Angie Martinez

Angie Martinez links with Questlove Supreme in New York City. "The Voice Of New York" speaks candidly about her upbringing, a fearless passion for Hip-Hop, and career expansion throughout the last 30 years. Along the way, Angie recalls her unique vantage point for the JAY-Z and Nas radio battle, some controversial interviews, and the importance of family.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Question Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. All right,
So Ange, you don't know this, but you're actually part
of our theme. I am. Let's go. What is it?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Suprema Supremo role, Suprema Supremo Role, Suprema shut Supremo role Suprema.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
You're gonna get a verse supremo, he says. She says, yeah,
she's a genius. Yeah, better than three heads. All rise
with Martinez.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Supremo Supremo Role, came Suprema son so Supremeo Ro.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
My name is Fante and I'm doing it right there
with Angie.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Ma.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, it's ladies night.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Supremo son soun Supremo roll called Suprema suck son Supremo roll.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
I'm Sugar, Steve y'all spit a verse for you. Yeah,
up close and personal.

Speaker 6 (01:15):
It's like, yeah, you know that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yeah, And just like Angie, I made this ship last night.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Sure do it again.

Speaker 7 (01:31):
I'm Sugar, Steve y'all spit a verse for you.

Speaker 5 (01:35):
Come get this Sugar. Yeah, up close and personal.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Was the first.

Speaker 6 (01:47):
My name is Edgie.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, I'm in the room. Yea.

Speaker 6 (01:52):
They made me.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Supp sup.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Sup roll.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Ladies. Another episode of Quest Love supreme gonna be very
very interesting, Steve. That was hard fort delivery.

Speaker 5 (02:24):
I practiced for eight hours.

Speaker 6 (02:26):
You guys could have given me a heads up. I
would have had some bars bars for you.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
The joy of this show is watching people think quick
on their feet.

Speaker 6 (02:35):
I had anxiety because we started the show in a
weird unique.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
You got our way. See, you can't put it out
there like that? And what do you mean you gotta
you can't.

Speaker 6 (02:43):
Oh, I have to can't have to say, okay, manifest anxiety, anxiety,
I can anxiety.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
All right, let's have them mo of silence people. Okay,
m we are going to breathe in seven seconds in
our nose, hold it five seconds in our mouth, seven
seconds in, hold it five seconds out, seven seconds in,

(03:22):
five seconds out. Okay, are we calm?

Speaker 5 (03:27):
Yeah? And we all got COVID.

Speaker 6 (03:29):
Now you have no idea how much I needed that today. Really,
we just don't breathe. We don't don't put that in
the air. He just said, only put it in the.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
Air, Steve.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Only Steve's humors is his defense for emotions.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
Yes, I'm very disappointed in my role, calls or whatever.

Speaker 6 (03:46):
No, you're not more disappointed than me.

Speaker 5 (03:49):
No, No, you actually beat me.

Speaker 6 (03:51):
You guys, I didn't even hear the beat. My headphones
are low. I don't know what's happenings.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, all right, So, ladies and gentlemen, all guest today
is a super legendary figure radio Hall of Fame inductee.
I should add, yes, you got it inducted when I
did what year?

Speaker 6 (04:10):
Oh well, I was the year before last?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Was it?

Speaker 6 (04:13):
I heard a bunch of COVID time, so we didn't
get in the people all.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
The people of color basically just got lumped in.

Speaker 6 (04:21):
Yeah, that's what somebody was like, Hey, there's no people
of color here, let's get them all.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
In this year, right exactly. She's a taste maker who
I feel her voice has raised generation after generation, a
very trusted voice on radio. I will also say Fante
reminded us that she was a Grammy nominated artist. Yeah,
I totally forgot about Ladies night, I've come out about

(04:48):
right exactly. She's an activist. She is a legend. She basically,
like what I truly know Angie for is her legendary interviews,
of which she was kind of podcasting before podcasting was
a thing, Like you would do these legendary half hour

(05:08):
interview blocks. I always wondered how you were able to
get these sort of introspective interviews from your artists in
these blocks without playing a bunch of music in between.

Speaker 6 (05:19):
But I think when I came up, there was only
one you know, there was only one place to go.
It was only one station, so there was no competition.
So when you have no competition, you could do whatever
you want. That's right. It was just hot, you know,
it was just hot. It was just us. We were
the only place to get hip hop, so we could
pretty much do anything we want and we would win.
And so when competition came, I almost had to light
I was so sad because I knew everything was going

(05:40):
to change. I knew interviews were going to have to
get shorter because we're in competition. I knew that the
days of like doing whatever we wanted because how it felt,
were kind of over. But so I was lucky enough
to come up at a time where it was really
just a free for all, kind of a free for all.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
I see. Oh, by the way, ladies, let's get our
hands to get no.

Speaker 6 (05:59):
Oh, sorry, let's get it.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Let's get it together. For Angie Martinez.

Speaker 6 (06:07):
Thanks guy.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Was what was the highlight of your day.

Speaker 6 (06:17):
This is the highlight of my day.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
This was what time did you get You asked me
about my day. When do you get up in the morning.

Speaker 6 (06:22):
I normally get up around seven. I had to worst
my grain last night, so I got up in the
middle of night three am, and then I was up
for a couple hours and my sleep was all messed
up last night anyway. So I got up today because
we were doing an event earlier for this big podcast
that we did around the Life after Death. The celebration
of that, I saw miss to see there, which was
a really nice moment in my day because I haven't
seen him in so long. And then I just was

(06:46):
kind of been floating around today. It was a stressful
a little bit day. That's why when I came here
and you telling me about how I need to meditate
in the morning, I was really receptive to this information
you were giving me because it's it's.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
It's I think it's important, like you got to start
your day with positive, good intentions.

Speaker 6 (07:02):
It's one thing to know that, and it's another thing
to exercise and do it regularly and be diligent about it.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Most of us, when we wake up, we grab our phone. Yeah,
we doom and gloom. Literally, grabbing your phone is like, hey,
hand me my bottle of pain, handy my stress. Now,
just because I'm currently in that situation with organizing the
Roots Picnic and these movies I'm doing, and twelve other
projects that you know, if we don't, if we don't

(07:32):
go inward.

Speaker 7 (07:33):
To I like what Fonte said a few months ago,
that first thing he does in the morning is take
like a whole bunch of deep breaths, right.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got to. Yeah, man, you got to. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (07:43):
You know what I started doing lately that has been
a thing for me is I started golfing at golf Now,
is that like the weirdest thing. I can't even believe
that's me. I love golf.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
I'm jealous of you assuming north of forty people, yes,
that have taken up golf, because that's the one thing
I feel like, like everyone my age is now like
going to the golf courses, Like various members of the
Roots are golfing, golfing and stuff.

Speaker 6 (08:08):
It's two things. It's the one thing I do that
I'm not multitasking. There's no phone involved there. It's just
I'm trying to get better at this very specific thing,
and this whatever it is, my short game. I love
whatever it is. And it's and you're outside in this
beautiful environment and the grass and the sky and.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
The who taught you how to play golf?

Speaker 6 (08:29):
Nobody. One of my girlfriends who golfs, was like, come.
I was like, I don't know how to golf. She
was like, so what none of us do? Nobody's good.
Don't worry. And so I went to just ride the
cart and have a drink and chill, and I did
it a couple of times. And then I took a
couple of lessons from a guy at the range.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
And her name is not Ashley, is it? No?

Speaker 6 (08:44):
But I have golf. I do golf with actually sometimes.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
I was gonna say I golf.

Speaker 6 (08:48):
With actually a few times and then I.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Go like a hustler, like I didn't know that she
was that good at it. So she's good.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
She's been golfing a long time.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Your child, Ashley Witherspoon actually.

Speaker 6 (08:59):
Helps with me with my podcast by the way, too.
She helps with a lot of the digital on my pie.
And and then when we GoF we golf last week
actually together.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
The only thing I won't do with Ashley is anymore
game nights. I brought her to one game night and
the ship almost ended in a fight. So she's very competitive.
She's very intense with game nights.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
I got to say, I'm excited to see squads of
women on golf courses now, especially brown and black women,
because that's like a thing.

Speaker 6 (09:22):
Let me tell you my other friend, Jamie, another woman,
she's she's a Callid's head of digital and she we
golfed and Compton together.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yes, And there's a golf course in Compton.

Speaker 6 (09:34):
Yes, And I don't want to be correct me if
I might be right outside of Compton, but it's the
Compton golf Course. But you went there and it was
all people called it golfing, all black and brown people golfing.
And it was so dope to see that and feel
that because you know, most golf courses not that it's
not that, that's not the scene. Okay, So if you're
going to start at any point, go there and feel
and get catch the vibe, and then on my list,

(09:56):
it's a good place.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Thought I was supposed to start with miniature golferst and
then don't do that.

Speaker 6 (10:02):
Don't do that place.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
So golfing is where golfing is where you find yes.

Speaker 6 (10:08):
For me, that's a thing, but I don't. I can't
golf every day, so clearly I need to do some
type of meditation in the morning. It's just I have
to just I know what I need to do. It's
just about getting diligent about doing it. But yeah, and
now that my plate is filling up because I'm like,
I have all these things that I want to do
and achieve, and sometimes it all gets overwhelming, and like
you said, I have to get inside. It's the only
way to create it or really be creative and tap

(10:31):
into that.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Usually this is my last question, like what is it
that is still on your bucket list for achieving that?

Speaker 6 (10:38):
Kidding, it's it's an endless list of things. But I
tell you right now, as I've been doing this pod
that I you know, I launched the podcast, paid for it,
we shoot it. We have a whole production team and.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Very professional looking Thank you. I like it.

Speaker 6 (10:53):
And I did that because I just wanted to have conversations.
I don't want anybody anybody's opinion about who I booked
or what we talked about. I really wanted to create
something that with some of my heart. But I learned
a lot about production from this process, and it made
me have a little bit of confidence to to be
able to feel like I could do what I've been
really wanting to do for a long time, which is
tell stories kind of like you. And it's funny because
I heard you talking about being afraid to direct for

(11:16):
a long time and kind of shying away from that
feeling and I and I related to that so much
because I felt the same way. I feel like I
know how to tell a great story. I feel like
I have a vision that maybe some people don't have.
And I always felt a little scared because maybe I
didn't go to film school or I didn't go to
you know. And so but now I've grown the confidence

(11:37):
to feel like I actually do have a perspective and
a vision and a clarity and a storytelling ability that
I'm not really exercising to the extent that I should be.
And so that's kind of what the next couple of
years hopefully looks like for me.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
So now do you say that, like, how's your pursuit
of comedy going?

Speaker 6 (11:54):
Why do you always put me on the spot with that?

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Because I got sometimes in the river it's hard.

Speaker 6 (11:58):
When you I mean, I think Angie can speak to this.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
It's like, it's hard sometimes pursuing your passion when you
got multiple jobs.

Speaker 6 (12:04):
But I'm girl. First of all, I still have a
full time radio job. I got a pocket, I got
seventeen jobs, right, But you know you prioritize what's calling,
whatever's inside you. That's like screaming to get out.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
As we're talking about prioritizing yourself and meditation is hard.

Speaker 6 (12:22):
No, That's why I'm so receptive to what you saw,
how it came in the room as soon as I'm
receptive to that, because I know I cannot deliver at
the level I want to if I am not finding
a place to kind of center and get creative and
give myself that kind of.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
So the answer to that question is, I'm working on
I'm listening to you and trying to figure out where
to make the space because obviously you have found it.

