Hip-hop radio icons Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia have launched a Kickstarter campaign for contributions towards the launch of their anticipated documentary film, Stretch & Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives. Its a project worthy of your cash, and here’s why.
Goofy, sometimes ridiculously immature, but always bringing the freshest music from new hip-hop artists, the Stretch & Bobbito show on Columbia University’s WKCR radio station ran for the best part of the 90s.
Much has been made about how the show was influential in helping to launch the careers of many who would go on to be huge, most notably Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie Smalls and the Wu-Tang Clan.
More importantly, at least in our eyes, the show also supported independent and alternative hip-hop artists, championing the likes of Kool Keith when he reinvented himself as Dr. Octagon, and showing much love to groups like Company Flow, Juggaknots, J Treds, Godfather Don and countless more.
Bobbito even founded his own label to release a lot of the underground material that was appearing on the show. The much-missed Fondle’em Records helped to introduce the world to MF Doom, and laid the foundation for labels of a similar vein, including Rawkus, Stones Throw and Def Jux.
It’s therefore no exaggeration to say that Stretch and Bob played perhaps the most important role in creating that classic mid-late 90s indy boom of creativity that many of us are still stuck on today. And that is surely reason enough to throw some money their way.
Donate here, and read more about the documentary here, including upcoming screenings.