Angie Martinez has been the voice behind the mic every afternoon for a few years at Hot 97 keeping New York and the tri-state area tuned in for the latest in hip hop and r&b. Her positive energy on the air plus in depth interviews with various artists/celebrities from 2Pac to Hillary Clinton has shown that her skills as a disk jockey are on point. With her first project 'Up Close and Personal" Angie traded seats with the artist and became one herself.

Ever since her verse on 'Ladies Night" w/ LiL Kim Missy, Da Brat and Left Eye. There has been a buzz of Angie doing a solo project and now it's complete. The album starts out New York mix tape style as Angie got love from DJ Clue who gets the album started with one of his classic intro's. The singles (Mi Amor) w/ Jay-Z and (Live From The Streets) w/ Jadakiss, Kool G Rap, styles Beenie Seigel and Brett are what many caught wind of and set a stage for the rest of the album. Although put next to the Jigga man Angie' verse seemed to be tight and she did her thing on the song. The monotone way she delivered the hook on (Live From the Streets) came across as too hardcore for Angie. Her collaborations didn't stop there; She got together with Wyclef Jean on (Coast 2 Coast) and mixed their Latin-Caribbean flavor for a dance track that may be a hit.

The track that can get people on the dance floor is (Dem Thangz). Produced by the Neptunes, the production is very similar to the liking of 'I Just Want to Love Ya' by Jay-Z. Q-Tip lends his vocals for the hook as Angie spits out lyrics of female ballin' when her and the girls hit the club. Ms. Martinez goes back and forth with Snoop on the track (Ladies and Gents), gets hype with Busta Rhymes on (Gutter 2 the Fancy Ish), and reps New York thug style with Prodigy from Mobb Deep on (New York, New York) Although the production on (No Playas) sounded very similar to Musiq Child's (Just Friends) Angie and Lil' Mo perform nicely over the beat. Angie got down with female rapper Uneek like two girls chillin', talking about how fellas be trying to run game as the legendary Biz Mark kept it old school with (Silly Ni**as). The track (Live At Jimmy's) was filled with Spanish band flavored production to the artists she got together with .

I give Angie credit for being able to balance the career on radio and as and artist. Although the album is entitled Up Close and Personal, Angie doesn't really give herself any 'personal' space on the album to shine. It's good to see that she gets love from other artists in the hip hop game but with collaborations on almost every track it's hard to tell if she can hold her own.