If you were a fan of Hip Hop/Rap during the early to mid 90’s (and lived in New York) you had some options. Of course you had Hot 97 (a station that converted full time to Hip Hop & R&B around 92-93), then you had 98.7 and 107.5 (two stations that really didn’t cater to the Hip Hop community and would only play the genre occasionally.) or, if you ventured south of the FM dial (particularly at night time) you were fortunate enough to stumble upon the college radio stations. These college/underground radio stations would play more of the edgier non commercial rap (although they would play some commercial as well) and usually broke new artists.
No other show stands out more than WKCR’s Strech Armstrong & Bobbito Garcia show. Named the best Hip Hop radio show of all time by The Source, this legendary show broke talent like Nas, Big Pun, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe, Cam’ron, DMX, Wu-Tang Clan, Fugees, Talib Kweli, Big L and Notorious B.I.G. to name a few.
Check out some of the original show below, and then below that check out Stretch and Bobbito’s 2013 interview. Via Pony
Lecture: Stretch and Bobbito (San Francisco, 2012) from Red Bull Music Academy on Vimeo.