By Jesse Serwer – NY Times
In the annals of college radio, few programs had a more substantial impact than The Stretch Armstrong Show, or, as it’s more commonly known, “The Stretch & Bobbito Show.” DJ Adrian “Stretch Armstrong” Bartos and Robert “Bobbito” Garcia’s hip-hop broadcast, which aired 1 to 5 a.m. Friday mornings (“Thursday nights”) on Columbia University‘s WKCR-FM from 1990 to 1998, gave Nas, the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Big Pun, DMX, and the late Big L some of their earliest exposure via in-studio freestyles recorded while all of them were still unsigned and somewhat anonymous. “That show was like a trampoline in some ways—it elevated a lot of artists that were never heard before,” explains Bronx rapper Lord Finesse, a frequent guest. “If you didn’t have a deal and you was on there and you was dope, word traveled. And if the word didn’t travel, the tape damn sure traveled.” [Read More]