Speaker 6 (12:45):
And are you doing it in the morning? Are you
meditating and stuff?

Speaker 4 (12:47):
Yes, meditation, meditation and the comedy thing that he said,
I kind of took a.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Took a She has a comedy. She has a comedy
dream that she wants to pursue. And comedy is hard
because there's a lot of the only way you're going
to learn how to be the greatest comic ever is
you're going to have to tell jokes, embrace but really
like embrace for failure in silence, and that's the way
you figure out what.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
Also, don't you have to tell yourself and believe it.
When you tell yourself that you are a comedian, that
you are sold that part. And I'm not. And this
is what I know. I know I'm I say that
that's a probable way.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
No, I say that to say that I feel like
there are funny people and we notice, right there are
people who are.

Speaker 6 (13:27):
Funny, and then there are comedians.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
And so what I did was when I moved my
last radio job, I got fired and feeling and I
moved to LA to pursue like TV dreams, and I
wanted to make sure that my funny. I knew formulas
and things, I knew to call back and things. So
I started doing stand up and whatnot. But it's really about,
like you said, being a creative and putting your stories
out there. So, yeah, the comedy thing, but I have stories.

Speaker 6 (13:50):
But the only way you could do that is you
have full confidence in your vision and confidence that's a
word right now. No, you need it, I'm sure. Like,
let me ask you this, Let me ask not my podcast.

Speaker 8 (14:00):
Sorry, no, no, this is literally what this podcast is
teaching class.

Speaker 6 (14:05):
You're teaching class like you were, like, even when you
start calling yourself a director, it's something.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
When I just started calling myself When you just.

Speaker 6 (14:12):
Started calling yourself a director? Was it before the Academy
awarder after or like when did.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
That I really fully accepted who I was and what
my mission in life is? Probably July of twenty twenty two.

Speaker 6 (14:30):
Okay, so I was, did you?

Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's to the point where Disney was like, dude, you're
going to self deprecate yourself out of this award if
you keep on telling people that you know you like
why I mean that? All shucks, guys. And I was
in such a habitual routine of self deprecating and and
a lot of me why do we do that? Because

(14:53):
we want to manage the expectations of people around us.
You know, I'm thinking about if the roots think I'm
a nut or like, man, are they talking behind my
talking shit behind my back? Where my friends think, well,
these guys think, what do.

Speaker 6 (15:06):
Your director friends think about you stuff.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Oh dude. For the longest, like I would go to
Knicks games, and you know, I was like, ah, man,
Spike's not gonna you know. I went to this event
and if you remember his partner Ernest Dickerson, who used
to juice right, shoot shoot stuff, Ernest came up to me.
It was like, brother, I've watched your movie five times.

(15:32):
It was so emotional, so incredible, and I saw Spike's
ears prick up, and I realized, oh, okay, Spike didn't
watch the movie yet, which I actually understand. There's a
very popular prominent MC who I refused to listen to

(15:56):
out of professional jealousy. No, but it's it's like that sometimes,
like why you know, because sometimes you might internalize your
own failure based on someone else's success, and you know,
I would feel some sort of way like a man
like or get it over analytical, and I didn't like,
music is too precious for me to even want to

(16:19):
like be that disparaging to someone else. But I found
myself having these professional jealous feelings to this particular person,
and so I just refused to acknowledge their music and
unless I had to DJ it in the nightclub, and
I realized. I was like, Okay, who is this person?
I'm not gonna go okay, fine, but I noticed. I

(16:41):
did notice though that in a week, based on the
energy that Ernest Dickerson brought me at this particular thing.
Then Spike finally hit me with a text like man,
I really liked your movie. It was great. And then
he started talking. But in my mind I was also like, man, Spike,
ava all them going to look at me like he

(17:02):
think he doing right exactly?

Speaker 6 (17:04):
But did it switch for you when you could call
yourself a director? Do you show up differently after you
have the after you say to yourself, oh, man, I
am a director.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Like the second you have that high of a moment,
And what you have to realize is the Oscar is
the last stop on that journey. Like I've been spending
an entire year going to the awards ceremony, wards ceremony,
local ceremony, that film festival. Then I sun danced all
this stuff, and then after like like we were sweeping everything.
It was like the Thriller days. Like after the thirteenth Award.

(17:35):
I even asked Disney like, yo, like can we just stop?
Can you pull us out the thing because after about
a month of this, then suddenly I've noticed like people,
you know sort of like here he comes to still
Christmas again, like that sort of thing. And I use
that and as an excuse to like again start self
deprecating and all that stuff. And then it started affecting

(17:58):
my personal life, Like I year with everyone like food
was my that was my cocaine. So my level binge
eating was getting very dangerous, very you know. It's just
hard to handle because I didn't want to pivot. I
didn't want to grow up and get into my new life,
like part of me still wants to hang on to music.
I've yet to release the record that will let us

(18:19):
in Madison Square Garden. And I know I can do it.
It's our seventeenth rect week. And so even after the Oscar, Yeah,
I've had, like, you know, two weeks after the Oscar,
I've probably had like four to five panic attacks. I
went to Mexico just to sit alone and whatnot. And

(18:40):
so I will say that probably around July. There's a
book by a gentleman named Jose Silva called The Silver Method,
and he teaches you how to talk to yourself, how
to advocate for yourself. How you know that sort of thing.
So yeah, I'll stay around. Like August, that's when I

(19:00):
really started taking and owning what my purpose in life
is and that sort of thing and not being like
afraid to.

Speaker 6 (19:08):
But are you calling yourself a director? Yeah? Okay, yah, yeah,
I just wonder like once you by the way, I
didn't know you went through all that. I didn't know
you went through all of that. But like how you say,
like you don't call yourself comedian or you don't call
your self director, like once you kind of own it.
I just wonder if you could lean into it more,
like if you can really fully.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
But I'm also leaningto like twelve other things, like this
week too much. This thing is now like oh I'm
I'm a children's book author, you know what I mean.
So it's like each week is like a new challenge.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
So and we're born on the same day. So I'm
just looking over here laughing because I'm like.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
You, we're all born in the same month.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
So we responded, I'm going a quariers, oh January, Yeah, okay,
I'm December twenty. Y'all got it, y'all you got your
head on your shoulders were over here when it's Quarius, We're.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Like, what are you saying, Steve.

Speaker 7 (20:01):
I'm just thinking about your conversation here and about what
you said about sort of accepting that you're just a
great storyteller this.

Speaker 5 (20:07):
Yeah, and I feel like, you know, in the long
it took me.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
Like I'm fifty two, it's the one thing I'm like,
I wish I could talk to young me. But they
were like, so I could tell myself a different narrative
is super? You know how much work I could I
would have done if I told myself that earlier in life.

Speaker 5 (20:24):
Yeah, but it doesn't work that way.

Speaker 6 (20:26):
That's true. You have to build up to it.

Speaker 7 (20:28):
Yeah, Like I was going to say, like when you
start off, it's faked till you make it, and then
when you make it, it becomes imposter syndrome for a long time,
and then there's this acceptance of like, oh shit, I
can do this stuff. Well, you know, And is that
our age is that when this happens, No.

Speaker 6 (20:45):
Question, I think for different people different times. I'm always
fascinated when I see a young talent, twenty five thirty
year old talent and they seem to just have this confidence.
So this that might be to fake it. No. No,
I think of like a young Rihanna going around thinking
this girl believes I don't know, I mean she is

(21:06):
a unicorn, yes, But I'm just saying there are people
that at a young age, for some reason, tap into
a confidence about who they are.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
She has something because she walked up to me once.
I've never spoken to Well, I spoke to Rihanna first
before I spoke to Grace Jones. An, Wait, aren't they
from the same island? There are they?

Speaker 6 (21:23):
Jamaica, Jamaican, She's.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
From Trinidad, Barbado, Barbados. I'm sorry, hey, Bill, when we
need them right exactly. So when she first walked up
to me, it was like a young Grace Jones and
she comes up to me like you and I look like,
oh ship, Rihanna does know who I am. And she's like,

(21:47):
I want to work with you, like and she she
just had this very.

Speaker 6 (21:50):
Commanding the short hair, short hair Rihanna.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
She was in Kanye's video for one of those songs
on Ato Eight's and Heartbreak where she's behind in the car. Yeah,
I forget what it was, but like that's when def
Jam was like throwing video release parties for just videos
or whatever, and so good times. I feel like you

(22:15):
are the eye of the storm of what many were
probably deemed the celebratory period of hip hop, which I
feel like between ninety seven and two thousand and seven,
where like every Hype Whims video, the rise of the Rock,

(22:36):
like the ROC like you're the trusted, like you're almost
like Switzerland. You are the trusted epicenter of a lot
of these artists. And I'm well, first of all, I'm curious,
like what was your entry into communication as far as
like radio.

Speaker 6 (22:52):
Oh, just throw that young girl in here. She's the
only one here who really knows anything about hip hop,
and then.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Just jump in the pool looking at you again.

Speaker 6 (22:59):
So I'm working out. I'm seventeen eighteen working at a station,
a radio station, because I was I was a mess
with my mother. I got, you know, getting kicked out
of school, and my mother was in radio. She got
me an internship. I was interning.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
Your mom used to be on radio.

Speaker 6 (23:14):
She wasn't on the air, she did say she used
to do. She worked in the sales department. And when
like this, when red alert was like KISSFM read alert,
you know, like kiss cards and like legendary red Alert
Young Red. My mother was like a sales rep there.
Then she worked. Then she wounded up becoming a music
director and program director at CD one to one point
nine and stuff like that. So she was in for

(23:35):
a long time. So I got an internship. I was eighteen,
So it was a dance station. When I first got there,
there was no commercial hip hop radio station.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
So the place that was Hot ninety seven was.

Speaker 6 (23:43):
For dance station. I was you know, they play like
you know, C and C Music Factory kind of, you know,
like that, and so but I was a hip hop head,
like and so when they when they were slowly transitioning,
I would get asked a lot of questions because I
was the kid who knew. I was like a nerd,
like a hip hop nerd, and so I was in
the right place at the right time. Then they brought
Flex in as going to be the head of this

(24:05):
when they decided to go hip hop, and then I
had so I learned. I was running the boards for him.
I was doing everything, getting coffee, doing everything. And then
they were like, wait, in my mind, like what.

Speaker 1 (24:15):
The idea of hit ninety seven was like always here,
so you're saying that in the nineties.

Speaker 6 (24:20):
There was seven it was it was dance music. It
was no There was no commercial hip hop radio station
in existence in New York City, just a show, maybe
hip or not. You would have to listen to Kiss
or b LS on the weekends, like you would have
to listen to Red Alert Moll mister Magic. You have
to listen on the weekends and tape you couldn't. There
was no There was no twenty four hour day hip hop.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
You're saying like ninety three ninety four is when this
starts happening or ninety two.

Speaker 6 (24:45):
Ninety so bad this years? Well, you were eighteen, so yeah,
I was eighteen. So you do the math and y'all
are setting like standard for the whole country. Yeah, but
you know, when you're in it and you're creating something
and that in your babies, you're just doing it because
you love it. There's no understanding of what this could be,
what it would evolve into, what it could grow into.
Even when I started doing interviews, there was no understanding
of one day these interviews could matter to somebody or

(25:07):
we could grow into something. It was just like, oh
my god, I love this Wool Tang album. I can't
believe they're here and then having these these conversations, and
this is what I miss about those times? Is there?
Right now? I feel like everything is very agenda driven
because people kind of have the codes and they know
what works, and they know what you have to do
to get results, and you and people understand the business
of it. There was no business of it. We really
were operating under. There was just hard The people were

(25:29):
operating under a love for the music, for the culture
for we weren't even calling it the culture then we did.
We weren't even organized enough to call it that. We
we just were operating on sheer like love and connection.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
And this is such a beautiful circle back because we
just talked at least the Cortez earlier, and I feel
like y'all both hit the scene around the same well
but still, I mean, ninety seven was the first, and
so it's the.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Same thing the same time without hot ninety seven. How
old were you when you How do you become a
radio personality? Did they put you on like four in
the morning? First?

