rightfully so, the Five Boroughs.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
They shaped hip hop, fashion, comedy, radio, sports, all of it.
But did you know you could fit twenty eight Harlems
inside Buffalo? They not just snow wings and a bunch
of heart broken football fans. Oh no, Buffalo got serious
black history. Like during the Underground Railroad, Buffalo was one
(04:08):
of the last major stops before freedom. Bo At the
Pool said, nah, not one of Buffalo was the last
stop before folks got to Canada.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Canada right there.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So once they enslave, folks made it the Buffalo boom,
they just go across the Niagara River free. That ain't
just geography, that's liberation. And Buffalo's Black history didn't start there.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Oh no.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And this is why I need funded, because I want
to take this show on the road.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
This is a visual concept.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I want to take cameras to Buffalo because they have
something there. The Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor. It's
been the heart of Buffalo's black community for more than
one hundred and eighty five years. Hey, our roots going
back to the Michigan Street Baptist Church in eighteen thirty
six and the local abolition movement, and you know, damn
(05:00):
Episodes is coming about all of that. So before Buffalo
was a punchline about weather, it was a doorway to freedom.
Now let's talk about the music. Rick James, what did
the five fingers say to the face slap?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
He from Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Stevie Ja, the producer born in Buffalo bo at the pool,
told me that Diddy made Black Rob say he was
from Harlem. But here really from Buffalo, he said, Folks
from Buffalo. No, So please send this to somebody in
Buffalo and ask them, is Black Rob from Buffalo? Couse
Google say Harlem? But Diddy might have just told Google
(05:35):
to say Harlem. But even right now, Griselda, they got
Buffalo rocking Westside, Gun Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher
or Moni season. They gave Buffalo its own sound, that cold,
gritty luxury drug dealer museum rap. Like when Benny and
Conway get the rapping. It sounded like if a snowstorm
had on a mink coat. But see, here's the thing. See,
(05:58):
for a long time, if you was from Buffalo, you
was trying to make it like in entertainment. It probably
helped you more to just say you was from New
York cause people hear in New York and they immediately
think legacy. They hear Buffalo and they think hot wings
and somebody jumping through a folding table. So some artists
got absorbed into the bigger New York identity, Like Brian
McKnight is from Buffalo. But it don't shock me that
(06:20):
Brian mckknight don't claim Buffalo. I mean, how you expect
somebody who don't claim their kids to claim a city.
I digress. Listen, I'm just saying Buffalo deserves its own respect,
cause Buffalo is New York too. It gave us freedom, routes,
black neighborhoods, soul funk, r and B, hip hop producers, singers, storytellers,
(06:40):
and one of the coldest rap movements of the last decade.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
For next time you talk about New York, don't just
stop at the Five Boroughs case.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
While New York City was building culture, in the streets.
Buffalo was helping people cross into freedom, and I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Maybe you didn't either,
I welcome back, no at als to another episode of
the most anticipated podcast on the Black Effect Podcast Network, entitled.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I didn't know, Maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And we just celebrated our two hundred and fiftieth birthday.
For the fourth I had a yacht party on Lake Norman.
When I tell you that bit was lit like a firework.
One hundred and ten professionals looking great, throwing ass out
there on that Lake Norman with a fireworks show going
off right above us. I think we're gonna bring that
(00:33):
vibe back for New Year's Eve next month. Were going
back out on the yacht, but we're bringing the water
toys out, the jet skis and the jet cars.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh yeah, beat out in the boat and business.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You can go to Sunset on the Lake dot com
and see the events we got lined up.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But that's how I spent the fourth of July.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
The fifth of July, one of my homegirls, Crystal, had
a pool party in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So I pulled up.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You know, I've been in the gym, just give me
a reason to take my shirt off two days in
a row. When I got there, it was a bunch
of different people man with mixing and mingling chopping it up.
And it was two dudes in particular from Buffalo, Dre
and Bo And they start bragging on Buffalo and I'm like,
bro like outside a West Side Gun and Benny the
Butcher and Conway and RMANI seas are like, I don't
(01:15):
really know much musically and sports wise. Your football fans
is probably more depressed than us cowboy fans. I was
in middle school when y'all went to four of them
things in a row. My best friend, Jeremy Lane, he
stayed next door to me, biggest Buffalo Bills fan I knew,
had to start a jacket and everything. Whole middle school
career was ruined, and his mama was going through a separation.
