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Stretch and Bobbito: The Legends Return To Radio

Robert "Bobbito" Garcia and Adrian "Stretch" Bartos.
Nickolai Hammar
/
NPR
Robert "Bobbito" Garcia and Adrian "Stretch" Bartos.

The legendary New York DJ duo of Stretch and Bobbito have reunited. After 19 years off the airwaves, Adrian "Stretch" Bartos and Robert "Bobbito" Garcia are back with a conversational, sometimes musical NPR podcast called What's Good With Stretch And Bobbito. On this edition of All Songs Considered we talk about their hugely influential music show in the '90s on WKCR at Columbia University, in New York City that helped launch the careers of artists like The Notorious B.I.G, Wu-Tang Clan, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem and more.

"The show was birthed out of a friendship and a shared love of music—it was very simple," Stretch told me in our conversation. "Bob and I hadn't known each other for that long. When we started, when we were discovering each other [and] a lot of things happened very quickly. It was almost dreamlike. I think one of the beautiful things about our show is [that] we laid down this really organic foundation for people that would become producers, graphic designers, label owners, of course artists, store owners, website operators, also journalists, distributors, and booking agents as well."

The energy of Stretch and Bobbito is infectious. Over the course of this nearly 50-minute conversation, we talked about how cassettes were used to spread their fame in the pre-Internet days; we hear some late-night/early morning rapping from Lord Finesse featuring KRS-One; and we talk about Stretch and Bobbito's new NPR podcast, which includes a bit with Stevie Wonder recounting the birth of his song, "Golden Lady" (or is it "old little lady?").

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Robert "Bobbito" Garcia, also known as world-renowned DJ Bobbito Garcia, is the co-host of NPR's podcast What's Good with Stretch and Bobbito. In the show, Stretch and Bobbito interview cultural influencers, bringing their warmth, humor, and a fresh perspective. In the 1990s, radio duo Stretch and Bobbito were pivotal figures in the evolution of hip-hop as a worldwide cultural phenomenon.
Adrian Bartos, or "Stretch Armstrong," is an internationally recognized DJ, cultural pioneer, and the co-host of NPR's podcast What's Good with Stretch and Bobbito. In the show, Stretch and Bobbito interview cultural influencers, bringing their warmth, humor, and a fresh perspective. In the 1990s, radio duo Stretch and Bobbito were pivotal figures in the evolution of hip-hop as a worldwide cultural phenomenon.
In 1988, a determined Bob Boilen started showing up on NPR's doorstep every day, looking for a way to contribute his skills in music and broadcasting to the network. His persistence paid off, and within a few weeks he was hired, on a temporary basis, to work for All Things Considered. Less than a year later, Boilen was directing the show and continued to do so for the next 18 years.