Speaker 6 (26:08):
Oh, I was doing everything. I was running the boards.
I used to run the boards for flex. I was
like I was just I was pushing the buttons and
running the boards, and I was nice with the you
know back then you just have to edit on the
real reels. I mean nice with that and the tape,
I'd have cuts on my fingers.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, nothing sexier than a female engineer. The amount of
times where.

Speaker 9 (26:30):
Yo, when I tell you I was nice, I could
make somebody say something they didn't mean to say with
the white marker and the raised blades and the I
was nice.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
I saw the first time I met h Mecca of
Diggable Planets, she was like, this is why. When they
were recording a blowout come and she was like, I
me the tape, I'm like, what the hell? I'm in
love also, but.

Speaker 6 (26:54):
What the hell? So I'm there, I'm this young girl
who's a hip hop nerve who knows everything. And then
I can also run the boards and be on the radio.
And then they brought flexing. I'm running his boards, so
that it was like this, put this girl on overnights
and just give see what she got.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
But don't you have to have the gift of gab
and know how I had no.

Speaker 6 (27:13):
Gift to gab. No, no, I had no gift to gab.
I learned gift a gab throughout the process of of
being on the radio, that I was god awful at
least two years of being terrible on the radio. For sure,
Like if I went back and here tapes, I will
be mortified right now. And then over the years they
weren't always great. I really had the I had the

(27:34):
privilege of like learning how to be on the air
while I was on the air. What I did have
going for me. The one thing I will say though,
is that from the beginning, my intention was always good
and I think that that carried me because people wanted
me to you know, people wanted me to win. The
reported me. You had a cheer for me, and so
that that that carried me for a while until I

(27:54):
learned actually how to do how to.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
Do that right.

Speaker 5 (27:57):
Well, we happened to have one of your tapes from your.

Speaker 6 (28:03):
Oh my god, wait.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Do you so I know, like when you first were
on the radio, would you like afford yourself.

Speaker 6 (28:11):
Over over modulating smiling?

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Do you remember you like, who was the first person
you interviewed?

Speaker 6 (28:20):
I don't. People have asked me that, and I don't
remember for some reason in my mind, and I know
it wasn't them, because time wise, it was like group
home or someone like that. It was like, I don't
know that for sure it was them, but those were
the early interviews that I remember at that time.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
So when do you feel like you arrived when in
my bag? Like when they when they first all right,
can y'all explain to me? I know there's always a
morning show? And then I've learned that most in my
radio experiences of meeting people, I've met more midday mommies
than it's their formula.

Speaker 6 (28:56):
They think they have a formula, right.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
But it's always like you know, if you.

Speaker 6 (29:01):
Ask Salon Remy Salon REMI will tell you because he
always says this, and I'm like Salom stops saying that
Salam thinks that every like hip hop ratio station across
the country hired a Latin girl because because of my
success on hot like well, that was like they placed
the Angiebartinas that like He's like, I'm going around the country,
I'm seeing the it's my around ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Like literally, I've met more midday mommies after your arrival
that I didn't see the first rounds of us having
the travel radio stations, so.

Speaker 6 (29:34):
I didn't realize their way. So but she wasn't the
first mid day one man.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
But just that's how you feel because it's the era
in the time, because I.

Speaker 6 (29:42):
Think that's radio. People swear that's a whole formula.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
We put the woman I've never heard of man.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
But I.

Speaker 6 (29:50):
Did nights, which honestly is like a you know, for a.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
Girl, that's the prime spot.

Speaker 6 (29:54):
They don't put women in the nights though. It depends
what you call a prime spot if you're a radio
person and you're selling ads morning show and afternoon drive
or the prime spot before a young girl who's in
the clubs and in the streets and it's going to
artists listening sessions. You know. Night times is when in
New York at that time was it was popping, like
it was popping. So that's why I started. I started

(30:15):
doing nights and then and.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
It's right before the shows, right, so then you also
got the guests because people don't realize night show until
ten o'clock, So folks.

Speaker 6 (30:22):
Was coming on your show because it's like it's hit
Angie before the show. And then over the years, then
they moved me to afternoon Drive.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Who do you feel is your most important interview? During
that time? Like I remember like a lot of your
Jay Z interviews.

Speaker 6 (30:36):
Yeah, Jay was great for me in my career because
he gave me an opportunity to kind of like have
different types of conversations.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
That he wouldn't have with anyone else.

Speaker 6 (30:44):
He was just always so smart, and he always had
such like I don't know, he just always wanted to
elevate the conversation. So and he trusted me. So he
wasn't doing a lot of interviews all of it. I mean,
there wasn't a lot of places to go for interviews,
especially back then. I probably think that probably in New York,
I had to have done this first one. I would imagine,
I don't want to say that's wrong. Maybe it was
stretching Bob.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
Probably stretching definitely stretching Bob. Stretching Bob.

Speaker 6 (31:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But we did a lot
of them earlier on. And so those were some of
my favorites at the beginning. But honestly, it's hard to say,
you know that, It's like, what's your favorite show? Do
you have a favorite show? Like you can't say that.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah, you can for this show. I feel like even
though Jimmy Jammin.

Speaker 6 (31:22):
No, I mean like a roots show, no, oh no, definitely. Really,
do you have a favorite roots song? Right?

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Exactly?

Speaker 6 (31:32):
I mean exactly.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
I don't know my favorite until I get it.

Speaker 6 (31:37):
I don't know. I can't say it. Yo, I got
a question.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Have you ever worked at another radio station besides Power?

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Well?

Speaker 6 (31:44):
When I was sixteen and I was getting I got
kicked out of my high school, I got kicked out
of John Doing in Brooklyn. No, No, I'm sorry, yes
I got. I was getting kicked out of John Doing Brooklyn.
I was sixteen. My mother sent me to Florida to
live with my aunt two ye from sixteen?

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Wait was it that bad? Oh?

Speaker 6 (31:58):
No, I didn't go to school like a juvenile delinquent
or yeah I was. My mother was a single mom.
She was she worked late. She I just was free.
I was a latch key kid. I did whatever I
wanted to do, like you know everybody on the block.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
Right, What was young Angie Martinez like?

Speaker 6 (32:14):
She was? She thought, I don't she had no really understanding.
She loved hip hop music. All I would literally watch
like Beach Street.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
I was like, I would see the whole watch Beach.

Speaker 6 (32:24):
Street and Wild Style and all those movies, and and
I would I would tape red Alert on the weekends,
and then I'd spend all week listening to the songs
so I could memorize them and all the lyrics.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
I was chuck wearing like oh yeah, I was it.

Speaker 6 (32:40):
I know, like lee belts and you know what I mean,
dame pants and belts and name belts and bamboo earrings
and all those things. And then my mom was working
and I you know, are you start hanging out, you're
playing handball, you're drinking for all English.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
And we're doing this interview, so asked backwards, right now,
let me start. We're born. I don't get there. No,
it was literally like we normally.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
Still over the place here, I mean you.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Know what tho, No, no, but like normally, yes, we
started the beginning and then work our way up.

Speaker 6 (33:15):
Okay, there's a formula.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
You're right. What was your home life? Do you have siblings?

Speaker 6 (33:19):
Single mom?

Speaker 1 (33:21):
What burrow?

Speaker 8 (33:22):
My?

Speaker 6 (33:23):
Most of my family is from Washington Heights in the Bronx.
And then my mom was that she was that single
mom that was like trying to change her life and
it's going to self help and reading a lot and
now I'm your horring ako, and you know she's My mother.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Was always this episode right now.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
She was always trying to do better. Her dad was,
you know, battling alcoholism, and it was challenging for her
in a lot of ways growing up, and she tried
to get out. So, so my whole family's uptown in
the Bronx. My mother took me. The two of us
went all the way to the other side of Brooklyn,
which is like a two hour train ride. So my
whole family's uptown. Me and my mom is on the

(34:01):
last stop by Corney Island in Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Oh really, Yeah.

Speaker 6 (34:06):
So we're out there and we're in the little one
bedroom apartment, me and her. My mother was so dope.
We had a one bedroom apartment. She let me have
the bedroom and she would sleep in the living room
and like this couch, just like this terrible green couch.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Have you been there lately? Yeah, so you've seen the gentrification, like.

Speaker 6 (34:25):
Oh, yeah, it's crazy, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah, there's even like luxury motels something.

Speaker 6 (34:29):
Even, by the way, I told you my family's from
Washington Heights. Even Washington Heights, it's a whole difference. They
changed that too, one hundred percent different from when I
grew up. Yeah, for New York. Yeah, it's crazy, so different.
So yeah, but you know what, my block wasn't bad,
it was very I love that I grew up in
a building where my next door neighbor was from Trinidad,

(34:52):
mother with two daughters over here, this Asian family, Korean family,
so Russian family across a super diverse building. And I
think that it really create created who I am. You
know what I'm saying, Like, I feel like I can
talk to anybody. I feel like I can people feel
it from you. Yeah, I feel like I understand all
different types of people. And my neighborhood really had a

(35:15):
lot to do with that. How I grew up in
that in that building in Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
You know, so I got I gotta get so Latin
coret is an extreme no no, no no, But did you
have earlier expansiones in like New York night life?

Speaker 6 (35:30):
My first club was roseland Bismarcky was performing. The first
that I went to a club, I was fifteen. I
snuck in with a fake ID. There was a shootout
inside the club the night I went first night in
the club. The crazy thing about it is that after
the shooting, everybody got back to partying. Like the club
wasn't closed, I will ask you.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
I will ask you like I ask everyone else like
and maybe this is me like again like living and
fear and safety or whatever, But why would you go
to a spot where the likelihood of something about the
pop off would happen wouldn't deterror you it all like okay,

(36:16):
oh yeah.

Speaker 6 (36:17):
Sure as a sensible adult, but as a fifteen year
old who can't believe that business markets in like the
touch like distance, like he's right there and he's performing
in the DJ and the scene and I can't believe
I'm in a club and the music is crazy. I
just was happy to be like I was. It was.
It's crazy. I hit the clubs when you were under age.

(36:38):
It wasn't until I got older and I actually started
getting to like a fear. It's crazy because my whole
career I had to go to clubs.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
I was gonna say, you, but I would have to
go to the tunnel.

Speaker 6 (36:46):
But I, oh, it was at the tunnel regularly.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
What was the tunnel? Even though we I think we
performed at the at the end of like the era
of the tunnel. They finally like when the roots get
invited to the tunnel, then you know, it's over. There
was always it was like the roots in Eminem. Oh
wow wow, back when Eminem was exactly you were.

Speaker 6 (37:06):
Never like in the trenches of the tunnel at the Big.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
No Not Shook Ones era, this.

Speaker 6 (37:10):
Urban legend of tunnel. I definitely saw mob deep and
all those were my favorite, like boot Camp, the tunnel
was like all of those were crazy.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Like Flex started being nice to us like ninety nine before.
It's like, yeah, I don't know if I feel him yet.

