My Voice: A Memoir by Angie Martinez

Author:Angie Martinez [Martinez, Angie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

My career as a solo recording artist got off to a rocky start. There was a lot more sinking than swimming from the get-go.

I booked a few sessions and paid a few producers to come in and sit with me and try out a few things. That did not go well. Then the label sent me to Virginia to work with the Neptunes.

The Neptunes were a production team made up Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams. Yes, that Pharrell. The future singer of “Happy,” judge on The Voice, and BBC mogul. And they were on fire at the time, producing everybody from Mystikal (with hits coming like “Shake Ya Azz” and “Danger”) to Jay Z on “The City Is Mine” from earlier and “I Just Wanna Luv U” around this period. They’d produced hits for artists like the Lox and had a slate of new stuff coming up with Lil’ Kim and Shyne. The list went on and on. What was I doing here? My self-doubts kicked in as soon as I got to Virginia Beach and tried to settle in at some damp hotel that felt dark and lonely. Maybe it wasn’t really that bad, but I was so out of my element. And I was nervous as shit.

Since the Neptunes were so in demand, they had several projects going at once and I was told to just stay put until they were ready for me. Time passed way too slowly until finally, the label rep called to say, “Hey, your car is going to pick you up and bring you to the studio around ten p.m. The Neptunes are there finishing up with Kelis . . . Then they will start with you.”

Sure enough, the car came and got me to the studio. As I walked in, music was blasting, playing a beat that sounded dope as shit! Pharrell stood there over the boards, bopping his head, while everyone in the room did the same. He looked up and saw me and came right over and gave me a hug.

“Yo, that’s dope, right???” It turned out to be Ray J’s “Wait a Minute.” Then he gestured to the other room, saying, “C’mon, let’s go talk in there.”

I’d met Pharrell a few times and he had been a guest on my show. But the two of us had never really hung out, and I wasn’t certain why he’d even agreed to work with me. As we sat down, he was super flattering, explaining that he was a fan of me on the radio and was totally open to hearing my ideas.

The problem was . . . I had no ideas!!! Like, none!

“Okay, no worries. Let’s just vibe and see what happens.”

For the next two days I was a guest in the Neptunes’ creative genius world. I watched them make beats and do their wizardry, tweaking other people’s songs. They played me raw audio of an Ol’ Dirty Bastard session, where he spit like a thousand bars of bizarre drug-induced brilliance.

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