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RE-BROADCAST: History of Hip Hop
GUESTS: Jeff Chang, hip hop historian, author of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hip Generation”

We spend the hour today speaking with Jeff Chang, hip hop historian, whose book, based on hundreds of interviews and over a decade of work as a respected music journalist is called “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hip Generation.” In the book Jeff Chang offers intimiate profiles of the lives and influences of “the trinity of hip-hop music”–Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and DJ Kool Herc–along with many other artists, label executives, DJs, writers, filmmakers, and promoters. He traces the rise of the movement of hip hop from the Bronx in New York to a rejection of Reaganomics and finally to the ultra commercialized version of hip hop today. In many ways it is an oral history and one that we hope to share with you today, along with the music of different eras. Uprising’s engineer Mark Maxwell really made this interview come to life. We spoke with Jeff Chang briefly on March 25th and today we bring you an extended interview.

Visit Jeff’s website at www.cantstopwontstop.com.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:
“Hip-hop has always been about having fun, but it’s also about taking responsibility. And now we have a platform to speak our minds. Millions of people are watching us. Let’s hear something powerful. Tell people what they need to hear. How will we help the community? What do we stand for? What would happen if we got the hip-hop generation to vote, or to form organizations to change things? That would be powerful.” – DJ Kool Herc, in the introduction to “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.”