About book Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History Of The Hip-Hop Generation (2005)
For those popular music fans who still can't see the innovation in hip-hop, maybe this book will help. It's flawed - by the second half I mostly tuned out as Public Enemy and Ice Cube (not my favourites) took centre stage and the political thrust of Jeff Chang's argument grew strained - but for putting the birth of the movement in perspective musically and culturally it's hard to beat. Chang knows his stuff, and whether he's talking about gang wars in the Bronx, block parties and Jamaican sound systems or the birth of turntablism, his passion for his subject shines through. Two turntables and a microphone, man! No money for drumkits, amps, guitars - just grab two copies of the same record and loop the instrumental section (hell, cut up a whole bunch of records together if you're game), then add poetry. I'm not kidding: sure, you might bemoan the bling-obsessed aggression and shallow sexuality that you hear in passing as you switch radio-channels in your car, but the best of these guys can rhyme circles around Bob Dylan, at least rhythmically, with multiple internal rhymes, rhymes running over or falling short of the line-break, oftentimes the line break not even observed, and all of it told in an urban patois that's as funny as it is street-smart. You don't like the violence? Shit, you read Raymond Chandler, don't you? You watch Hollywood thrillers? Thing is (a) all rap isn't gangsta rap, and (b) gangsta rap uses genre conventions to generate excitement, make you laugh and entertain you, just like your favourite thriller. True, MCing is a competitive field, and most of these guys came up 'dissing' each other for laughs and effect in 12-bar-a-piece battles (like you see in Eminem's 8 Mile - you've seen 8 Mile, haven't you? It's the Karate Kid of rap movies!). Me, I think it's straight-up fucking beautiful that these guys (and a few girls) choose to 'battle' with words, frequently on streetcorners or in the park or on the subway with nothing more than a ghetto blaster or a guy beatboxing (making the beat with his mouth) or - so I hear, these days - a fucking mobile phone churning out the backing. 'Necessity is the mother of invention,' my mother always said. And rap music is a genius invention - possibly the most significant development in popular music since the advent of amplification. I mean, anyone who knows me knows I love everything from blues to jazz to punk to 'post-rock'; I don't live and breathe hip-hop. But write off these musicians and poets at your peril: these are frequently serious, committed artists making bold statements to large crowds who listen. They're trained in creating on the fly, able to respond artistically to situations as they happen and able to camouflage their message, and if there's ever a popular uprising in the United States it just might be their words and beats that popularise it. Word is born.I'm at work in a quiet bookshop at the moment, so I can't go looking this stuff up on youtube, but if you're curious here's some favourites to check out:Sugarhill Gang - 'Rapper's Delight'Grandmaster Flash - 'Adventures on the Wheels of Steel'Afrika Bambaataa - 'Bambaataa's Theme'Furious Five - 'The Message'Run DMC - 'It's Tricky'Beastie Boys - 'The New Style'Eric B & Rakim - 'I Know You Got Soul'Boogie Down Productions - 'Criminal Minded'Mobb Deep - 'Give Up the Goods (Just Step)'Nas - 'I Gave You Power'Tupac - 'Trading War Stories'Notorious B.I.G. - 'Sky's the Limit'A Tribe Called Quest - 'Jazz (We've Got)'Mos Def & Talib Kweli - 'Thieves in the Night'Blackalicious - 'Alphabet Aerobics'Eminem - '97 Bonnie & Clyde'
This book is blowing my mind.I knew it was gonna be a hip-hop overview but I had no idea it was gonna be such a wonderful historical textbook full of intricately weaved stories that touch on the political, personal, artistic, economic, etc.Want to know how New York mayor Abraham Beame's 1977 "Plan to Revitalize the South Bronx" affected the 22 gangs in that area? And how that directly influenced Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and the Rocksteady Crew's art?Want to know what Chuck D. and Professor Griff were thinking when Jesse Jackson fell behind Michael Dukakis in the 1988 Democratic Primary due to his "Hymietown" comment? Or what they wanted to accomplish in helping Spike Lee with the "Do The Right Thing" soundtrack?Want to know how Reaganomics and the corrupt, shortsighted LA Police Chief Darryl Gates directly influenced N.W.A. and their "Fuck the Police" record? Then this is your book!!!If only history classes in school had been this interesting.I'm 3/4ths done with this and can't put it down. So far my only complaint is that there is no musical accompaniment. Wish there was a CD or DVD to play especially during passages when they are describing music or songs I haven't heard. Might have to make my own!
Do You like book Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History Of The Hip-Hop Generation (2005)?
academic tomes on hip-hop have a sobering tendency to come from artifice, revisionist histories written by out-of-touch scholars eager to stamp their name on uncharted territory. they pick landmarks and artists who, perhaps, are emblematic of the genre, but do not come from the perspective of a fan that's where jeff chang's "can't stop won't stop" is so successful.i'd say it's one of the first times i've read something scholarly about the genesis of -- arguably -- one of the world's most potent cultural forces that is actually written by a child of hip-hop. he comes with an appreciation and understanding about what it is to be an MC. chang delves into the socioeconomic conditions surrounding the music's advent, ranging from the political unrest that held jamaica stricken in poverty, to the unruly youth gangs of 1970's new york city. he finds time to interview everybody, piecing together a history that explains and appeals to even casual listeners of the music.
—teddy
Overwhelmingly sad but extremely likable and engrossing. What's even more sad is that St. Martin's Press barely bothered to give it the proper editing job a book like this clearly deserved. The writing needed a little fine-tuning but the proofreading (or lack of it) was extremely embarrassing; missing words, repeat words, even double sentences throughout this 460+ page book. I hope that someone reading it doesn't equate the numerous editing mistakes with the credibility and depth of this book. It's like the whole publishing house didn't take this book seriously enough. On the bright side I now know more about Public Enemy than I could have ever imagined in my mildest dreams. I also learned that Mars Blackmon is responsible for the advance of nike's heavy urban street cred (well duh, me). On the bitterly dark side, the stories of Michael Stewart, Amadou Diallo, Michael Griffith and the Howard Beach nightmare, plus the countless other examples of explicit injustice and stupid racism are so compelling that you want to run out into the streets and bring them to the attention of everyone you meet. Or rather and more current, fly to New York and join others in protesting the recent unbelievably unjust and fucked up acquittals of the pigs that murdered Sean Bell. Just sayin'.
—amber
One of the best books I've ever read. To place Can't Stop, Won't Stop in my life, it's one of the first books I've read where the baby boomers and us were seen as two different groups - one as not better than the other, just different and products of their times. I felt galvanized by Chang's story, how my world, fits in with this larger tale of the 70s, 80, 90s. So often I feel the nation has a hangover from the 60s and 70s and we're struggling to put the 80s and 90s in a context that's not ironic, media-driven, or kitschy (not that I don't love 'I love the 80s/90s' and their fasion, music, movies). I have memories of hip hop and rap stretching back to 85, 86 and it's been in my life since - whether or not I could relate to it's themes and rapper's realities. All the above - and it's really an engaging and well-written story! Kudos to Chang, who tells great stories about hip hop, disco in the 70s, the Queens, Bronx, LES, LA riots, and Source Magazine - all like my grandfather would talk about his life.Love it!
—Laura
