Ah…. repetitive music. You know the type. There’s nothing particularly good or bad about it. It does absolutely nothing new. Likely it will be forgotten as quickly as it came. This all holds true for Up Close And Personal, the debut album from New York City Hot 97 DJ Angie Martinez.
Outside of New York, hip-hop nation hasn’t heard much from Ms. Martinez since 1997, when she joined Missy Elliot, Lil’ Kim, Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, and Da Brat on the Grammy-nominated ‘Ladies Night’ single. Since then, she has been spinning the rhymes of many of those same rap divas on Hot 97. Now, instead of simply playing the rhymes of others on the radio, she is about to put her own rhyming skills on the line with her debut effort.
As the listener is greeted by the screaming DJ Clue within the first few seconds of the first track ‘New York New York,’ it’s obvious that this album is more of the usual. Even though Up Close And Personal does nothing new, the sharp production and solid array of guest spots manage propel the album to somewhere around mediocrity.
Most of the album’s tracks follow formulaic rap criteria to a tee. There’s the ‘player hating’ song, the ‘I made it so look at me now’ song, the ‘party jam,’ and that’s it. Somehow, each one of the themes manages to be recycled several times on the very same album. After all, there’s 70 minutes of music to fill here, and more importantly, to make money off of. Better fill it with the usual and the obvious!
The second track ‘Every Little Girl’ is the obligatory ‘I Made it, look at me now’ song, where Martinez rips on her critics (I didn’t know anybody cared enough to be one), and puts those old lesbian rumors to rest once and for all. The albums Latin vibe begins on the following track, ‘Coast To Coast’ – featuring Wyclef Jean – and continues on ‘Live At Jimmy’s,’ featuring a posthumous appearance from Big Pun, and a sample from ‘Kokomo.’ Since Martinez actually has some Latin blood in her, it’s acceptable for her to use the Latin beats and doesn’t merely come across as an excuse to cash in on the Latin music bang.
The guest spots aplenty continue with the self-celebratory ‘Ladies and Gents’ featuring Snoop Dog, where Martinez proclaims that she is ‘sittin on chrome with her status well known,’ and ‘Gutter To The Fancy Ish,’ where her and Busta Rhymes sip on some syzurp, I mean margaritas, together. Uneek is featured in the no scrubs anthem (i.e. the ‘playa hater song, there’s one of those three types of songs again) ‘Silly Niggaz,’ which also features an (very light) old school style beat box sample. Haven’t had enough of the same yet? The ‘playa hater’ song returns on the very next track, ‘No Playaz,’ featuring Lil Mo and Tony Sunshine. In it Martinez lets the world know that her ideal man is a ‘nice guy who likes to fuck a lot.’ The album’s most creative moment, ‘Live From The Streets,’ brings us Jadakiss, and Beanie Siegel, rhyming over a sample of police sirens. Martinez meanwhile basically plays the role of a news reporter introducing the rappers in the track.
The best of the guest spots comes from Jay-Z in ‘Mi Amor.’ The song features a playful hook where Martinez asks ‘How You Say My Love in Spanish? Mi Amor.’ To which the Jigga man replies, ‘How you say my love in thug? Can I hit it raw?’ Jay-Z also further proves himself to be a modern day Romeo when he spouts the line ‘I like fast cars, and faster chicks.’ Most likely the hope was the collaboration would result in another hit in a similar vein to Jay-Z’s work with Foxy Brown (‘Aint No Nigga,’ ‘I’ll Be’).
With Martinez’s average at best rhythmic flow, the album’s lifeline is its production. And in this area it succeeds. The majority of the album is produced by Salaam Remi, who’s past work has included The Fugees and Beenie Man. But the album’s prime cuts include work from Rockwilder on ‘Mi Amor,’ and The Neptunes on ‘Dem Thangz’ (party jam by the way). While The Neptunes’ precise and creative production has resulted in huge hits for the likes of Jay-Z (‘Give it To Me’) and Mystikal (‘Shake Ya Ass’), and possibly in the future for N Sync, who the production duo just finished working with. Most likely ‘Dem Thangz’ won’t reach those levels, due to its overly simplistic beat and unexcitable chorus. Likely, another reason why ‘Dem Thangz’ won’t be as big of a hit as ‘Shake Ya Ass’ is because even though the song encourages the listener to ‘move dem thangz’, it does not offer any precautionary advice to watch yourself while doing it.
Martinez seems to have a lot to say. The problem is we’ve heard it all before. Above average production combined with below average rhyming and song content results in, well…an average album. Which is exactly what this is.