Speaker 6 (37:24):
You know, it sounds like Flex.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Right, I don't know if I feel him yet. But
you know, when he wanted us to do the tunnel
and I was scared, I was like, we don't want
to do the tunnel, like we no, And it actually
wound up being.

Speaker 6 (37:37):
The crazy thing is Flex was when I think about
him now, I was so in awe of how he
seemed to be like one of those people that we
were talking about, that he had this confidence about what
he was doing. He came there, he was like, we're
gonna make this station, We're gonna get this is what
we're gonna do. He'd be in the tunnel, he like,
I don't know, he just had this. He made merch,
he made fun flex jackets, and we all wore the

(37:57):
leather jackets when we went by the way, we would
go to the in matching nothing but flavor folk Master
flex jackets. And I thought it was I wasn't. I
was so in awe that he even had this type
of vision and confidence. And I always, you know, I
always felt a little unsafe, but not enough that I
would want to.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Leave, like what would have happened, what was a typical
night at the say Latin Quarter at the tunnel at the.

Speaker 6 (38:22):
Tunnel, well for me already, because I was already running
around with flex so I was I'd be by the
booth or I'd be like, you have the safety of
the booth. Somewhat, yeah, somewhat, because I did start to
develop over the years, I did start to develop a
little bit of phobia of crowds. I started to feel
a little like I would get a little anxiety when
I when I couldn't move and I would get stuff.
And so that became a thing for me.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
So save an unknown ill out scratch is waiting like
I'm certain that when you're going in and out of
hot ninety seven happened to me, like you know, you
can you can feel in your peripheral that like, yeah,
five people over there waiting like for the moment to
double dutch their way to like, yo, here's our new
joint whatever, like have you.

Speaker 6 (39:04):
Had most of the time. And I've really been lucky
in the streets of New York, Like and I used
to run around by myself, like and even when I
was young and like going to spots, I had no
business by myself pulling up in the car by like.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
I wiez of course.

Speaker 6 (39:17):
And I had this like I don't know, I had
this like false sense of security in this city. And honestly,
people made me feel that way. They made me feel
that way. Like one time I got my car stolen.
My car was stolen. I got on the radio and
I was like, yo, somebody stole my car.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
You know that.

Speaker 6 (39:30):
Somebody called the radio station was like, ang, we got you.
I know what it is. It'll be downstairs by the
time you get out of work. And they returned my
stolen car. This is how the city made me feel,
like treated me like, I don't know, that's a that's beautiful.
That's beautiful. Isn't that amazing? So I would walk around
the streets and I felt a sense of like love, Yeah,
I would feel love. I'm not stupid, like I wouldn't

(39:52):
put myself in bad situations. But I did feel maybe
a little bit of a full beautiful always like safe.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
And I don't it's amazing because I don't know if
I would admit that my car, like because I don't
want the world to know, like, oh, you can easily
get got quest love like that sort of thing. But but.

Speaker 6 (40:12):
What are you talking about. Anybody in the planet could
get your car to get stolen. I don't think they
stole the car because they knew it was mine. It
was just randomly stolen.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
But I'm just saying Varner Building they liked that, where
like nah, like fuck it, I'm not gonna let nobody
know I got got that sort of thing.

Speaker 6 (40:27):
Honestly, I had a couple of times I would leave
this and where the way High ninety seven used to be.
It was like in the garment district. It was dark
over there. It was like nobody was there at night,
and I would leave by myself. I'd be like, it
wasn't no security, it was just me. I'd get on
the train two am, take the train like I was.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
I was crazy, like Oh, yes, Andrew Martinez, you know.

Speaker 6 (40:47):
Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
That's why I asked you earlier about like that being
your only station, because that kind of love is hard
to leave, right. And I know people tried to get
you because you you had the mold, you had the
model of what to do. I know people tried to
get you to come to other cities many and many
and many a times. But like, I don't know, you've
never gotten going really from other stations.

Speaker 6 (41:08):
I have to think about it. But nothing that like
out the gate. I mean when Power first came in,
there was definitely feelers out for me at the beginning
of that, not even the beat in l A like
I just imagine like LA call like such a New
York Girl's true, you know what I'm saying. I didn't
even want to be syndicated because I didn't want to
have to like compromise.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
At what point were you guys being syndicated?

Speaker 6 (41:29):
No, I didn't. When people would say, are you interested
in that?

Speaker 1 (41:32):
I don't like what time Joiner does.

Speaker 6 (41:34):
Yeah, I wasn't interested because I know what that means.
It's this you have to kind of chair more localization,
you have to Yeah, And I just wasn't I was like, yeah,
I'm good, I'm amazing.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
You see that as an opportunity, not for me, because
I got to change who I am.

Speaker 6 (41:50):
And that's no judgment. Some people can do it, Like
if you look at the Breakfast Club does if they
were only on in New York, they'd be the same
show that they are all the way. But how I
and how I deliver I think works for New York.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
So you're saying, all right, who were who were those
two the two guys that were on Hot ninety seven
that were like they were the originals? Yes, I was
the original Jesus and Mirror, right, So you're saying to
me that as a New Yorker, you could have been
like crazy or whatever your personality was, but if you're syndicated,

(42:23):
then you really had to dial that back.

Speaker 6 (42:26):
And also I didn't have that crazy I was never
the Hey. First of all, I didn't do a lot
of gossip. I didn't do I wasn't a shock jock.
I wasn't I didn't have this crazy, over the top personality.
What I had was a knowledge in my city, an
authentic perspective about the music. People trusted me, and people

(42:49):
feel like they know me and I felt like I
just didn't want to compromise any of that I wanted to.
I didn't want to. I didn't want to shift that
to like do a radio show that was like, oh,
you know, you got to talk to the specifically to
New York anymore the other opportunities. And then once the
internet opened up, then why would I ever do that

(43:11):
when people could watch my interviews on YouTube and I
could do it the way I do it without having
to kind of compromise.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Was there ever pressure at any point, or in a
professional or even in a toxic way to.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
Do more?

Speaker 1 (43:28):
That's something out of your.

Speaker 6 (43:29):
Zone all the time. I mean, you know how all
the time and every turn sometimes. I mean, I'm sure
there were points in my life or my career where
you try because you want to win, and you try
to figure out a way you could do a certain thing,
especially when people start looking at numbers and all that stuff.
But I don't think at any.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Point are you numbers good?

Speaker 6 (43:49):
I mean most of the time, not always.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
I all know you are, so I will tell you something.

Speaker 6 (43:53):
Though my whole career, people would tell me, oh you're
the number one, or you have this many. I never
look at ratings I don't look at numbers. I don't
look at ratings because I never wanted it to make
I didn't. I didn't want it to affect how I
show up right.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Right, But they let you They let you know that
well for ignorance.

Speaker 6 (44:11):
No, they were if we were in trouble, they'd say, hey,
maybe we need to tighten up on this, And I say, okay, well,
but the up and down of radio ratings is so
crazy that I didn't I never wanted to like fall
victim to like watching that, and then also FLEX watched
it so hard I felt like I didn't have to.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
Okay, I was going to lead back to him. I'm
not using him specifically as an example, but I guess
I could use him as an example of which, you know,
I've heard a few times where people like, yo, man,
why don't you, you know, give up the keys of
the kingdom to let someone else younger? And whatever? But
is there like how I'm not saying doggy dog? Is
it like how often do you have to look in

(44:49):
the rear view mirror to figure out, like.

Speaker 6 (44:55):
Who's on my neck?

Speaker 1 (44:56):
Yeah? And what is that?

Speaker 6 (44:58):
Anybody on your neck?

Speaker 1 (45:00):
Someone new comes in? I have to wonder like, oh,
do they want my spot or like do you get.

Speaker 6 (45:06):
I think probably a younger me was a little bit
more aware of that than me. Now me now is
just like I'm supposed to be where I'm supposed to.
This is no, it's not that I mean I welcome
I'm always trying to get them to I don't know.
I welcome new energy, young energy, like around. So I
don't know. I don't really think about that, but I

(45:27):
think at some points I probably did. But but for
short periods of time, you can't let yourself. But you know,
whenever you're looking over there, it just alters your delivery,
alters your state of mind, your old and I always
is aware of that. So even if I look over
there for a second, I'm right back here.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Okay, So the world that Steve and I belong to,
which is at thirty Rock University. Yeah, the sign of
uh oh is when as as a not a staff person,
but as a a union guy, like the guy that
does a camera, a guy that does the light, like
a crew guy. The sign of h oh is when

(46:08):
they tell you you got to go to the Today Show. So,
because because of the way that New York has like
union rules, and all those things. You can't like fire
someone or as you just put them on the ship job, right,
you can't. You can't never get fired from like you
have to do something extreme, like kind of short of murder.

Speaker 6 (46:30):
I hate that, by the way, Well yeah, cool for radiople.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
I'm right. So when you work at thirty, like if
you get in on my you're golden, and people fight
for the job because it's like you dental, like you
get insurance and all that stuff.

Speaker 6 (46:44):
I didn't that.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
So, but the thing is is that I don't believe
that what you.

Speaker 6 (46:51):
Know I come from, Like if you're not if you
don't want to be here, or you're not delivering, or
this is not a good fit, then let's all let's
keep it moving, right.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
But what I'm saying with him is that the thing
is like you gotta go to the Today Show, which
means like a damn, I got it. Well, it's because
they can't fire you. Being on the Today Show is
so inconvenient because now you gotta wake up at two
in the morning to work at three and all that stuff.

Speaker 8 (47:19):
I guess they could do that you eventually quit.

Speaker 6 (47:21):
Yeah, they'll put you on Sundays at two am.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Oh, yes, out the passion.

Speaker 6 (47:25):
That's not radio though, but if it's over, it's over.
Well now I mean now I'm at iHeart. That's a
difference a similar type of machine. It's like a big company.
So there's a lot more rules, and over the years
there's more.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
So what's the undesirable hour?

Speaker 6 (47:37):
Like, what's the undesirable the undesirable hour? Yeah, I would
imagine it's like overnights, even though I had a good
time doing overnights, but I would imagine who I don't know,
I don't know. I don't think that's a thing. Now, I
don't think that's a thing. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
So all times are good times.

Speaker 6 (47:51):
And no window is just so different.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
It's just so different asking these questions as the person
that clearly doesn't listen to great like this.

Speaker 6 (48:01):
It's not even like a date. Everybody has a day
part with a rule. Never perse. Somebody came to me
and they were like, hey, Andrew, were thinking maybe you
should do Sundays at midnight. Now that would be great, right,
I'd be like, yeah, no, thank you, though this has
been good times. We can we can easily just we
could just go our ways. Now that that wouldn't work
for me. But luckily I'm in a position in life
where I can do other things and and I'd be fine.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
So so for you, what was your wildest, like historical
moment that you felt was that Hot ninety seven at
its peak?

Speaker 6 (48:36):
Oh jeez, you just reworded the question I didn't want
to answer before, which was what was your favorite what
was your biggest interview? You read, that's what you're not.
That's what an interviewer does. They go, they bring it
back around if you don't answer it the first way.
But that's what a good interviewer does.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Well, I would figure that you would have like one
I caught this freestyle, or I met Kendrick Lamar for
the first time or.

Speaker 6 (49:04):
So many But do you have do you have any
idea that this was my life for so many years,
that I did this every day, that every day it
was highlight And I'm in New York City at a
point where it's Woo Tang and jay Z and Nas
and mob Deep and uh you know what I mean,
just an endless stream artists every single night, coming every day.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Assuming that you were at Years Hot, assuming that you
were at Summer Jam during the Yes takeover period, like
it wasn't weird to see like Michael Jackson just backstage
at Hot ninety seven, like, oh yeah, that was pretty great.

