Starting in 1990, Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia started hosting a late-night hip-hop show on the Columbia University station WKCR. On their show, they played everything that was new and exciting, and they hosted early freestyles from just about every major star who came up in that era: the Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Mobb Deep, Busta Rhymes, Eminem. The 1995 freestyle session from Big L and Jay-Z alone is an underground classic. And they kept it going for a long time; in 2000, when I first lived in Brooklyn, I used to stay up all night, holding my radio antenna a particular way so that I could pick up Bobbito's show, which was still great even after Stretch left.
The show etched its place in rap history with all these appearances from young titans, but one of the best reasons to listen was Stretch and Bobbito themselves, two funny assholes who had a great chemistry with one another. Two years ago, Garcia directed Radio That Changed Lives, a documentary about the show. And now NPR has gotten them back together again to host a new podcast called What's Good. It'll feature interviews with luminaries like Stevie Wonder and Mahershala Ali, and the first episode, which launches next week, will feature an interview with Dave Chappelle. Below, check out trailers for both the podcast and for Radio That Changed Lives.
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You can subscribe to What's Good here.
