The DJ Stretch Armstrong Show Featuring Bobbito the Barber

Stretch was the DJ, Bob the hype-man/host–together they did the Stretch Armstrong Show on KCR from 1 to 5 AM Fridays. Starting in ‘92, I taped their show religiously. They played all the underground hiphop before it got big–and featured unknown guests who would soon be household names.

In the early days I would edit out the banter between the two of them–but today the tapes I have where sleep prevailed before I could “clean” the tapes are the ones I love most. Stretch and Bob didn’t take themselves seriously, they didn’t take their guests seriously, and they didn’t take hiphop seriously–they just loved it.

Stretch eventually left the show, but Bob kept it going, and one of the highlights of my professional career has to be the day a few years ago when, at around 4 AM, Bob asked me–an accidental guest–to talk about the most exciting recent discoveries in astronomy. Needless to say, I have the tape.