Get Ya New York Style Cigars Here | Debut! West Side Story Cigars | Box Press Ep. 118

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(upbeat music)

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(upbeat music continues)

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(upbeat music continues)

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- There's a story inside every smoke shop

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with every cigar and with every person.

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Come be a part of the

cigar lifestyle at Boveda.

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This is "Box Press."

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- We're at Martinez Cigar

Factory in Manhattan, New York,

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and I am with Jesus, the owner,

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and your father was the original person

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that opened this up, correct?

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- Yes, he opened it up in 1974.

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He was a roller in Tamboril,

Dominican Republic,

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when he came to the States,

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and he was working in another cigar shop

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for a couple of years,

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then he just decided to open up his own.

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Right after high school,

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I'd come in, help him out with packaging

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and so, you know, I stayed here.

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We roll all our cigars here.

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Of our own, we have five different lines

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and then we make other brands.

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- I've had like the, the

Hangry from Luxury Cigar

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- Oh yeah, that's right we did-

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- That as a great cigar.

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- That was, yeah, we did

really well with that one.

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- Yeah

- Yeah, with the Hangry

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- And now we're here

with Jeff from Amendola.

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- With Jeff, yeah, Jeff and I-

- West Side Story.

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- Yeah, Jeff and I, we've been friends,

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for I don't even remember how long.

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Every time he was in New

York, he would pop in

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and we would just smoke cigars.

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He told me rolling his own brand

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and you know, we used to exchange cigars-

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- Yeah

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- Straight up and we became friends

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and then one day he's like,

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why don't we do a cigar together?

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- My first love or passion for cigars

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started here in New York,

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in the Bronx first on Arthur Avenue,

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there's a little factory there.

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I started hearing about

Martinez in Manhattan.

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So I was just, I was

younger, I was 18, 19,

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but when I came down to visit,

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see family and stuff,

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I would try to pop in.

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I learned how to roll cigars in 2012.

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Self-taught, I was watching,

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I would hang out here a little bit,

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hang out in the Bronx.

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I learned how to roll cigars in Ybor City.

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But when I learned the craft,

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I needed tools like the molds.

- Sure.

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- These guys wanted me to

buy 50 at a time or pallets

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and I'm like, look bro, I need five.

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There's nowhere to get them.

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I was trying to find, you know,

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like a couple Robusto

sizes, couple Coronas,

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couple Laguito, just so I

could start making them,

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start selling them,

whatever I was gonna do.

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- Where were you getting your tobacco?

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- Nicaragua.

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(indistinct)

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- Yeah, I had to import her.

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- You're spoiling the interview.

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- But yeah, we'll do it

without the camera (laughs).

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I think I called Jesus out of the blue.

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I was trying to buy some

of his hand-me-downs.

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Jesus started giving me

his old hand-me-down stuff.

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Molds, Chavetas,

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He really was influential in

helping me start my own factory

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and becoming a cigar roller

where I was living at the time.

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That's where our relationship started,

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and then since then we were

just became really good friends.

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Every time I was up in the area,

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come by, we hang out, we

talk business, talk family,

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smoke good cigars.

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And here we are today,

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now we're actually making a cigar

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for Amendola Family

Cigars in this factory,

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called the West Side Story.

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There's a lot of challenges

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when you're creating a new cigar.

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I think a lot of people don't realize

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what really goes into

the behind the scenes.

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Behind the scenes is

acquiring the tobacco.

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We're a smaller brand,

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some farmers, dealers,

maybe don't feel like

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we're good enough

business for them, right?

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So we have to go find it first.

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Then we know what we have to work with.

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When I first wanted to

get into this business,

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I really wanted to focus on

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learning how to put tobacco together

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and be a blender and a roller.

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Because I don't care

if I do anything else.

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I want to know how to do this.

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I wanna do it as well as I can,

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however long it takes.

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That's the fun part, create.

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Chris was the same way.

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He spent hours on the

designs and the marketing.

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His forte is fine tuning

all the little details,

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which I don't have a mind for.

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(upbeat music)

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- West Side Story is

something special to us.

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It had to be born and

raised in New York like us.

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We call it the West Side

Story because Martinez Cigars

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is off of 29th Street on

the West Side Highway.

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So that's where the name

came from in the beginning.

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You know, we were gonna

kind of go with one blend,

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which we had already previously released

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for another one of our retailers

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on a really small run.

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We got a lot of really

good feedback on it.

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- We went out to 500 people.

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- Yeah, that was it.

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We blended an original

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and then we started tweaking the blend,

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then we liked that,

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and you know, one thing led to another

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where at first we were like,

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listen, it's gonna be too much of a hassle

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to put that on Jesus,

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on Dave [Rivera] and the guys at Martinez

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to try to get that done

two weeks before showtime.

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On my end, you know,

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I was like, man, I don't

know how we're gonna,

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you know, differentiate the two,

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come up with names now, secondary bands,

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you know, as far as the marketing side

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of having two different cigars in the box.

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So we kind of let it go.

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Then we ended up having

a conversation with Dave

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and he was like,

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"Man, which one do you guys want?

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"You want your original brand?

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"You want your Arapiraca brand?"

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And we were like, "Man, we like both."

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And then he was like,

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"Well, what if we could do two?"

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And my ears perked up.

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I'm like, "Man, tell me you could do two."

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And then Jeff was like, "Oh, shit."

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- Like if they're willing to do it-

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- If they're willing to

do it, then let's do it.

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And they said that they could do it,

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they made it happen.

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The juices started flowing,

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it kind of grew legs and we

wanted to go off of that,

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like "Gangs of New York" theme.

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That's why it's, you know, pick your side,

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like, bats or knives,

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kinda old school street fight.

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- We thought it'd be best suited

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to do our release parties

back home in New York.

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So this whole weekend,

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we have four events scheduled,

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but we're kicking it off here tonight

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at Merchant's Cigar Bar.

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The West Side Story is gonna

be the feature of the night.

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We got a DJ, old school DJ, Nino Brown,

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everyone's gonna get two cigars.

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If you got a ticket,

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you got a bourbon tasting.

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- We're doing it in our

city with our people,

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people who've been

supporting us since day one.

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It's all about authenticity, man.

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You know, we don't want sit here

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and say we're making a New York City cigar

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that's being made in Nicaragua

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by a bunch of people that

aren't from New York,

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don't have that vibe.

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Shout out to everybody who's got,

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is coming out this weekend,

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you know, South Shore.

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Shout out to Merchant's, Harry's

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and obviously Barclay, Rex,

the whole family over there.

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We love you guys.

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We're really appreciative of

Boveda the coming out here

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and putting a spotlight

on what we're doing.

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And I hope everybody in the industry

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really appreciates it and enjoys it.

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- We love what we do

and this just shows it.

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And I love being able to come back here

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and actually release the

cigar in our home city.

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It just represents who we are, you know.

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It's great.

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- New York, stand up,

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this one's for you.

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(upbeat music)