Speaker 6 (49:41):
That was pretty great. You just got a remind her
because I see that so much. That was that was
pretty great. Okay, let me think a good one for you.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
Want to I want to campfire story. Damn it, damn you.
I'm a nerd.

Speaker 6 (49:54):
You know I love that about you. It's good. I mean,
you know, you know there's you know, you know the
Na's battle happened on my show, right? Did you know
that that we played records and the whole city voted
and that was the moment when that was a huge moment.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
So what was that? What? No, this is what the two.

Speaker 6 (50:11):
Records it was, which I thought was unfair, but it
was really super ugly. Oh okay, it was super ugly
versus ether and what happened. Yes, we were wait wait,
do you remember how I was saying earlier, like when
there was no competition, you could do whatever you want.
You want to do a twenty minute talk break? Good,

(50:32):
where's everybody gonna where's everybody gonna go? They're not gonna
go anywhere. You can talk for twenty minutes now competition
has come right now there's two hip hop radio stations
in the market, so now you have to be a
little more careful and tighter otherwise you're giving it. So
in the middle of this nas J thing, I don't
I'm scared. I don't want any parts of it. Flex
is like, if we don't do this here, they're gonna

(50:53):
do it down the block. Do you want that to have? Like,
you know, Flex is a beast, right, So he says,
we're gonna do this. I'm gonna start it on my show.
We're going to play the two records. People are going
to vote all the way. We finish the voting your
show in the afternoon tomorrow. Brilliant, brilliant. It actually is
kind of brilliant. I was resisting it because I didn't
want to get in the middle of that because it's

(51:14):
you know, it's NOTS and it's J and I don't
want to. I don't want to be in that Switzerland.
But you know I was. I was kind of thrown
in it, and so it was huge. It was I
hadn't nobody could anticipate how big. I mean, I don't evening.
We sat there, We sat there, and it was like, honestly,

(51:35):
there was a lot of people in the room case
a rest and peace, God blessed. He was in the room,
The interns were in the room. There was like anybody
who was the other DJs were hanging around because this
was just a huge thing. So people from the sales
department like were like popping in to see and so
we're sitting there answer in the in the board ups
like with a tally with like one line two like

(51:57):
we're doing this. It's two phones. We're taking votes on
Come on, I mean this story I believe one either one.
The crazy thing is Ether one. And Jay was on
his way to the station to do an interview with
me because coincidentally or just what had happened was super ugly.

(52:19):
People didn't like.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
To super ugly. Why did he go against super ugly
and not think about the.

Speaker 6 (52:29):
Current. It was got so all this time had passed
that the takeover dropped Ether and then all of a
sudden it was super ugly and everybody was like, oh God,
which one of these dis records is better?

Speaker 1 (52:39):
I like the beat to I never liked Yeah, I
didn't either. Well it's like I need to like you
need to dance to and I was like, this is
one of the things where I got to listen to
it and I couldn't humme it now to save my life,
Like I feel you, Yeah, I definitely remember that.

Speaker 6 (53:00):
Anyway, So as I'm announcing and the winner is, I
could see my peripheral in the window. I could see
Jay walking in. The winner is Nas, and then Jacks.

Speaker 9 (53:10):
In the room as I'm saying it live there.

Speaker 6 (53:16):
I could as I'm saying the winner is, and I
see j walking in from the peripheral. My god, he said,
door J. And so it was I hated the I
hated the whole moment. I hated is so uncomfortable. And
then because I felt so uncomfortable, then you know, Nas
took it wrong that I was being so like j.

(53:37):
He was like, well what about me? So then there
was all this weirdness that happened. Luckily, after years, you know,
all the years later, we all are everybody anybody's great
and I love to see either one of them anywhere,
and you know, but in that moment, it was you know,
when you're in it and you're younger and you don't
really have a perspective of where it's gonna land, it
all seems so heavy and serious in the moment. Now

(53:59):
we can laughing, is it. But in the moment it
felt heavy, man, because the streets are listening, the streets
are listening, and I'm thinking, oh my god, did I
just help ruin Jay's career? Did I was I part
of this?

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Is this going to ruin him?

Speaker 3 (54:12):
Because in the moment, in the moment, that's the biggest
thing in everybody's you don't know, in the.

Speaker 6 (54:18):
Moment, you think this could be the death of his career.
You know, it sounds ridiculous now, but in the moment,
you don't know that. And I and it was. It
was bad from what I recall, I think like he
came on fine obviously.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
But then he come on the air and he apologized, Yeah,
I was about to say like it was a humbler,
like okay, I've least for I'm sorry. And you know,
I think he got a lot.

Speaker 6 (54:42):
Of calls, including from his mother who said that he
had crossed the and he so he just wanted to
be like, yeah, I cross that right there, and is
what it is. And he tried to say his stay.
It just was an awkward time. His timing was the
whole thing was just nuts, all right, And then I
got mad and me after because because he felt it
wasn't fair.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
What do you mean it was a fair? You won?

Speaker 6 (55:05):
But I understand from his perspective also him sitting home
and be like, hey, you should be happier for me,
Like what's going on here now? In retrospect, I can
understand his feelings anyway, So you know, it's all growing pains.
It's all like growing pains.

Speaker 5 (55:18):
Did Flex apologize to you for putting you in that situation?

Speaker 6 (55:21):
Well, he was like, this was great. We killed it.
You killed it. But you know it's history.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
You haven't feel the pressure in that way because you
had these beautiful relationships and long lasting relationships that when
you are in your job asking questions, have you had
a moment where they might look at you like why
are you asking me that?

Speaker 6 (55:41):
You know, like, do you ever have those that kind
of I think a younger me, a younger me, a
younger because I feel like I've changed a lot, But
I think a younger me maybe fell victim to that
a couple of times where I'd press because I'm like,
the audience wants to know. I think me as I
got older and I started realizing this really doesn't matter
and it's not worth it's not worth me a relationship sacrifice,

(56:04):
even about the relationship, because it's not about if we
don't have a relationship, that's fine, but it's not me
worth me disrespecting somebody or making somebody, just putting somebody
in an awkward spot in my home, Like, I don't
like not only that moment, but I don't like what
it says to the people listening how we should treat
each other. And so I think, you know, you know.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
What, I think. I just remembered that. Actually I think
your best interviews were with fifty in which even I
hate to be this person that's like, but when I
first heard my first fifty cent interview, I was like,
oh yo, he's.

Speaker 6 (56:36):
He's the best, the best interview.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
I hate that. I hate well, I hate he's smart,
and I hate that when people like you saying so,
well whatever. Yeah, but I no.

Speaker 6 (56:48):
No, no, no, there is a there is a moment
where you realize this is a this is not he's
not just wild.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
He's he's playing a character.

Speaker 6 (56:55):
No, he's brilliant, Yeah, yeah he's and he's a marketer
and he's a marketing kind of genius, and he also
charming and yeah, all of those things. But I will
tell you because I didn't always love some of the
things fifty fifty did, right, So I but I love
that I could have interviews with him and like push
him a little bit.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
And so you're allowed to challenge if you don't if
he disagreed without.

Speaker 6 (57:18):
Feeling yeah, I mean, if it's an honest conversation, I'm
not here to hurt anybody. But if I'm like, hey,
a lot of people feel like this, I kind of
feel like this too, what do you think about that?
And it's nice to get it be able to have
an open conversation like that. But he has said to
me over the years a couple of times, He's like,
I definitely left your show bleeding a few times. I
love your show. I was bloody a few times, and

(57:39):
I was like, oh please, just let's be friends. Though okay,
I never wanted to be feeling hard. That's the beautiful party,
you know, great it because I also had respect for him,
so he knows that.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
So how hard was it to transition to being an artist? Oh?
That was tough really, Like, how so, speaking of the
whole imposter syndrome or whatever.

Speaker 6 (58:02):
Like, yeah, we talked about that was the prime of
it for me.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
So how did you get talked into? Like where is
this idea come up? Does Electric come to you?

Speaker 4 (58:10):
No?

Speaker 6 (58:10):
No, no. I'm at a club. I'm hosting a party
as the host and I'm talking on the mic and
doing a look you know one two one two and
Karas One is there and Karras One comes up to
me after the party and.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Says, right, you're what I got next?

Speaker 6 (58:22):
And he said, have you ever been on a record?
And you should? You know you got? You got in
the mic? You sound good. I bet you could kill it.
I was like, now you're crazy. First of all, it
is Karas One. He's one of my role models. And
then he invites me to the studio and I do
Heartbeat and we do Heartbeat with Redman. So I'm in.
So it's imagine. It's like you're I always say like,
imagine you're like a little league baseball player. And Derek

(58:44):
Jeter says, come on down and hit a few balls
with us at Yankee Stadium and You're like fuck, So
you this was me. I'm in the studio with Karas
One and Redman and we do this song, and then
from there it was like a roller coaster. Then Ladies
Night happened, and then the labels start called, and I'm like,
what do you mean you want to do a whole album?

Speaker 1 (59:02):
This is lazy. I have for them things?

Speaker 6 (59:06):
Yeah right, because them things, And if I could go,
and all those records were from the album that came
because I did the Kerason and then the Ladies Names
and they came up. Was just single because that and
also if I could go, which more people would know
if it wasn't stuck in streaming hiding away.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
From it was like I can't we can't find it.
I know.

Speaker 6 (59:24):
We just literally about a week ago finally got it cleared.
It'll go out more, it'll go a little stream soon.
We just literally like a week ago, just finally clear.
You gotta do a whole marketing blitz for that now,
like you gotta know no, come, I still oh my god,
please no.

Speaker 4 (59:46):
No.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
My not tune set is it's so funny, it's so weird.

Speaker 6 (59:52):
It's such a weird thing for me.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Did that give you I was gonna ask that being ours?
Did it give you a new respect for artists?

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
This?

Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
I told you. I was like a rap nerd like
I would recite lyrics were for I could like recite
like rock sand Chantey lyrics, MC light lyrics, not just
them ll cool J lyrics to the t. And so
when that happened, Uh, it was so much fun. It
was like, oh shoot, I love this, like I really
loved it. But then there was a lot of criticism

(01:00:21):
because people knew me from the radio, and I think
I let that get in my head and it made
me scared.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
And so because a conflict.

Speaker 6 (01:00:30):
No, no, no, just like who do you think like
imposta syndrome? Why do you think you should be allowed
to do that?

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Are you allowed to spend your own records?

Speaker 6 (01:00:38):
I didn't, I know, I didn't. I mean you could.
I guess I could. I mean lots of DJs do.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Wait mistake like a lot of spins. So it was
I mean, I don't know. Lady Night was definitely a hit.

Speaker 6 (01:00:52):
No, if I could go, it was a Lady's Night
was a hip for sure, and if I could go,
it was the top ten record also, But you know
what would happened if I could go. I mean some
of those songs Ladies' Night, like they'd play it on
the pop stations with ZE one hundred be playing Ladies
Night and they would cut my verse out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Really, what I was going to ask?

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
Other radio stations, even across the country, if they were
deemed the competitive market, they would cut out the first
because it's because it's promo. You can't promo.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Yeah, who is Like, if you're a radio one with Helen,
what's heard?

