Exclusive – Although The Notorious B.I.G. has been physically gone for 23 years, his legacy lives on. On Friday (November 6), legendary radio hosts Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia unveiled a rare, unreleased Biggie freestyle that had been lost for decades.
On March 5, 1992, a then-unsigned Biggie walked into the radio studio where Stretch and Bobbito hosted their iconic Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito Show and proceeded to blow their minds with a nearly three-minute freestyle. It marked the first time the public ever heard Biggie’s voice broadcast over the airwaves.
But the recording was eventually lost and didn’t resurface until 2015. Four years later, Stretch, Bobbito and The M19s Band have remixed it for the world to hear.
“Finally getting our hands on the elusive Biggie ’92 freestyle in 2015 was crazy because we had zero recollection of what it sounded like, what his rhyme was like or what beat I gave him,” Stretch tells HipHopDX. “We even wondered to ourselves whether the anticipation of waiting 23 years would be so much that if and when we finally got our hands on the recording, we might be let down.
“There were times that artists that went on the be greats didn’t kill it their first time on our show, which in many cases, was their first time on the radio, period. But Biggie absolutely killed it.”
Stretch also recalled Biggie had recently lost an on-air demo battle to The Bronx Zu and was determined to shut them up by appearing on Stretch and Bobbito’s show.
“We remembered that the week before he came up, Biggie lost an on-air demo battle, so part of his motivation to coming up the was to exact revenge on the group he lost to, The Bronx Zu, and to make sure is rep wasn’t tarnished,” he continues. “You can hear it in his freestyle: the determination, the confidence, the flow, all the makings of a future great.
“It’s just too bad that he had a sour feeling around our show because of the circumstances, and it’s too bad he came up so late (like 4am!), because very few people recorded this historic recording. Luckily, we have it for the world to hear now. Long live B.I.G.”
Stretch and Bobbito, in conjunction with Warner Music Group, have more coming down the pipeline.
To coincide with the freestyle release, the duo also dropped an EP called Freestyle 1, the first in a series of three. The collection features remixed and remastered freestyles from Big L, Hov, Method Man and Ghostface and, of course, The Notorious B.I.G. The Ghost and Meth freestyle arrived last month.
Check it out here and watch the Biggie remix above.
