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

4.0

The first half, chronicling the beginnings of hip-hop from early dub records to Grandmaster Flash and the first graffiti artists is great. It brought a new perspective to the music for me and had me digging for countless albums for weeks. The second half, where the book focuses more on the "hip-hop generation" than the story of the music, is where it begins to fall apart a little bit. There is still great stuff, especially where the author helps place some songs and albums in the context of what was going on with LA police and gang culture at the time. In this way, the book is great for any music fan, even if you don't enjoy hip-hop - it excited you to look for records you haven't heard before and makes you rethink the genre. Where the book fails is really in the final third where the focus narrows to activist culture (sometimes really tenously attached to hip-hop) and gives a lot of stage to some questionable ideas without questioning them. Regardless of the final third, it's still one of the best music books I have ever read.