Speaker 6 (01:01:24):
It doesn't matter if we're talking about the internet. Yeah,
they they they would cut me, cut me out. So
there was like some weirdness, but that wasn't the thing.
It was me would imposter syndrome. And it was honestly,
I feel like I stunted my own growth because yeah,
you didn't. I didn't get I was just starting to,
like sometimes I see things and I was like, oh,
you was about to get better right there and you

(01:01:47):
And I stunted my own growth because I felt like
like imposter a little bit and I didn't, And it
was just easier for me to be on the radio.
So I just kind of leaned into that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Take your own was awesome my joint too, huh yeah,
yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:02:03):
And it was always so. Let me tell you something,
It was always so because I was always so insecure
about it that whenever I would see somebody that I'll
never forget I was with. I was in LA promote
and I was very insecure about it. And I saw
most most Death at the time, and I saw him
from the hotel. He was like, Yo, you killed that.
I really. I was like, so anytime an artist, somebody

(01:02:27):
that I really respected would say something to like that,
it really like it meant a lot to me, and
you too, And then I live one time I saw
somewhere he had something nice to say, it meant a
lot because I was so insecure and you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
Did something I don't think any other radio host has
done like you made history.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
Yeah. Yeah, how I feel to be nominated for Grammy and.

Speaker 6 (01:02:48):
Imposter syndrome totally? Why am I here? Who put me here?
How is this possible? And it was so quick. I
went from never doing a song too, I'm on the
second song, I'm ever on and I'm at the grand
I'm at the MTV Awards.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Say where did you guys performed it once? Somewhere?

Speaker 6 (01:03:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
So what was that recording session?

Speaker 6 (01:03:07):
Like, like, did you It was a lot of it
was peacemeal. My first time was by myself on was
there was already laid, was already there and I came
in and I didn't even honestly, I was so I
was so green that I didn't I wasn't sure like
where the eight bars was supposed to end, Like my

(01:03:27):
bars weren't. I wasn't even counting bars properly, Like I
came there with a whole book of rhymes because I
didn't know how much I was gonna need.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
So when you're in the studio, is it like everyone
get out the studio like, no, no, are you the
person that no?

Speaker 6 (01:03:43):
Are you kidding me? It was my second time ever
doing it in a room, but it's no. And then
so but then they had me come back to do
ad libs. And when I was there left, I was
there with me. Yeah she was, and she was so
she was like, oh you like she was just so encouraging,
so sweet, and she had already she was left out
from TLC, like she was already you know, traveled the

(01:04:04):
World International Group and so that was that was encouraging.
And you know, it was eight bars. It wasn't like
it was I felt like, Okay, I'm quick in and out.
This was good. I did it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
I just want to know every single girl said, I'm like,
what are Kim saying? When she heard it was she like,
damn girl.

Speaker 6 (01:04:19):
I don't remember what Kim said, but she made me
feel so because you know, we all did the video together.
The video, we were all there together. We weren't there
for the song altogether, but the video we were all
there together, and everybody was dope. Everybody. It was such
a beautiful experience. I always say that, it's like, I'm
really lucky to have had that experience because you know,
you're in a room and Mary J. Blige and Queen
Latifa and Little Kim and the Brat and Missy could

(01:04:40):
you imagine like this? A lot of people there told
me the TLC is there all in one room video
and most of our minds. Y'all was already friends anyway,
So yes, I mean, I know a lot of them,
but not we hadn't really, I definitely never worked with
any of them. I started rapping it was my second song.
I was ever run wait.

Speaker 5 (01:04:56):
Did you well, Angie? We have a special surprise tape start.

Speaker 6 (01:05:05):
You have the seventy two bars to make the song.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
I don't know the circumstances when you left the station,
but even past radio, Like, at what point did you
ever feel at any point like okay, I'm I did
this or yeah, just like you know the artists or
we're younger than or that sort of thing like I
don't understand this music or that sort of thing. How

(01:05:38):
do you wrestle with because even as a DJ now
struggle well fear. All right, so I did. I got
ambushed with a play for the kids thing, and I've
you know, already said like look, I'm just trying to
do like throwback adults, like that sort of thing. I
don't want to do no more I do adult. I

(01:06:00):
wanted to write I want to know who's going to
be there. And there's the thing where you know, I
had to hand out a bunch of scholarships to a
bunch of like you know, needy kids, and the kids
love you, and you know, I got gassed and I
was like, all right, I'll DJ for the kids.

Speaker 5 (01:06:12):
And then they were looking at you like wow, was
you playing?

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:06:14):
Well?

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
When I tell you, I played litl UZI verts joint
like I made a fifteen minute mix I've never seen.
I'm so mad that shit's just an interlude. You know,
that song's only one minute that song's only one minute
and twenty song because even when we got in for SNL,
I'm like, yo, y'all realize that this is just a
minute in twenty five seconds, like it's an interlude. So

(01:06:37):
I made a fifteen minute version of it, and of
course the kids were like crazy, Yeah, Baseline only his voice, drums,
his voice, Like I did a billion versions of it.
I just stressed it. But you're also a personality, yes,
So was there any time where you felt like a
disconnect where it's sort of like I think.

Speaker 6 (01:06:56):
I had to pivot a little bit because when I say,
I started and I was old all about I was
a rap nerd, Like I knew everybody's lyrics, I knew
everybody's album cut I knew I knew you know what
I mean. At some point I had to I pivoted
a little bit because I could not keep up. No. So,
but what you can do is that everybody's human. Everybody's

(01:07:18):
having an experience of creating and sharing and being vulnerable.
And so I started talking to people a little maybe
less about their craft and on who they are more,
And that to me is timeless.

Speaker 5 (01:07:30):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:07:31):
You know, you can talk to you can talk to
people about who they are and what they're creating forever.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
Okay, so you're a hardcore New Yorker, so I gotta
ask you this question.

Speaker 6 (01:07:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
So I think in ninety seven is the first time
that I heard ha by Juvenile on Hot ninety seven,
which to me was like a pivotal That was a moment.
Even when I heard the radio, I was like, whoa like?

Speaker 6 (01:07:57):
And then we played there them We had to hit
the remix this right?

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Well David of course, you know, David was like on
top of it. But when I heard it, I remember
having it. We had a conversation.

Speaker 6 (01:08:07):
I feel like we only played the remix. I'll be honest, No,
you played the original version first, and are you sure?

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
Oh, I'm definitely. I remember us having a conversation. I
was like, wait, what girls he from? Because in my
mind it's like New York and I don't know if
his tip if somebody played, uh somebody played for me?
Uh Notori stugs By Big and you know I has

(01:08:33):
a notoriously long intro. Right, it was like they wanted
to test my face, like yo, listen to this, and
they put it on and I was like, what was this?
Like Boone fuck's army whatever, And so a minute goes in,
I'm like what am I listening for? And when I
heard Biggie rhyme, I was like, wait, is this allowed
to happen? Like it was? That was such a crucial

(01:08:55):
moment and then how happened? And I always wanted to know,
from like a New York DJ's perspective, what was the
feeling like when suddenly it's like, oh, we gotta, we
gotta be more national include.

Speaker 6 (01:09:15):
But I think I don't know if that moment was
the moment, because then it was it was still niche.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
It was still like I don't remember any down South
song before.

Speaker 6 (01:09:24):
I mean, I'm just saying it didn't that we have
to This was like a one, It's a it's a
splash of it. It was just a little splash. We
We weren't fully immersed in opening up to everything. And
when I say we, I'm just saying New York because
I didn't. I was never want to pick the music.
But I think that was it was, you know, that

(01:09:47):
was the one record that was kind of cool and
it was great and it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
But eventually there had to be a memo.

Speaker 6 (01:09:52):
Where it at one point the floodgates opened right, And
it's funny because I was on aternity leave. I had
just had my son and I was out from and
I came back to the radio. And by the way
I came back to the radio, my first big interview
was Jay z R. Kelly after the concert.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
Yes, and I remember that.

Speaker 9 (01:10:11):
Get back to that, but we can get back to that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
I remember I listened to the interview and it's like
it was funny.

Speaker 6 (01:10:23):
Thoughts asked me a question, trying to answer the question
now about the answer. No, No, I came back from
maternity and we're playing now this is how this is
like we're playing laughy taffy that we were playing. I
wish I had a list of all the songs that
were out at that time, because I feel like there
was like seventh how I was saying, like I was out.

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
It was dope.

Speaker 6 (01:10:46):
We liked it, but it was just the one song.
But when I came back from attorney leave, it was
like I came back to a different land and it
was cool, but it felt I felt out. I was like, wait,
what's happening?

Speaker 3 (01:10:59):
All of these was the two thousands, five six, There
was two thousand, two thousand and one.

Speaker 6 (01:11:04):
Yeah, my son was born in two thousand and one.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
Oh, she said, she said, Laughy Tafvy. That was only
because Lavy Taffy was like, oh five.

Speaker 6 (01:11:12):
I feel like, yeah, I don't think that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Around that time, I could.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
You couldn't get their play because they were playing Laffy
Taffy and you couldn't get the airplace.

Speaker 6 (01:11:24):
So you wouldn't by the way, I could be crediting
them for a moment that it wasn't that song. Now
I got that in my head though, y'alls, thank you.
I believe it was that song. I don't know why.
I'm going to look it up right now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Daffy was two thousand and five?

Speaker 6 (01:11:38):
Really was five? Okay, so then it must not have
been laughing Tabby. What was two thousand and one too?

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
I mean Southern song.

Speaker 6 (01:11:44):
There was a bunch of oh.

Speaker 1 (01:11:45):
Maybe was it? Like emotion was starting to become a thing,
A juvenile slow motion was a thing.

Speaker 6 (01:11:50):
Definitely played. I was thinking about it. Was about it
in ice cream about it?

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
That was nice. I mean, back that ass up. I mean, yeah,
you know, but you know that I remember, yo, they did.
This was such a genius move where I remember once
the Spice Girl's label just purchased commercial time on Hot
ninety seven to play wanna be like they purchased dude.

(01:12:18):
It was the most shocking thing ever. Like you ever
read a magazine sometimes you're like, wait, what the hell
is this doing there? And you see at the very
fine print that's out like special advertisement, Like it's not
a part of that my But try to trick you to
be like, right, the Spice Girls at one point purchased
like two minutes and thirty seconds of commercial time. That's crazy, no,

(01:12:41):
Because I would be in a car with a bunch
of people and we would have these hip hop debates
or whatever, and I was like, Yo, they're playing the
Spice Girls on Hot ninety seven right now. But then
I heard, you know, like commercial you know, like it.

Speaker 6 (01:12:55):
Was the smart tactic at the time.

Speaker 1 (01:12:56):
It was, but at the time I thought it was
like them playing it for real. And then but I
always wanted to know just how did you guys feel
about that paradigm shift of south friend of shit? Not
only that, but now you got to bring them on
the air and talk to them, and some of them
have chips on their shoulders and some of them.

Speaker 6 (01:13:17):
Did, But I always look at like when I when
I was saying how I make a pivot to like
really talking about people who they are and where they're from.
To me, that opens up a I don't know, that's
what you love about hip hop? Right even when we start,
even when the West Coast was first happened, it was
the first time I learned about West Coast living was
I never went to California. I didn't know what that
felt like until we started to be able to interview
artists that were from the West Coast because the West

(01:13:38):
Coast was pop But I kind of looked at the
South kind of blowing up like that as an opportunity
to learn about what was happening there too, because I
didn't really I'd never really spent time in the South.
I didn't even I didn't know anything about the lifestyle
of it. So when those artists started flooding in and
maybe I wasn't as familiar with them.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
You're a better person than I was, exactly. I'm I'm
minded because I feel.

