115 pages • 3 hours read
Jeff ChangCan't Stop Won't Stop (Young Adult Edition): A Hip-Hop History
Nonfiction | Book | YA | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Loop 2: 1983-1990”
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary: “The Big Crossover”
Hip-hop was becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Wild Style was popular in Japan, major MCs were sent by Kool Lady Blue to tour in England and France, and hip-hop was featured in major films like Flashdance, which spawned a series of hip-hop movies. Breakdancing was amassing popularity, even being sold in the form of toys and children’s fashion. Commercials by popular fast-food chains featured hip-hop. Although its popularity was a positive, it began to be seen as a marketing tool and moved away from its roots. B-boying was replaced by one dance fad after another, and DJing was slowly replaced by rap producing in the form of a drum machine. Rap moved out of the clubs and onto the radio, creating a new type of segregation between white pop and rock stations and Black R&B/hip-hop stations.
By 1984, Run-DMC was the most popular rap crew. They came from Queens, a place where Black families became re-segregated after they moved in and the previously occupying white families moved out. Gangs and suburban living were integrated into one another. Run-DMC spent their beginning months travelling to Manhattan or the Bronx for shows.
