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Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
by Jeff Chang

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation Cover

Powells.com Staff Pick

"Here's a little story that must be told..."

Jeff Chang, hip-hop journalist (URB, Village Voice, Spin, the Nation, San Francisco Chronicle), has penned an award-winning (2005 American Book Award) account of the origins of hip-hop. From Jamaica and the South Bronx in the late 1970's to the streets of Philadelphia during the 2000 Republican National Convention, Chang traces hip-hop's rise from the fledgling culture of a few dozen New York City teenagers to a truly massive global movement.

One time disc jockey (DJ Zen) and co-founder of the successful Solesides/Quannum Projects label, Chang possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the hip-hop world and uses the social and political upheavals of the past 25 years to illustrate the medium's ascent to a multi-billion dollar industry.

Chang's effort is a comprehensive book detailing the individuals and the events that have made hip-hop what it is today. From Wild Style to Beat Street, the L.A. riots to Howard Beach, Grand Wizzard Theodore to Mos Def, b-boys to graf writers, Spike Lee to Jean-Michel Basquiat, the connections of a culture now found worldwide are explored in exquisite detail and depth.

What will perhaps one day be seen as the seminal text of hip-hop history, Can't Stop Won't Stop is a brilliant and engaging expose of an often misunderstood art.
Recommended by Jeremy, Powell's City of Books

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop has been a generation-defining global movement. In a post–civil rights era rapidly transformed by deindustrialization and globalization, hip-hop gave voiceless youths a chance to address these seismic changes, and became a job-making engine and the Esperanto of youth rebellion. Hip-hop crystallized a multiracial generation's worldview, and forever transformed politics and culture. But the epic story of how that happened has never been fully told . . . until now.

Review:

"Hip-hop journalist Chang looks back on 30 years of the cultural landscape, with a particular focus on the African-American street scene, in this engaging and extensive debut. Chang shows how hip-hop arose in the rubble of the Bronx in the 1970s, when youth unemployment hit 60% — 80%; traces the music through the black-Jewish racial conflicts of 1980s New York to the West Coast scene and the L.A. riots; and follows it to the Kristal-soaked, bling-encrusted corporate rap of today. Chang's balanced assessment of rap's controversial trappings neither condemns gang culture nor forgives its sins, but places gangs in the conditions that birthed them and illustrates their influence on street culture. Chang also examines art forms that arose alongside the music: the b-boys ('break dancers') with their James Brown — inspired, acrobatic battles and the graffiti artists, who practiced their defiant, 'outlaw art' on the sides of subway trains and any other flat surface available. The vivid narrative alternates between Chang's historical elucidation and first-person accounts from the major players, including DJ Kool Herc, the mythic DJ who started it all at a West Bronx party; Afrika Bambaataa, who crossed gang boundaries for block parties, inspiring scores of others to enact truces and do the same; and Kurtis Blow, the first major-label rap artist, along with countless more. Most importantly, he documents stories that have been left unrecorded until now, with the oral histories of the gangs and artists. Illus." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"The most important new genre of the last quarter-century finally has a sweeping historical overview as powerful as the music with Can't Stop Won't Stop...the best-argued, most thoroughly researched case for hip-hop as a complete and truly American culture." Chicago Sun-Times

Review:

"The birth of hip-hop out of the ruin of the South Bronx is a story that has been told many times, but never with the cinematic scope and the analytic force that Chang brings to it....This is one of the most urgent and passionate histories of popular music ever written." The New Yorker

Review:

"Jeff Chang's new and necessary book...delivers a vivid account of the last third of the American twentieth century....The book is as much a cultural history as a music history." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Review:

"This is a book that should be on the shelves of every high school and college library, an engaging and entertaining full-blown excursion into American inner-city culture's rapid proliferation into every nook and cranny of culture at large." Los Angeles Weekly

Review:

"The conclusion the book draws is its real strength-hip-hop is the culture of youth, and teens today have never known a world without it." School Library Journal

Synopsis:

Based on original interviews with DJs, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, this work chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation's rise from the ashes of the 1960s into the new millennium.
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About the Author

Jeff Chang has written for The Village Voice, Vibe, Mother Jones, The Nation, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, URB, Rap Pages, and Spin. He lives in California.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
JGMD, April 4, 2006 (view all comments by JGMD)
Best book I read all of last year! I was sad to miss Chang when he visited Powell's last week, wishing I could have gave him props for his efforts. The way he chronicles the history of major players in the hip hop industry (sadly this is what it has become to some) while weaving stories of significant cultural impact didn't allow me to put it down. It also provides both aficionados of the genre and beginners alike with some great artists to explore if you haven't heard already. Your brain will be poppin' and lockin' to the tune of Chang's masterpiece.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780312425791
Subtitle:
A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
Author:
Chang, Jeff
Introduction:
Herc, D. J. Kool
Author:
Herc, D. J. Kool
Publisher:
Picador USA
Subject:
Music
Subject:
Rap
Subject:
Rap (music)
Subject:
History & Criticism - General
Subject:
Popular Culture - General
Subject:
Genres & Styles - Rap & Hip Hop
Publication Date:
December 2005
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
546
Dimensions:
8.38x5.80x.96 in. 1.07 lbs.
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