Speaker 6 (01:13:59):
Like I felt a little disconnected because I didn't know
the roots of maybe where some of them came from.
Which all the New York artists I knew the roots
of that. So I felt a little disconnected in that sense.
But as you get to talk to people, people are people, right,
everybody has a story to tell, and so I kind
of just looked at it like that, like an opportunity.
I was never somebody who felt like, oh, why is

(01:14:19):
I mean to me? That's why? To me, we're always evolving.
We should always be evolving. I was always open minded
to that, and some of the records was fired like
so I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
Know, well, in retrospect now like I then, well, I'll
be revisioned. It's like, yeah, I always played this, but
you know.

Speaker 6 (01:14:35):
I could maybe I could be Maybe that's grown up
me talking. And if you if you were to rewind
the time machine, maybe there was a guess what?

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
All right? So where was the story you had about
that interview? It was, yeah, it was the night. It
was after it was after the night with jay Z R. Kelly.
It was the last night that he was on. He
felt like somebody was trying tossassinate it.

Speaker 6 (01:14:58):
Were you at the concert?

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
I was at my house in North Carolina, account never
in R. Kelly's presence ever.

Speaker 6 (01:15:12):
Interview. I think I heard the interview fascinating.

Speaker 3 (01:15:16):
I heard the interview I remember because first it was
like jay Z was on, but then like I think
R Kelly came. I forgot the order, but anyway, but
r Kelly he was talking about the night and he
was on stage and it was just oh my god,
it was it was it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:32):
Was just YouTube and I hear this in the depths
of like the internet, all these tapes.

Speaker 6 (01:15:40):
Just digitized them a couple of years because you know
eventually you're gonna have to have like Congress, you want
to direct my documentary.

Speaker 1 (01:15:49):
I'm done.

Speaker 3 (01:15:50):
I heard we were listening to it on the joint
and it was yeah, you know, I came on stage
and I'm just I saw a guy I'm not saying appreciation.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
Woke up like it was him.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
It was like talking about he came on stay. I
guess he said it was like whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
I can't remember.

Speaker 6 (01:16:21):
He was talking about how he got.

Speaker 1 (01:16:22):
Sprayed with Mason ship.

Speaker 8 (01:16:25):
Mason I was on tour O and okay, I mean
on the Reason Yeah, hey, I was. Actually I was
just it was my I mean, I've been on stage,
I rock, you know for so many years.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
I you know, in my lightning.

Speaker 3 (01:16:43):
Man, and I was like my light my lightning and
I was like, oh, he's saying lighting man, but like
it sounded like but dude, it was just it was
it sounded like he sounded bad, shipp insane.

Speaker 6 (01:16:57):
It was crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
It was the crazy.

Speaker 6 (01:16:59):
It wasn't even my shift.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
I was.

Speaker 6 (01:17:01):
I went to the radio station from the show because
I was at the show when the whole thing unraveled.

Speaker 5 (01:17:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:17:06):
And then I was getting the parking lot get in
my car and Mike Michael Kais had called me. It
was like, Jay wants to get on the radio. I
was like, okay, well he can come by my show
tomorrow afternoon. He was like, no, no, no, he wants
to go on the radio right now and we'll only
talk to you, and he wants to talk to you.
So I had to call the program take off. I
think it was Big Dennis was on at that time,
remember who was on? But they had to get off
so I could get on because.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
Like people do some sort of way like he will
only talk to else.

Speaker 6 (01:17:32):
Yeah, And so I went up there and I was like, Okay.
The funny thing is I was at the parking lot,
but right outside of Master Square Garden. It was like
I was waiting in line because I didn't want to
be like a jerk and like run to the front.
So I'm like waiting in line for my car. But
then when I got the call from Kaias, I was like,
jay Z wants to get on the radio. They were like,
let her go, let her go, because only in the
line had just come out the concert. They knew what happened.

(01:17:55):
Jay Z's about to get on the radio. Let edg
you get her car. So they let me go.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
What happened and don't know like, oh, well, a concert
went down, both worlds.

Speaker 6 (01:18:08):
In the best of both worlds.

Speaker 1 (01:18:10):
And then the lights go out.

Speaker 6 (01:18:12):
Have it consued? Allegedly, Peppers break R Kelly backstage and
then and then R Kelly left and Jay Jay had
to finish the rest of the show at Madison Square
Garden by himself, and he called on people quickly to
take Mary j Mary came out, Usher came out, People
kind of came to rescue Jay.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Lenny told me, okay, so Lenny rescue Jay.

Speaker 6 (01:18:33):
You know what I mean? He needed a show.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
I remember Kodak. Lenny actually said that he had to
run up and down the aisles and see like people, yeah, literally,
you know, come up and do your joint or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:18:43):
Yeah, to pack Us. He was playing Usher songs from
his phone, and then Usher came and performed. And because
peck Us worked at Arista at the time, right or right? Yeah?
Is that right Arista? Yeah, I'm so bad at like
those little and.

Speaker 1 (01:18:56):
You're telling me that, like so the whole.

Speaker 6 (01:18:58):
So everybody in the concert knew what was happening. So
then when we left, we were like, yo, that was crazy.
What happened? We don't know. And then from there it
was Jay wants to go on the radio and talk
about it. So now anybody who was at the concert
is listening. And then I don't know how everybody would
hear it, because everybody at.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
The time a somebody posted at the time. Honestly, I
feel like somebody posted it okay player, right no, no, no, no, no,
so yeah, somebody.

Speaker 6 (01:19:27):
From I never knew how everybody heard it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:29):
Yeah, somebody up in New York.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
And I can't remember what who it was or you
know what the okay player was, But somebody in New York.
It might have been a thirty thirty, but I can't
remember it. Take somehow had taken the stream or had
recorded you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
On the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:19:47):
And then like they posted a link for us to
check on Okay player, and so that was how we
heard the interview.

Speaker 6 (01:19:52):
So Jay cames up to tell his what happened. He
was so frustrated and he was like, look, you know
this guy, we've had problems.

Speaker 1 (01:19:58):
We called it. This guy like discussed. He was very.

Speaker 6 (01:20:02):
Frustrated, and then he was We got a call from
from Tracy was programm director at the time. She was like, listen,
we have to be fair. R Kelly called he wants
to come up and tell his side of the story too.
The middle of the night. So I say, I tell
Jay R Kelly wants to come up, because like, that's fine,
you could talk to him. I'm almost done anyway, I'm
about to leave. Jay leaves. R Kelly shows up five

(01:20:22):
ten minutes later, I could be it could have been twenty.
I don't know. It was a few minutes later. It
is all live on the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:20:29):
A moment in my show and his eyes I say,
calling Tyrone and the audience say, but but you wouldn't
know that you're not a fan.

Speaker 6 (01:20:39):
This is on the air, like we'll listen, yo, yo
bro right.

Speaker 1 (01:20:43):
In fact, it was I remember this now. It was
I was over.

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
I went to ninth brid ninth. I feel like I
don't know what's christis with. Maybe a homie Mike.

Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
Bird was with it. But anyway, crib and we're listening.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
I had no idea, like like what I don't I.

Speaker 6 (01:20:58):
Do know that after that people will come up to
me from different places and tell me, and I don't
always curious how did everybody because it wasn't that wasn't
like you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
So player was the social media. It was like we
we are definitely black Twitter, Yeah for sure, like we
started black Twitter.

Speaker 6 (01:21:13):
Yeah. So then so then that happened and R Kelly
showed up and his eyes were all red from the
pepper sprays. Still it had just come from Yeah, I
think he I don't I could be wrong, but I
think he went to the hospital first for them to
like look at his eyes, and then he came to
the station. And so this was the middle of the night.
Now I'm interview and R Kelly in the middle of
the night. It was it was nuts and remind us
I'm sorry because Mirror wasn't there.

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
He doesn't know what what R Kelly said.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
He I mean, listen, I just remember he was R
Kelly was very he.

Speaker 6 (01:21:43):
Said somebody was in the crowd who had a gun.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
I will say, Angie, you were always professional, but like
you handled that interview really well because we were literally
on the other side listens like yo, this nigga pre
Gail King like yo, We were like yo, he sounds crazy,
but yeah he was somebody you talked about.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
You saw some with a gun and yeah it was was.

Speaker 6 (01:22:05):
J side of the story was he was uncomfortable because
Jay was killing it every night and R Kelly was
in his feeling, so he wanted to leave. He just
wanted to leave. He didn't want to finish. That was
Jay's story. R Kelly's story was he wanted to leave
because it felt he was threatened because somebody was in
the audience with a gun and he saw it from
the stage and he wanted to leave.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
But he said it like R Kelly not out there, okay,
freaking I saw. I'm not saying what it was like.

Speaker 3 (01:22:32):
I was like, yo, you saw somebody and you asked
you was like, so he had a gun. I'm not
saying what he had or what he didn't have. I'm
saying I saw a guy. I saw a guy.

Speaker 1 (01:22:40):
It was.

Speaker 3 (01:22:41):
It was very much like the the to like when
you say teenage how we talk, It was the precursor
to that, like it was you know what I mean.
But yeah, but he saw a guy.

Speaker 6 (01:22:52):
The wild thing is, I would love to put this
in the air. Somebody was in the room with R.
Kelly that night, and and this is early. I didn't
use the video tape my interviews back then, never so.
But somebody was with R. Kelly who had like a
big old camcorder.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
I'm not surprised somewhere.

Speaker 6 (01:23:12):
Wow, hey guys, thanks for having me. It's really fun
to be here on the podcast. My point is that
there's a video probably somewhere that interview. Yeah, somewhere, somebody
has it, somewhere in somebody's basement. There's a video of
that interview.

Speaker 1 (01:23:31):
It was great. Yeah, thanks, That's probably most legendary interview.

Speaker 6 (01:23:37):
There's other ones.

Speaker 1 (01:23:41):
Was smoking and no one.

Speaker 4 (01:23:44):
I'm smoking and saying that wasn't her. It's been so
many I'm with her.

Speaker 1 (01:23:47):
I'm just I'm just saying it just for me, that
was the one for me, because you.

Speaker 6 (01:23:52):
Have how about the locks and the locks fighting for
the publishing that happened on my show and then puff
the next day with receipts and you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
Still understand this was very much. I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:24:13):
I signed like before we like little brothers start going
and stuff. So I would just be like hot ninety
seven and all that. That would just be our window
into kind of what New York was, and we was
just I remember me just being at home in the
South just looking like yo, all these niggas are crazy, Like, no,
I don't need to do this.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
So I was just come when I came to New York.

Speaker 3 (01:24:35):
I just come to New York, do my shows whatever,
like see my people whatever, get my money, and I
leave because I'm just like, dude, this I listened to
I list.

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
None of these niggas sound happy.

Speaker 6 (01:24:46):
So you have I was waiting for your No.

Speaker 7 (01:24:55):
No, I have a question about since we're talking about
your archives and you said your digitized them, do you
of any kind of plan of how to release those somehow?

Speaker 6 (01:25:02):
I'm trying to figure that out. I have I have
so many that I don't really know. I feel like
it's damn. It's also like, no, it's not about waiting
for the offer. I really because I need a lot
of money on the table. My whole career, I've left
a lot of money on the table. I really operate
from a place where I want to until I can
figure out a way to do it. That is, it

(01:25:24):
honors it and it's interesting and it's different. It's dope
like I do it doesn't need to I don't need
to do something just to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
I assure you as as a person that works in
that world. To you now, it's just like, yeah, I
got my radio shows, and ten years it'll be like oh,
back in the day, I got no no no. But
I swear to God, like your Oscar future lot like
forty years from now, like when you when you're seventy

(01:25:52):
seventy five whatever, that will be like a piece of
history that if told right, where did that come from?

