Despite being considered some of the best rappers ever to do it, Jay-Z, Eminem, Big Pun, and the Fugees share a deeper underlying connection. These acclaimed emcees were featured and freestyled on The Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito Show. The famous radio duo began their journey into hip-hop history when the first episode of their show premiered on WKCR, Columbia University’s radio station. The show premiered every Thursday from 1 am to 5 am and lasted almost a decade until the final episode premiered in early 1999. The Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito Show is home to some iconic moments in hip-hop history, such as premiering Nas’s “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” and bringing in the Wu-Tang Clan early in their career.
Freestyling became the cornerstone of The Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito after the tradition started on the show’s second episode. For this week’s Golden Age Thursday, we look back at an episode from 1994. The freestyle portion of this episode features Q-Tip and Mad Skillz, the latter dropping the “Mad” later in his career. The technically proficient emcees trade verses over thick basslines and hazy hip-hop drums. Listening to Q-Tip deliver head-spinning rhymes while continually hyping up Skillz’s unique wordplay is listening to a piece of hip-hop history in its purest form.
