A truism in historiography is that chronicles of recent history are generally less accurate than those of the more distant past. Historians, it is believed, need to be culturally and chronologically removed from the events they analyze in order to be objective and factual, and credible investigative histories of events that elapsed 20-30 years ago are often hastily debunked by critics and readers.
Not Jeff Chang's "Can't Stop Won't Stop," a history of the hip-hop generation. In it, the hip-hop journalist and social activist follows the rise of hip-hop music from its origins in Jamaica in the 1960s to its emergence as a powerful bi-coastal cultural force in the 1980s. "Can't Stop Won't Stop" received thunderous critical and commercial applause upon publication last year. His book, recently released in paperback, will be among the topics that Mr. Chang will be discussing at Tufts tonight.
His career as a hip-hop journalist began in 1991, when he wrote for URB and The Bomb Hip-Hop magazines. He has since written for such highly notable music publications as Vibe, the Village Voice and Spin, where, in 2005, he authored several pieces for their definitive "Top 100 Albums: 1985-2005" issue. In 1993, he co-founded Bay-area indie hip-hop label SoleSides. The label, still active under the name Quannum Projects, was home to artists like DJ Shadow, Blackalicious and fellow Asian American Tom Shimura, AKA producer/emcee Lyrics Born, an artist Mr. Chang holds in high regard. "I'm barely fit to carry LB's luggage!" he told the Daily in an interview.
His devotion to and knowledge of hip-hop music are readily evident on "Can't Stop Won't Stop," deemed "one of the most urgent and passionate histories of popular music ever written" by The New Yorker. The book's chronological essays display Mr. Chang's broad scope and penetrating depth of knowledge of the actual events, figures and environments that fostered hip-hop's growth from an underground, counter-cultural entity to a mainstream cash cow. He provides engaging and exhaustive descriptions of hip-hop's forefathers (Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and DJ Kool Herc, who wrote the introduction to "Can't Stop"), but even better is his coverage of the "trinity of hip hop"'s (as the three bands are called) supporting cast: the graffiti writers, break dancers (b-boys), and other patrons of the burgeoning scene.
Much of Mr. Chang's unrivaled reporting on early hip-hop's unknown members stems from his role not only as a contemporary, but as one of them himself.
"Hip-hop is something that unites many of us in this generation; we feel passionate, sometimes defensive, about it, it's so much a part of our identity," he said. As a participant in the event about which he writes, Mr. Chang has access to seemingly mundane yet crucial information about early hip-hop's day-to-day life, something that more conventional historians often do not. Also, his firsthand affiliation with his topic, again, something that conventional historians cannot possibly share, allows "Can't Stop" to function, in many ways, as a primary source of historical information.
The same, however, is true with many histories of hip-hop. "Can't Stop"'s defining and most impressive feature is the attention Mr. Chang pays to the roles of non-musical agents like politics in shaping hip-hop and vice versa. He offers a logical scrutiny of the relationships between early hip-hop and American social life, devoting nearly as much of his book to actual historical watersheds, like the L.A. riots and White Flight, as to individual DJs and emcees.
Of particular relevance to the Tufts crowd is his discussion social and political activism in the birth of hip-hop music and the current rise of hip-hop activism. Though he is perhaps primarily a journalist, the Tufts Asian American Center, AS&E Diversity Fund, American Studies, Music, and Sociology Departments, and the rest of the Group of Six (the Africana, International, Latino, LGBT and Women's Centers, in addition to the Asian American Center) are particularly interested in Jeff Chang, the social activist.
Having cut his activist teeth as a member of UC-Berkeley's anti-apartheid and anti-racist movements, he has since been a lobbyist for the students of the often-maligned California State University system. Again, his personal involvement with his cause lent his work a unique kind of ardency.
He himself was a graduate of the state university system, having received his bachelor's degree at Cal. Additionally, he graduated from UCLA with an MA in Asian American Studies. Along with being active in a variety of community-based, grassroots causes, Mr. Chang has been a supporter of hip-hop activism, "a frame to understand the hip-hop generation's reaction to their world, and their desire to create alternative spaces for cultural development and progressive social change," according to Mr. Chang's website.
Included in his talk about the origins of hip-hop music, social activism and their intermingling should be Mr. Chang's expectedly well-informed opinions on today's hip-hop music and American pop culture at-large. The event will begin at 6 p.m. in Pearson 104. A dinner reception and conversation with Mr. Chang on community activism will follow the program.
