Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-hop Generation
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"His scope is operatic, sprawling, and concerns itself with the people, places, and politics that drove hip-hop from its infancy. . . . It is essentially a people's history . . . perhaps Jeff Chang is hip-hop America's Howard Zinn."--"Salon.com" "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 Jeff Chang brings to it. . . . This is one of the most urgent and passionate histories of popular music ever written.""--The New Yorker" "When Hip-Hop 101 becomes a requirement, Jeff Chang's history of the turmoil that begat this beloved culture will be the go-to textbook."--"Vibe "magazine "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"
Q Magazine
"Jeff Chang has spent the last decade researching a vivid and fascinating book...finally, rap gets the definitive history it deserves"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...of the origins of hip-hop. Chang spent years researching his subject and it shows. From the very beginnings in Kingstown and the Bronx, Chang interviews the major players and also gives an overview of the political landscape of the time and how it shaped the lives of everyone involved. A large portion of the book is dedicated to the first 10 years of hip-hop up into the 80's and quite right as this is the most interesting. He writes of not only the music but of the other components of the movement such as breaking and graffiti artists. The way he covers Public Enemy is fascinating and we uncover a lot of truths about the band, good and bad. I'm not a big fan of rap music but this book deserves your attention. It is comparable of Simon Reynolds 'Rip It Up And Start Again' in that both books are thorough documents of important musical movements and are the last word on both.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jeff Chang's "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" looks, on the outset, to be a book primarily interested in music. It's not. This is a stunningly well researched history of the entire Hip-Hop culture covering DJing, Rapping, Graffiti, and Breakdance B-Boy style. Chang puts the entire genre into context in a similar fashion to John Savage's "England's Dreaming" yet while Savage is interested primarily in the music, Chang is more of a social/cultural historian. Hence he charts the development of the actual music itself in a rather cursory fashion which is likely to infuriate anyone who wants a history of Rap.
That said the whole movement is put into context giving a vivid history of gang culture, the development of Jamacian dancehall, the orgins of crack, the police brutality in California (and elsewhere) during the 90's to mention just a few of the other facts included. This is something of a treasure trove and gives wonderful and vivid detail of what Chang ends up citing Robin D G Kelly's idea of polyculturalism - understanding that a culure is made up of, and referencing, different quite distinct culural experiences. From that it's fair to conclude that Chang's ideas are academic at times but his writing style is very readable. Taking the voices of the people involved to tell the story also gives this book a great sense of the authentic. Speaking of this, I could almost recommend it just for Kool DJ Herc's blistering forward where the original Hip-Hop DJ strikes out in wonderfully eloquent style. His introduction should be read, and acted upon, by Barack Obama for its clarity of vision.
Due to Chang's particular interests the early years feel more detailed and the story clearly told. Once reaching the 90's the book doesn't give much space to the commercialisation and commodifying of Hip-Hop. There is little mention of the big players of today, and the book shifts its tone to somthing akin to Naomi Klein's "No Logo" in its mistrust of the corporate. He, like Klein's anti-globalisation agitator protagonists, prefers to see things from the grass roots underground and look at the culture as an agent for social and political change. It's the book's only real false note and it may give some a feeling that the story is half told towards the end. That said, it gives a message of positivity and hope of the kind which probably helped Obama into the Whitehouse. As the book predates all of that, this point is more a matter of conjecture.
A book for music fans, possibly. The appeal of this is more for those who like to place music within the confines of contemporary culture as a whole. If you liked "Rip It Up & Start Again", "England's Dreaming",Dance: Chic & The Politics Of Disco", or even "No Logo" you will find something in this. It's a vivid account of the underground history of a movement which began with a few bloc parties in the ghettos of 1970's New York and is now found on the streets of almost every city in the world. A brilliant telling of the roots of a global phenomenon.
That said the whole movement is put into context giving a vivid history of gang culture, the development of Jamacian dancehall, the orgins of crack, the police brutality in California (and elsewhere) during the 90's to mention just a few of the other facts included. This is something of a treasure trove and gives wonderful and vivid detail of what Chang ends up citing Robin D G Kelly's idea of polyculturalism - understanding that a culure is made up of, and referencing, different quite distinct culural experiences. From that it's fair to conclude that Chang's ideas are academic at times but his writing style is very readable. Taking the voices of the people involved to tell the story also gives this book a great sense of the authentic. Speaking of this, I could almost recommend it just for Kool DJ Herc's blistering forward where the original Hip-Hop DJ strikes out in wonderfully eloquent style. His introduction should be read, and acted upon, by Barack Obama for its clarity of vision.
Due to Chang's particular interests the early years feel more detailed and the story clearly told. Once reaching the 90's the book doesn't give much space to the commercialisation and commodifying of Hip-Hop. There is little mention of the big players of today, and the book shifts its tone to somthing akin to Naomi Klein's "No Logo" in its mistrust of the corporate. He, like Klein's anti-globalisation agitator protagonists, prefers to see things from the grass roots underground and look at the culture as an agent for social and political change. It's the book's only real false note and it may give some a feeling that the story is half told towards the end. That said, it gives a message of positivity and hope of the kind which probably helped Obama into the Whitehouse. As the book predates all of that, this point is more a matter of conjecture.
A book for music fans, possibly. The appeal of this is more for those who like to place music within the confines of contemporary culture as a whole. If you liked "Rip It Up & Start Again", "England's Dreaming",Dance: Chic & The Politics Of Disco", or even "No Logo" you will find something in this. It's a vivid account of the underground history of a movement which began with a few bloc parties in the ghettos of 1970's New York and is now found on the streets of almost every city in the world. A brilliant telling of the roots of a global phenomenon.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There's a lot of hip-hop historians out there and every one of 'em is gonna tell you that their version of history is the only true story. The fact of the matter is, hip-hop is a cash cow and everyone wants a piece of the pie... can't stop won't stop is no better than the rest, the writing is long winded, of topic at times and you can tell that the writer had a hard time not being full of himself whilst writing this book. Regardless of this fact, it is well researched and does present a good context for modern day hip hop, it jus should've taken more time delivering the message and less time massaging egos. There's times when you'll put down the book and think to yourself, "what was the point of that chapter?" the fact of the matter is what is said in this book has been said before a lot more eloquently and with a lot less senseless bravado.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
...and it won't stop...
This is a really good historical text. The hip-hop community doesn't have very many of those, so if you're interested in the music or the culture in anything more than a passing... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Catfish
Hip Hop history and then some
Was recommended this book by another author that I was reading at the time. I did enjoy reading this as it was a great insight for me, I have been a fan of Electro and Rap/Hip Hop... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Andy Mooring
Can't Stop, Won't Stop reading this book.
If you would like an in depth review, see the others. They are pretty accurate and sum up the book well.
If you would like a short review, this is it. Read more
If you would like a short review, this is it. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Neilo
Well written, but off topic
"Can't Stop Won't Stop" is a very well written and well researched book. However, be aware that it is a history of the "Hip-Hop Generation", as stated on the cover. Read more
Published on 19 July 2009 by A reader
Essential Hip-hop book
I constantly referred to this book for my essay on b-boy subculture but it was also an entertaining read too. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2008 by K. Bannerman
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
