Stretch

Randy Walker (August 21, 1968 – November 30, 1995), better known by his stage name Stretch, was an American rapper and record producer, working in Live Squad.

Randy Walker was born in 1968 in Springfield Gardens, Queens, to an African American father and Jamaican, immigrant mother.

Randy had a younger brother and two sisters.

In the late 1980s, Randy, dubbed Stretch, and his brother Christopher, dubbed Majesty, teamed with DJ K-Low, forming Live Squad.

His father died in 1981, and his mother, Lucilda, was a nurse at New York University Medical Center.

In 1988, both rapping and producing it, Live Squad debut with an EP, titled BQ In Full Effect, which, featuring Percee P, includes the tracks "Troopin It" and "We Ain't Havin' It."

Noteworthy is Stretch's voice, deep and raspy.

In the early 1990s, he joined 2Pac's rap group Thug Life.

In 1990, Stretch met Shock G of Digital Underground, the Bay Area rap group's 1991 album featured Stretch on its track "Family of the Underground."

That year, Live Squad remixed the group's single "No Nose Job."

That summer, Stretch met Underground ally Tupac "2Pac" Shakur.

The two became fast friends.

In late 1991, after studio recordings, live shows, and TV appearances with Stretch, 2Pac put out his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, with two tracks, including "Crooked Ass Nigga," where Stretch produces and raps.

Rapping his February 1992 single "If My Homie Calls" on Yo! MTV Raps, 2Pac was backed by Stretch, friend of host Ed Lover, who, praising Live Squad's demo tape and taking "executive producer" credit on its releases, helped Live get signed to Tommy Boy Records.

In 1992, Live Squad released a double A side, "Murderahh!"/"Heartless," followed by single, "Game of Survival"/"Pump for a Livin'," in 1993.

Live Squad also released an ultra-violent promo short film, Game Of Survival, on VHS tape, showcasing six songs from through group's forthcoming album.

In June, national outrage broke out over the Los Angeles area's original gangsta rapper Ice-T's side project, his rock band Body Count's album of heavy metal with its track "Cop Killer."

Tommy Boy, favoring radio friendliness, dropped Live Squad and shelved the album.

While Tupac filmed his breakthrough role in Juice, Stretch and Treach, of rap group Naughty By Nature, were extras.

Once Tupac's trailer was robbed of jewelry, they delivered a beatdown on set.

Unable to put a track on Juice 's soundtrack, 2Pac saw his album sell modestly, but Juice 's release in 1992 sent his star on the rise.

In 1992, with rapper Big Syke, 2Pac and Stretch recorded "Thug Life."

In 1993, 2Pac's second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., found Live Squad producing and featured on "Strugglin'," while featured, along with Treach and rapper Apache, on "5 Deadly Venomz."

That was produced by Stretch, who produced two more tracks, "The Streetz R Deathrow" and, featuring Live Squad, "Holler If Ya Hear Me."

Stretch made cameo appearances in music videos for the Mac Mall song "Ghetto Theme," directed by Tupac, and, in 1993, for the Above The Law, Money B, and Tupac song "Call It What You Want,".

He appeared in movies, Ed Lover & Doctor Dre's 1993 film Who's the Man? and Tupac's 1996 film Bullet.

In 1993, that song is still unreleased, Tupac expanded the group, named Thug Life, and got it on Interscope Records, releasing in 1994 the group's only album, Thug Life: Volume 1.

Stretch produced and rapped on the song "Thug Music".

Amid controversy over lyrics, the label cut "Out on Bail", which Tupac and Stretch performed at The '94 Source Awards, anyway, and "Runnin' from tha Police", featuring Biggie Smalls.

In 1993, Tupac met Biggie, a promising young rapper from Brooklyn, on his visit to California.

Tupac supported and mentored him, a prospective member of Thug Life.

During 1993, Live Squad, 2Pac, and Biggie performed a joint set at Maryland's Bowie State University, in Prince George's County, Maryland.

and recorded "House Of Pain," unreleased, for Biggie's debut album in the making.

The November 30, 1994, shooting of Shakur led to their split.

In March 1994, on The Arsenio Hall Show, 2Pac and Stretch performed "Pain," a track on the Above the Rim soundtrack's only cassette version and merely a single's B side, but swiftly a rap favorite.

Biggie's debut album arrived, without the song, in 1994 as Ready to Die.

The alliance was severed through events on the night of November 30, 1994, at the Times Square building of Quad Recording Studios.

In late 1994, Tupac was reportedly hired by fledgling music manager James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond to record a verse for rapper Lil' Shawn's single "Dom Perignon."

Arriving with Stretch and two others, they reportedly found rapper Lil' Cease—a member of the Bad Boy record label's circle via Biggie's side group Junior M.A.F.I.A.—watching the sidewalk from above and greeting them.

On November 30, 1995, Walker was shot and killed at the age of 27.