This week we come at you live and direct from the world Los Angeles premiere of Stretch and Bobbito: A Film About Radio That Changed Lives. It’s a short interview because we taped right before the film started, but they dropped some nuggets on us before the lights went down, and they promised to come back and do the full interview next time they’re in Los Angeles.
If you don’t know, the Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito show was on the air from 1990-1998 on New York’s WKCR. Despite — or maybe because of — the show’s unusual airtime (1:00 - 5:00 AM), Stretch and Bobbito had an enormous impact on rap music around the world. They brought everyone who was anyone in East Coast rap at the time and featured freestyles and unreleased verses from folks like Nas, Jay-Z, Biggie, Big L, Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep…
Outside of New York, the rest of us discovered the show from friends who sent cassette tapes around the world: The original hood internet, as Stretch says.
In studio, they drop knowledge about why their show couldn’t happen today and why digging is so important for the development of culture. Stretch also talks about what it means to be a tastemaker and how he has continued to be one of hip hop’s most important DJs for over two decades.
By the way, the movie is dope. Very very dope. If you’re a fan of 90s hip hop at all, you definitely want to click here and stream it now: Stretch and Bobbito Vimeo.
Check out the EDM.com feature here.
Mix Engineer: James Soriano