STRETCH AND BOBBITO: RADIO THAT CHANGED LIVES (Bobbito Garcia). 98 minutes. Opens Thursday. See listing.
It sounds like a music industry fairy tale: A half dozen hip-hop artists with almost no commercial radio play build their fan base on a college radio station, and go on to sell over 300 million records before the advent of social media. But a new documentary, Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives, is proving otherwise.
Nas, Biggie, Wu-Tang Clan, The Fugees, Jay Z and Eminem are just a few of the hip hop icons who were first discovered by Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia’s The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show, which ran from 1990 to 1998 on Columbia University’s WKCR 89.9 FM in New York.
We spoke to Stretch ahead of his and Bobbito’s upcoming visit to Toronto for Thursday’s Canadian premiere of their documentary at the Royal, followed by an after-party at Tattoo.
During the span of your radio show, were you aware of the Canadian hip-hop scene and do you remember playing any Toronto emcees on your show like Maestro Fresh-Wes, Choclair or Kardinal Offishall?
We were certainly aware of Canada’s scene. Wes, Choclair, Kardinal and Saukrates all made records that I played and when in town, were guests on our show. While our show is known to have [had] a New York perspective, our doors were open to anyone making worthwhile music, whether you were from Canada or the UK.
Did you and Bobbito always plan to shoot a documentary about your radio show, or was this a recent idea? What was the most challenging part of making this film?
Bobbito and I had never discussed making a documentary about the show. A number of people made video footage in the 90s, some with the specific purpose of making a doc, but these projects never happened. Luckily, everyone who shot then was gracious enough to share their footage.
The biggest challenge was distilling the essence of a nearly ten-year show, and all of the great moments, into 95 minutes. Many stories were left out [and] many artists we love were not interviewed. The other challenge was creating a visual component to the artists’ appearances in which we had no video. I think we tackled that in a really imaginative and ingenious way, in part by using live painting and drawing by visual heavyweights Eric Haze, Lee Quinones, STASH and José Parlá .
There still seem to be younger fans who won’t support rappers after they’ve turned 30, or new artists who attack the older artists they grew up on. How do you feel about these attitudes?
For purists in hip-hop, there is always a reverence for the past, and a determination to educate one’s self about music and musicians that came before. I know that this hasn’t changed.
Of course, there will always be some young people less interested in what came before, and that’s fine. It’s a mixed bag.
SiriusXM presented your recent 25th anniversary reunion broadcast on Eminem’s Shade 45 channel, where your former on-air personality Lord Sear has a weekday mix show. Do you feel college radio can still have an impact on the industry, despite so many choices between satellite radio, online podcasts and even commercial hip-hop stations these days?
No radio or platform will ever have the impact that our show did. That’s not a brag. It’s just a result of the changing nature of the way music is created, disseminated and absorbed. Everything is easily accessed on multiple platforms immediately, so there is no need to stay up late to catch something.
There was something magical and transformative about the routine of staying up and taping. It was almost ceremonial, and the effort it took gave the experience a greater importance and increased reverence for the culture. That doesn’t exist anymore.
Is there a common attitude or work ethic you noticed among the artists who came on your radio show that you think younger talent can learn from?
I don’t think artists in the internet age have any clue about how hard it was to grind out a career in the 90s. Just to get a song heard was no small feat. Getting a deal and making records for some almost felt like the goal, not the first step to having a career.
The result was that in general, the artists whom you heard on the radio were practically veterans by the time their albums dropped. Jay Z talks about this very eloquently in the film.
Get more info at stretchandbobbito.com.
website@nowtoronto.com | @raouljuneja
