Eminem to Appear in New “Stretch And Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives” Documentary.
The complex is set to release a new Documentary for “Stretch And Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives” on 1st October, which features Interviews from Rap Legends like Nas, Eminem, Jay Z, B-Real, and more. Complex has released the first-ever Eminem freestyle on the Radio Show back in 1998. In 1998, After signing to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label, Eminem appeared on New York’s “The Stretch Armstrong Show” with one half of Bad Meets Evil, Royce Da 5’9″. The Radio Show was hosted by DJ Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia.
Eminem appeared in the new trailer released by Complex of “Stretch And Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives“. “Stretch And Bobbito, that was our dream, It felt like we made it. This was it“, Eminem says in the trailer. Complex Media’s Chief Content Officer Noah Callahan-Bever, who was present at the day Eminem appeared on the show, wrote for Complex that, “At the time we knew that this was a significant moment in the career of Eminem, his NYC baptism by fire, but I don’t think any of us had a sense of the significance it would have in the story of ‘The Stretch Armstrong Show’.”
“Cage is they artist!” Em reasoned to Paul Rosenberg, his manager and business partner—along with myself, SKAM?, Marisa Pizarro, and Detroit rapper Invincible—as we stood on 14th St. outside a club called The Cooler. “How do we know we’re not gonna walk into the studio and he’s gonna be waiting there with writtens for us?” Em was far from a shook one—don’t get it twisted, battling is in his blood and felt himself the superior talent—but he didn’t want to walk into a situation unprepared.
In the newly released trailer, Nas also appeared saying that he viewed it as “the most important show in the world“.
For Em, this was a significant look. Sure, by the summer of ’98, Marshall Mathers’ career had turned into a quickly rising snowball that was speeding up with each passing day, but success was still a long way off. He’d released the Slim Shady EP regionally, signed to Dr. Dre’s Interscope-distributed Aftermath Records, and recorded his debut LP (though it wouldn’t be released until January of the following year) in the preceding nine months. Those of us close to Em who had heard the music knew he had something extraordinary, but the project was still surrounded by a slew of questions for the rest of the world. For a couple of years, Dr. Dre had been ice-cold, there was, of course, the pale elephant in the room: Could any white rapper, especially one as plainly brilliant as Em, succeed on Vanilla Ice’s burnt ground?
On the day Em appeared on the show, Complex Media’s Chief Content Officer Noah Callahan-Bever was in attendance. “At the time we knew that this was a significant moment in the career of Eminem, his NYC baptism by fire,” he wrote for Complex, “but I don’t think any of us had a sense of the significance it would have in the story of ‘The Stretch Armstrong Show.'”
Other well-known MCs have also appreciated the radio show in various ways. The teaser features interviews with Jay Z and Nas, for example, and the Illmatic MC says in a clip that he considers it “the most significant show in the world.”
The Documentary is set to release next month and the screening information can be found here. Check out the Eminem and Royce unreleased “Stretch Armstrong” freestyle below.
UPDATE: Added Unseen footage of Eminem rap demo on “Stretch and Bobbito” from Aug. 20, 1998. Watch it below.
