Fondle ‘Em Records was a record label based in New York City, New York. It was founded and owned by Robert “Bobbito” Garcia from 1995 to 2001. Bobbito formed the label after realizing that the many unsigned rappers making guest appearances on “The Stretch Armstrong/Bobbito Show,” a program Bobbito co-hosted with DJ Stretch Armstrong on Columbia University radio station WKCR 89.9 FM, didn't have a proper outlet for their talents.
Fondle 'Em, along with Rawkus Records, Solesides, Stones Throw Records and a handful of other small independent imprints helped jumpstart the underground hip hop scene in the late 1990s, establishing the subgenre as a viable branch of rap music. It also introduced cult artist MF DOOM, rescued acts such as the Juggaknots and KMD from major label limbo, and became one of the first US labels to release music from a South African rap act with Cashless Society's "Blazetha Breaks" 12".
Famous quotes containing the words fondle and/or records:
“Everyone knows that by far the happiest and universally enjoyable age of man is the first. What is there about babies which makes us hug and kiss and fondle them, so that even an enemy would give them help at that age?”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)