Creativity Quote by Angie Martinez

Angie Martinez is sketching the tightrope walk of hip-hop journalism in the 1990s, when an interview wasn’t just content, it was proximity to a conflict with real bodies on the line. Naming her “respect for Biggie” up front is a kind of ethical credential: she’s signaling she wasn’t coming in as a prosecutor or a gossip, but as someone who understood what he meant to the culture and to the room. That matters because in rap, respect is currency, and interviews are negotiations over who gets to keep face.

The phrase “weird, kinda difficult” is doing protective work. It’s plainspoken, almost evasive, a way to acknowledge tension without reopening it. Martinez is also implying that the audience often demands a villain and a hero, while the people in the story are breathing, grieving, posturing, scared. “Touchy interviews” is radio code for situations where a careless question can escalate a feud, alienate a camp, or make the host look like she’s picking sides.

Her stated strategy - “be fair to both parties” - reads simple, but it’s loaded. “Fair” in that era didn’t mean detached neutrality; it meant staying credible with listeners while remaining safe and employable inside an industry built on alliances. The subtext is that her job wasn’t to manufacture heat; it was to keep the conversation possible at all. In a culture where the line between performance and life was collapsing, Martinez positions herself as a mediator - not above the mess, but responsible inside it.