February 24, 2023
Jay-Z and Big L Deliver Epic Freestyle in 1995 – Today in Hip-Hop
[ad_1] XXL celebrates 50 years of hip-hop with this moment:Feb. 23, 1995: The way Bobbito Garcia remembers it, "Jay-Z was a cocky bastard" when he came swaggering into the WKCR studios on the night of Feb. 23, 1995 to freestyle on The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show.At the time, Hov was a newcomer and though Big L was on the rise in New York, it would still be another month before he dropped his official debut album, Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous, on Columbia Records. Together, they entered Stretch and Bob's domain, and though they hadn't planned for it, Jay-Z and Big L ended up recording their two freestyles together, clocking in at nearly...