(01:37):
Whole house depressed for three fourth straight years. But I've
derailed us. Let me get it back on track. They
start telling me stuff about Buffalo that I didn't know.
Maybe you didn't either, So I immediately said, I gotta do
an episode about this. But before I get into the episode,
I gotta give you three of the most useless facts
you'll never need, never, not a day in life life
(02:00):
about animals. Now, this is gonna be a little different
because I'm gonna be giving you differences you'll understand up. First,
do you know the difference between a frog and a toad? Well,
frogs got smooth, moist skin, toads dry bumpy skin. Your
(02:21):
second useless fact, do you know the difference between a
seal and a sea lion? Well, sea lions they got
visible ears and they can walk on their flippers. Seals
don't got no visible ears, and they can't.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Walk like that.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And your third and final useless fact, do you know
the difference between a rabbit and a hair? Well, hairs
they're bigger, they got longer legs, and when they born
they're furry. Rabbits born small, and they blind as hell,
and their butt naked ball hairless. Those have been your
three useless facts about animals. And here's an animal, chicken.
(03:00):
Chickens have wings. And when you think of chicken wings,
you might be like me and like Garlic Parmjan or
Rick Rose the Boast, and like Lemon Pepper, or like
my daughter, like Buffalo. But the city say, don't just
think about wings when you think about us. We got
roots to blackness in Buffalo. And I didn't know, I
didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know I didn't know.
(03:28):
I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I didn't know. All right, this episode is to put
some respect on Buffalo's name. Cause when the urban demographic
talk about New York culture, we almost always talk about Brooklyn,
Haarlem Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, and.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Rightfully so, the Five Boroughs.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
They shaped hip hop, fashion, comedy, radio, sports, all of it.
But did you know you could fit twenty eight Harlems
inside Buffalo? They not just snow wings and a bunch
of heart broken football fans. Oh no, Buffalo got serious
black history. Like during the Underground Railroad, Buffalo was one
(04:08):
of the last major stops before freedom. Bo At the
Pool said, nah, not one of Buffalo was the last
stop before folks got to Canada.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Canada right there.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So once they enslave, folks made it the Buffalo boom,
they just go across the Niagara River free. That ain't
just geography, that's liberation. And Buffalo's Black history didn't start there.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Oh no.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And this is why I need funded, because I want
to take this show on the road.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
This is a visual concept.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I want to take cameras to Buffalo because they have
something there. The Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor. It's
been the heart of Buffalo's black community for more than
one hundred and eighty five years. Hey, our roots going
back to the Michigan Street Baptist Church in eighteen thirty
six and the local abolition movement, and you know, damn
(05:00):
Episodes is coming about all of that. So before Buffalo
was a punchline about weather, it was a doorway to freedom.
Now let's talk about the music. Rick James, what did
the five fingers say to the face slap?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
He from Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Stevie Ja, the producer born in Buffalo bo at the pool,
told me that Diddy made Black Rob say he was
from Harlem. But here really from Buffalo, he said, Folks
from Buffalo. No, So please send this to somebody in
Buffalo and ask them, is Black Rob from Buffalo? Couse
Google say Harlem? But Diddy might have just told Google
(05:35):
to say Harlem. But even right now, Griselda, they got
Buffalo rocking Westside, Gun Conway the Machine, Benny the Butcher
or Moni season. They gave Buffalo its own sound, that cold,
gritty luxury drug dealer museum rap. Like when Benny and
Conway get the rapping. It sounded like if a snowstorm
had on a mink coat. But see, here's the thing. See,
(05:58):
for a long time, if you was from Buffalo, you
was trying to make it like in entertainment. It probably
helped you more to just say you was from New
York cause people hear in New York and they immediately
think legacy. They hear Buffalo and they think hot wings
and somebody jumping through a folding table. So some artists
got absorbed into the bigger New York identity, Like Brian
McKnight is from Buffalo. But it don't shock me that
(06:20):
Brian mckknight don't claim Buffalo. I mean, how you expect
somebody who don't claim their kids to claim a city.
I digress. Listen, I'm just saying Buffalo deserves its own respect,
cause Buffalo is New York too. It gave us freedom, routes,
black neighborhoods, soul funk, r and B, hip hop producers, singers, storytellers,
(06:40):
and one of the coldest rap movements of the last decade.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
For next time you talk about New York, don't just
stop at the Five Boroughs case.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
While New York City was building culture, in the streets.
Buffalo was helping people cross into freedom, and I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Maybe you didn't either,
Host
Brian "B Daht" McLaughlin
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