The Source magazine’s “Unsigned Hyped” section gets a lot of credit for putting the world on to future Hip-Hop stars. But another entity deserving of such praise is DJ Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia’s massively influential NYC radio show which gets the documentary treatment in Stretch & Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives.
The doc is now available digitally and is an absolute must see for anyone nostalgic for 90s rap music or any true student of the Hip-Hop game.
A literal who’s who of Hip-Hop titans regularly came through Stretch and Bob’s college radio show which ran in the wee hours of Thursday nights during the 90s. Plenty of those same acts who dropped freestyles on the show—Large Professor, Fat Joe, Jay Z, Nas, Pharoahe Monch and more—also sat down with Stretch and Bob to discuss the show’s seminal influence and happenstance creation, along with the plenty of ups and even the occasional downs in between.
The well crafted doc captures archival video footage of freestyles and first hand accounts and is a treasure trove of cranium cracking nostalgia. Without giving away too much, some choice moments include:
•Jay Z talking about his legendary freestyle with the late, great Big L.
•The Notorious B.I.G.’s old DJ 50 Grand sharing a copy of a long lost freestyle from the show (Did you know Biggie took an L in a “battle”? Watch the flick to find out when).
•Longtime show member Lord Sear detailing his snap battle with the late, great Big Pun.
•Stretch & Bob detailing their passive aggressive fall out, and eventual reconciliation.
•Busta Rhymes revealing how selling copies of the show for $5 was his hustle.
Check out Busta Rhymes detailing how he salvaged his Stretch & Bob cassette tapes that popped in the exclusive clip below (full trailer on the flip). Stretch & Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives is available digitally, via Vimeo, right here.
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Photo: stretch and bobbito
