A review by elbarton312
Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang

4.0

I originally got this book as an ARC when I was working in the book business. What I thought might be of a little interest ended up becoming a textbook of my development in my musical taste as a youth and teenager in the late 70s and early 80s. I was Phase I of the Hip Hop Generation and I guess this was how my mother felt when she first saw The Beatles: you were witnessing something completely NEW and it was going to change not just your life, but the world in general. I'm still Old School East Coast and rarely listen to the corporate sludge poured out for mass consumption, but when I encounter a rapper like Cakes Da Killa, it reminds me of the days when rap/hip hop was all about originality and setting yourself apart from the pack. I'm writing this now as I'm about to re-read my ARC copy as a kind of 10th Anniversary to the book and the excellent writing of Jeff Chang. ~BRC