The radio show that changed lives.

From 1990 to 1998, DJs Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia hosted the The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show on WKCR.

Within a few years the show had become a favourite of hip-hop fans thanks to the pair’s dedication to the artform and their penchant for airing demo tapes and inviting rappers into the studio for freestyle sessions.

The list of rappers who passed through the studio, often at a time when they were unsigned, reads like a who’s who of the 1990s: Nas, Company Flow, Talib Kweli, Big L, Busta Rhymes, Cam’ron and the late Notorious B.I.G among many.

In 1995, as the show gained in popularity, Bobbito set up the Fondle ‘Em label to release music from many of the show’s guests including MF Doom, at the beginning of his masked career, and Kool Keith.

Earlier this week the pair uploaded a collection of 25 joints from the show’s archives including a fair few classic freestyles. You can hear them all below. [Via Egotrip.]

A documentary about the show’s legacy is in the works, and you can also sit down with the pair’s excellent RBMA lecture from 2012 that covers a lot of the ground as to what made their work so important.