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Culture Lounge Podcast Episode VI: MUSIC with Young Guru and Angie Martinez

The Grammy-winning record producer and audio engineer reflects with the Radio Hall of Famer on the music industry, their careers, and how important it is to encourage aspiring artists to chase their dreams.
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With a passion for music, storytelling, and creating, Young Guru and Angie Martinez made it to New York City in the 1990s with the mutual dream of making it in the entertainment business. Guru, the audio engineer, record producer and executive is the man that makes the magic happen at the studio. From Grammy-award winning song "Empire State of Mind" to the critically acclaimed "4:44" album, the multi-award winning engineer has worked with American rapper Jay-Z for decades, becoming his personal engineer and right hand man. In 2022, Guru became Roc Nation's School's Director of the Music Technology, Entrepreneurship & Production program where he shares his knowledge with the next generation of music professionals.

Simultaneously, Angie Martinez rose to prominence as "The Voice of New York" during her groundbreaking 28-year tenure at HOT 97 radio station. Her Afternoon Drive weekday segments became legendary, and she continually captivated her audience with her charisma and magnetic personality. After leaving the station in 2014, the Radio Hall of Fame inductee joined Roc Nation under a management role. Then in 2022, she launched her own interview-based podcast on iHeartRadio and Apple Music called IRL, where she has interviewed celebrities such as Kelly Rowland and Naomi Campbell. 

Coming together for The Culture Lounge's music episode, Guru and Martinez share their memories from back in the day, and touch on the future of the music industry.

EPISODE VI: MUSIC with Young Guru and Angie Martinez

On Hip-Hop Culture in New York City

Guru: "I knew where all the hip-hop was. So then I could go mess with all these other cultures."

Martinez: "If you went to Red Zone or Mars or any of those clubs, there were kids listening to all types of stuff. It was house music. It was gay. It was straight. It was black. It was white. It was Puerto Rican. It was like the city, like how the city was. And then, hip-hop would live in these spaces also."  

On Creating Art That Lasts

Martinez: "If you plan on having longevity, you can't just stay in that for your whole life. When you look at anybody who's had a really long career, there's a lot of life in there. I just thought of Usher because he was in the city, and looking at his career and everything he's done, and, you know, there were relationships, there was heartbreak, there was some drama."

Guru: "Sometimes the drama just fuels the verses. You know, take whatever is going on and that fuels the music."

On What's Next 

Guru: "I want to break that thing of: Those who do, can. Those who can't, teach. And it's just like, I want to be able to do and teach at the same time."

Martinez: "I have some scripts that I've been working on, so I've been shadowing some directors that have been great to me. I've just been learning a lot about filmmaking"

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