Speaker 5 (01:26:01):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:26:04):
I got to pass the rasp on.

Speaker 5 (01:26:11):
Totally clips of the heart.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
No, if if told correctly, like please, I beg of you,
because even now I will At what point were you
fine with your radio journey and how hard was it
to pivot into TV personality and more specifically with up

(01:26:35):
closing person like with.

Speaker 6 (01:26:38):
I think that's the thing that's kept me in radio
so long is that I always, at different points in
my career, played around something else just to keep the
creative juices going, whether it was music or whether it
was you know, little cameos and movies or you know,
I wrote a book. I am. I think I always
the radio became almost like just part of who I was,

(01:26:59):
and it was just not easy. But it's just it's
just a fabric of what I do. But I needed
to stay creatively, you know, challenged, and so that's kind
of why I would venture off and do different things
here and there.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
And in your vision board or just in your life,
do you ever foresee you becoming the station owner or he.

Speaker 6 (01:27:24):
Always wants to do that.

Speaker 4 (01:27:25):
I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:27:26):
I don't have any desire to. It's not my heart.
It's not where my heart is. My heart is in storytelling.
My heart is not running a business to help a
media company, like it's not where my heart is. My
heart is in storytelling. And so whether it be during
an interview on the radio or just getting on the

(01:27:47):
radio and talking about something that I feel like is
storytelling or creating or writing or like writing is something
writing for me is probably like what like for you,
like how you kind of finally have got com about it?
You know, I wrote that book, and I always looked
for other people to help me because I thought I
wasn't a writer enough. And then as I would go
try to hire people, I realized, actually I could. I'm

(01:28:09):
better at this part of the story than me.

Speaker 1 (01:28:12):
And so what was the hardest part about writing the
book for you?

Speaker 6 (01:28:17):
Well? All of it, because writing all of those pages,
and it took me like years to do that. And
I did have some help, you know, they brought I
learned a lot about storytelling from this woman named mem Reavis.
But she also taught me that I was actually a
great writer. She gave me that confidence. So my book
was pretty much done. See, it's crazy that you didn't
realize that you're the combination. It's different. It's different. And

(01:28:41):
thinking you could write a few bars versus writing a
story and writing like or being a storyteller.

Speaker 4 (01:28:47):
Is what I'm saying, is saying that you are a storyteller,
and I think, isn't that.

Speaker 6 (01:28:51):
So here's two examples. So number one, the book I
tried to get all these writers. I didn't like it.
I do it myself, but I had I still didn't
have I still didn't feel it books Best New York Times,
so I still feel it was Yeah, you're okay, thank you, Oh,
thank you? Something? Can I get it something? Oh? Jeez, no,
But then I probably felt like you after your ask.
I still don't feel like a real writer. I feel like, oh,

(01:29:13):
that was my memoir. Of course, that was easy. And
then I say, I have this other idea and I'm
trying to get a script done, and I go to
mad people and I go to stuff and I and
so I start writing it by myself during COVID because
I'm home, and why not? Who cares? I wrote like
two scripts while I started during COVID, And so now

(01:29:35):
I'm well, both of them are done. One of them
needs a little tweaking. Well, it's not about me, no,
but it is from my lens. Anything I do is
gonna be from my lens because it is what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:29:49):
But you know, I'm starting to feel I'm starting to
get in my bag with it. I'm starting to feel
like confident about my storytelling ability as a writer and
also as a creator. And so I think it's gonna
be interesting to see where the next couple of years
bring me. I've never operated with this level of confidence
or just clarity through my whole career.

Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
When I was asking about the hard parts of writing
the book. I meant more so emotionally, like, were there
any parts of your life that were hard?

Speaker 6 (01:30:15):
Yeah's scary to tell your whole story. Scary to say
your father was on drugs and you ain't seen him
since you're ten, or you dated this person and that
was terrible for you and your heart broke. It's scary
to tell family things and personal things. But I did.
I wrote everything down, and I told myself, when it's over,
I'll take out anything that I don't want to share.

(01:30:36):
But once you get it all out, you realize it's
just my story. It's okay. It's so scary to share,
you know what I mean. But then once this hour,
you feel good. I don't know, it's just you could
be yourself more in a weird way.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
Does your son see you as like mom? Or does
he like know the lineage of the nah?

Speaker 6 (01:30:52):
He does? He respects it. He definitely respects it. I
think he likes to see the way people kind of
react entertainment. No, my son plays ball, he plays, he
wants to be in sports business. He's studying sports management,
sports business. He's a good kid.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
I have.

Speaker 6 (01:31:13):
He's about to be twenty and June he'll be twenty. Yeah,
he's a big.

Speaker 4 (01:31:16):
Boy, remember, is like, yeah, that's what made me think
of that.

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
Now I'm like, I knew you when you're playing chess
at the age of six, and now you might be
managing me and like a couple.

Speaker 6 (01:31:28):
We remember when Angel's pregnant. That's why I'm like, so
I have him. So he's twenty, and then I have
a bonus, my bonus son who lives with me. He's
seventeen Christian. He's doing amazing too. And I don't know they.
I think that they like, I think that they respect
my history and my career, but I don't think neither
one of them are like really they don't care about

(01:31:50):
celebrity doesn't really impress them much.

Speaker 1 (01:31:52):
I love that about gen Z.

Speaker 6 (01:31:55):
They're not like, yeah, they like people who they just
like people, but they're not really you know, like, hey,
you want to go over to such and such a
self man, No, I'm okay, rather be over here doing this.

Speaker 1 (01:32:06):
So and you're sure that you don't want to just
own the radio station?

Speaker 6 (01:32:11):
Why would I want to do that in twenty twenty three?
Like what why would I want to wait?

Speaker 1 (01:32:16):
Wait, wait, thank you people.

Speaker 6 (01:32:19):
That's a listen to me. How many summers do we
have left?

Speaker 1 (01:32:24):
Right? Right? The sky's the limit?

Speaker 6 (01:32:26):
No, no, you're not. Most people don't live to two hundred, right,
so you have a limited amount of summers left here?

Speaker 1 (01:32:33):
Okay, And this.

Speaker 6 (01:32:34):
Life and this body stress and is being a radio
station owner? How I want to live out the next
twenty thirty, forty whatever. I'm lucky enough to.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
Get the radio station owner, but I would think that.

Speaker 6 (01:32:48):
You can't do that part time. That's your life, that
becomes your life. Then that's not I'm not willing to
do that with my life.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
I'm trying to figure out a way to rubbert, like
to stop micromanaging. Like I'm in the game now where
like establishing like a production breaking mortar thing, and.

Speaker 6 (01:33:05):
I haven't learned how to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:06):
Eventually I'll get to a place where I can rubber
stamp ship and micro Now. Yeah, Tika and I are
like micromanaging everything. But one day I can build an
empire and let it run by itself and then I
could truly do nothing.

Speaker 6 (01:33:23):
When is that gonna happen?

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
Right? No, it's not like literally far, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:33:30):
That's it's.

Speaker 1 (01:33:33):
Fifties. Trust me, I got this. What do you think?
I'm just talking in circles on the show.

Speaker 6 (01:33:44):
But don't you think it's you that has the gift?
That's that is the nuances of that, isn't it you.

Speaker 1 (01:33:50):
I don't want to walk away. So what I'm trying
to do is figure out a way to keep this
running and I don't have to be here.

Speaker 6 (01:33:58):
Luck with that, I hope you do. I wish you well.

Speaker 1 (01:34:03):
I just don't mother other once family, and to be president,
you might.

Speaker 6 (01:34:07):
Have to let go of some things to have that balance.

Speaker 1 (01:34:09):
There is an exit plan because you cannot survive in
the level of stress that I'm living in now. I'm
I'm taking this on now so that when I am
sixties seventy eighty ninety, I don't have to do this anymore.

Speaker 6 (01:34:24):
And there's an operation running. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:34:26):
Yes, I'm determined to be the first black professional that
actually retired. You remember, like Jay was like, yeah, you know,
I'm retired after my second album or whatever, like the
don't entire me. I mean, I'm not gonna retire.

Speaker 6 (01:34:40):
Killing it over here, y'all. I thank you, Thank you, guys.
This is fun.

Speaker 1 (01:34:47):
This is our first real, real conversation as you're a Coerson.
I mean, I mean we've had niceties and pleasantry. I've
been on your show, but it's also like to promote
my product. But I feel like I got to know you, bro.

Speaker 5 (01:35:00):
Your team of Supreme over here is comatose.

Speaker 6 (01:35:03):
And I get invited to a game night because you
invited me one time and I couldn't go. And I
feel like because I couldn't go that one time, I
have never been invited again.

Speaker 1 (01:35:10):
Yes, I will invite you the game night.

Speaker 6 (01:35:12):
So I'm a little aggressive. But I've gotten better as
I've gotten older. I know how to I know how
to behave well.

Speaker 1 (01:35:17):
I also I don't play the game anymore because I
had to host it.

Speaker 6 (01:35:21):
Oh that's fun.

Speaker 1 (01:35:22):
Yeah, it's more fun because if I'm in the game
games you play? Sorry, what do we play? Well, a
lot of people in their their pandemic pivot haven't been
a game. So I have like just a room full
of like unused games that they want my opinion, like questions.

Speaker 6 (01:35:42):
You know, I have on my bucket list. But in life,
what is to host the game show.

Speaker 1 (01:35:46):
That really I feel you want?

Speaker 6 (01:35:48):
Do you know how much fun? Because that to me
will be so much fun.

Speaker 1 (01:35:51):
Every be like I got you you got one for me?
Did you did you watch?

Speaker 6 (01:35:59):
First of all, I'm offended that was.

Speaker 3 (01:36:02):
A bold ask questions as that game show, but you know,
I mean that show has been on.

Speaker 1 (01:36:08):
Yes, she said, you don't know what motherfucker? Yes, yes,
I want from pop Eye.

Speaker 6 (01:36:21):
Exactly, come on exactly, buddy.

Speaker 1 (01:36:26):
Yeah, and I thank you so much for coming on
the show on behalf of Sugar Steve and PEPERI. Did
he go out for more cigarettes?

Speaker 4 (01:36:35):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:36:35):
No, no, he'll come back.

Speaker 5 (01:36:36):
He's unpaid. How can you how could you ask for why?

Speaker 1 (01:36:39):
Three? Frantico and uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:36:45):
All right, I apologize, Yes as a fellow, like hearing
you talk about the way you move and the way
you choose, like it really resonates with me so like
much expecting love just for what you do, for the
way you're doing, like staying true to yourself and me,
and like, nah, I don't want to do that. That
ain't for you know you said, I turned down a
lot of money in.

Speaker 6 (01:37:03):
This game to say, but also proud to say, all right,
we're gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:37:09):
End the way that we started, and we're all gonna
all live in our integrity. We're not gonna self sabotage.
We're not gonna dismiss our dreams.

Speaker 6 (01:37:17):
How are we gonna breathe? How are we gonna end breathing?

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
Or we've been breathing? Actually, I'm cold as ship. I
gotta get out of this room. Yes, thank you, and
uh Supreme, We'll see all next week. Thank you. We's love.
Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts

(01:37:42):
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