Angie Martinez Opens Up About Her Memoir, Hot 97 And Jay Z

She’s the Voice of New York, but today (May 12), Angie Martinez was in the hot seat with The Breakfast Club where the long-time radio host spoke about her memoir, “My Life,” which will arrive May 17 and includes stories about her never-released interview with 2Pac, how Mary J. Blige held her down in a bind and why J. Cole penned the foreward over Jay Z.

Check out some highlights here and watch the full interview below, especially the end where she talks about leaving Hot 97.

On Her Handling Of Money And Asking Mary J. Blige To Help With Rent

I just was irresponsible, I had never really learned how to do that. You get an envelope of cash and you spend it. And I was ripping, I’m talking from morning to night, in the club and working. So my mailbox I would check it once every two weeks. It just wasn’t something that was important. Mary, I don’t ever want to tell her business: She’s gone through things in her life, too, and we’ve both have been friends to each other during those times. I think Mary trusts me and I’ve always trusted her. Even in this, writing this, in a story where she helped me, I told her so she knows. We came up at the same time, she put her first album out and I’m just getting started poppin’ on the radio. We just clicked and we would hang out. We’re both capricorns. We have a unique understanding of each other. I love the story, because she’s such a regular girl.

On Never Releasing Her Two-Hour 2Pac Interview Where He Talks About Faith

If I could be honest, that was one of the milder stories. And honestly, one of the reasons I dreaded ever putting stuff out was because how it would affect outside people who weren’t involved. At this point now,I’m realizing it’s kind of part of history and it’s not for me to protect everybody. And I think that everybody has moved on. I am, at some point, [going to release the interview]. What upsets me is that I had been trying to reach ‘Pac’s mom for the past couple of months. I’ve been trying to get with her to try talk about a couple things—what her thoughts with, I really wanted to be respectful, and I put a note in the book that ‘Pac sent and she has the original. Unfortunately she passed. I’m not sure where it’s gonna happen but it just has to respectful and done well, it’s been so long at this point.

On Choosing J. Cole To Write Her Book’s Forward

I think my space in the culture is that I have this history, but I’m also still very much in it, you can check my ratings in the afternoon. We have amazing numbers in the afternoon, so I feel like I have one foot on this side and one foot on this side, which is a unique position to be in. I talk about one of the interviews in the book, having Rakim meet A$AP Rocky for the first time. And, to me, that’s my perfect space in the culture: Somebody who can speak to Rakim is and what he means and have that passion for it, but also look at someone like A$AP Rocky and appreciate him and want to put that together. The thing about Cole, he’s really a student of the culture. He’s somebody that cares. So in telling my story, to not just the people that were there but to people who are new and weren’t there, he’s the perfect person to deliver it.

On Listening To Jay Z’s Albums In Advance, And Songs She Didn’t Like

Prolly his biggest song ever, “Hard Knock Life.” I hated it. I did! Because I used to love the “Annie” soundtrack and I was just, this is corny. I was like this is terrible! No, I didn’t. But I was like, Is this a single? I think he would just always take opinion and take it for what it was. I don’t think it was, I’m gonna change my single.

On Her And Her Peers Being Considered Legends

Eh. I don’t know. Some of my peers, absolutely. I feel like I’ve made my mark, I feel like I’ve done some great things but there’s so many things I wanna do. I wanna do films, I wanna write a movie script, I wanna do TV. Maybe [this book] will be [a movie.] I was talking about that the other day, like a a modern “Brown Sugar.”