Radio host, Angie Martinez, has been a staple in the hip hop landscape for a long time. She has been widely referred to as "The Voice of New York", acquiring that title through the two decades she spent on air at HOT 97. In 2014, she made waves when leaving HOT 97 for its rival station, Power 105.1, where she revealed she would be making double the salary. While "The Angie Martinez Show" on Power 105.1 will continue, Martinez will also be taking on a new endeavor: a WETV series, titled "Untold Stories of Hip Hop".
While sitting down with The Breakfast Club, Martinez gave a taste of one of these untold stories that will be featured on her series' first episode. Snoop Dogg will join Martinez for the premiere, where they reminisce about a famous radio interview they had conducted back in 1996. In the midst of the heated rivalry between the West and East coasts at the time, Snoop told Martinez that he never had any problems with Bad Boy, Biggie or New York. This remark sparked a feud between Snoop and Tupac, who was fuming about Snoop's disloyalty to his coast. On The Breakfast Club, Martinez mentions how her and Snoop dissect this incident on the first episode of "Untold Stories". "Pac passed before he could clean it up, so I always felt bad and that was the first time we really got into the conversation about it," she said.
The interview later pivoted to another famous beef in hip hop history, the one between The LOX and Puff. The LOX - composed of Yonkers rappers, Sheek Louch, Styles P and Jadakiss - were signed to Puff's Bad Boy Records. Once they realized that they weren't receiving an adequate cut from their royalties, a public dispute broke out, where they tried to spark a movement to fight for their freedom from the label.
Martinez recalls bringing the group onto her radio show to bring attention to their cause. "The whole city was listening," she reflects. In the interview, the LOX iconically threatened to drop a fridge of Diddy's head if he refused to comply with their demands. "[Diddy] probably got checked in that moment and I bet you that affected him in terms of how he would do business with people moving forward... But also, Puff's argument was, like, 'You should read your contracts. You should be business men. You're in a business now. This is a friendly version. In the moment, the Lox was on fire." Martinez then remembers Diddy coming through to her show the following day with the LOX's contracts - a moment that she claims taught a lot of artists how the industry works.
"Untold Stories Of Hip Hop" premieres Thursday, September 26, on WeTV. The first season will feature Snoop Dogg, Cardi B, A$AP Rocky, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, Queen Latifah and more.
