With all the talk about Chinese hip-hop, I thought it would be good to take some lessons from the Classics. Recently I was sent a copy of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop,” winner of the Picador American Book Award and arguably one of the most thoroughly researched histories of the birth of hip-hop. Coincidently the book was written by a journalist of Chinese descent, American born Jeff Chang.
Reading his book, I discovered that in the United States the “Godfathers” and founders of early hip-hop were mostly immigrants, or the children of immigrants. They were first and second generation non-native Americans. They came from the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America and they brought a very distinct culture and flavor that was different from typical New Yorkers at that time.
Hip-hop was created by a mixture of cultures from around the world, even the Chinese made a contribution to the birth of hip-hop as early as the 1970s’. The truth is that hip-hop wasn’t created by, or doesn’t belong to any race, nationality or culture. It’s a global art form, for all of humanity.
