Can’t Stop Won’t Stop is a triumph regardless of the reader’s affiliation with hip-hop. Though always through the lens of the participants and artists of the culture, the scope of the book is both vast and precise, vacillating between individual beefs between Bronx gangs, foreign policies from Nixon to W and back again without batting an eye. More then just the history of rap, it is, as the title correctly asserts, the history of a generation.
And further, let me just say I am proud as hell that an Asian boi wrote it, but because through the fingers of a black writer I am fairly certain it would be almost entirely dismissed. The recent history of American oppression, neglect and ignorance brought to well-documented, well-referenced life in this book is just that shocking at times. I mean ya, I heard that the government was involved in the devastating crack epidemic (as reference more recently on Jay and Kayne’s recent releases) but to actual have the circumstances laid out and referenced so cleanly hit me hard. As did the presidential memo, sign by Nixon, to with hold and remove resources from an already crumbling Bronx. Or actions of police in L.A. sweeping the streets of anyone mildly suspicious without warrant, the rampant brutality without consequence in the court, the blatant disregard for the rule of law; all at a time when juvenile crime was down and area gangs where honoring a published period of peace.
These injustices where not exclusive to black youth, as author Jeff Chang makes plain. In fact, Chang’s history surprised me with just how integrated the hip-hop scene was throughout it’s history, further securing it in the african inspired but ultimately American made musical histories of blues, jazz, rock and soul. Just as with the civil right movement, in Jewish Americans from Def Jam’s Rick Ruban to The Source’s Jon Shecter have been intimately involved in the hip-hop’s development as a cultural force. And at it’s root, it all goes back the philosophies put forth by movement leaders like Afrika Bambaataa, who made use of the music to rise of ashes of brutal regional war in the hopes of creating future Planet Rock.
Nor is does the book sugarcoat the raw, often violet nature of the culture’s history. Instead, he plainly sets the stage for the truly human complexity of hip-hop’s cast of characters. True, New York’s Notorious Ghetto Brother’s gang did strive to clean the neighbor of drugs, and secure medical services. At the same time, their methods often included killing or raping junkies or straight-up jacking ambulances. Yes, to deny the thoughtfulness and political relevance of Public Enemy is simply intellectually dishonest, and yet their spokeperson Professor Griff’s ignorant, often anti-Semitic comments must be and were not ignored. Trust this journey ain’t no crystal stair.
Even so, what this book does so well is expand beyond the easy stereotypes and ignorant dismissal of “big bad gangstas” and dives into the context that made the culture, good, bad and ugly, what it is today. It paints the artists of hip-hop as humans instead of cartoons. It explains the environment from childhood to adulthood instead of simply an isolated snapshot of terror.
That being said, there are problems. Because of its focus the effect and spread of hip-hop as cultural instead of simply as an aesthetic, there is a lot of obvious heads that are glossed over. Tupac and Biggie are mentioned only in passing, as are the domination of Bad Boy, the Roc, Crunk, Hyphy, or international variants (though there is a great section on the under-represented D.C. go-go movement). If you are looking for an album-by-album breakdown of the evolution of the hip-hop sound, well… this will take up to The Chronic. And even then it’s not quite as deep as it could be. Though I have yet to read it, I’ve heard Jeff’s companion book Total Chaos is fantastic for a more technical view of hip-hop.
Ultimately though, this book probably affected me deeper level then some geekafied aesthetic deconstruction (not that there is anything wrong with that). Can’t Stop Won’t Stop makes me proud of were I have come from, as black man, a twenty-something, a head, a writer and an American. It shows how blatantly fucked up our system is and how American citizens of every stripe from the most despite of circumstances have risen up to confront it not because of wish to dominate, but as a hope to make a more true and fair life for generations to come. Listen to any hip-hop album, The Game to Mos to Big to X etc., and ultimately they will tell you it’s just about making things better for their kids. Read for yourselves, but as far as I am considered, the book solidifies hip-hop is ultimate embodiment of the American Dream.
