Chang argues that, “If blues culture had developed under the conditions of oppressive, forced labor, hip hop culture would arise from the conditions of no work” (Chang, 2005). Soon the new residents of Bronx, were impacted by the failing economy there: 600,000 jobs were lost and the average per capita income decreased to about $2,000 (Chang, 2005). To facilitate the plan, New York residents were forced move from their homes in Manhattan to the housing developments of the South Bronx and east Brooklyn (Chang, 2005). Moses devised a plan to build the Cross-Bronx Expressway, a highway that would allow travel across the New York city boroughs to the New Jersey suburbs (Chang, 2005). The displacement of residents was due to the urban development goals of builders like Robert Moses (Chang, 2005). Next, Chang discusses the issues of displacement and poverty among Bronx residents. First, Chang reveals the issue of racism in the Bronx in the 1960s as Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player on the Yankees, was mistreated despite his accomplishments as a player (Chang, 2005). In Chapter 1, Chang describes the early conditions of the Bronx, only to make the connection between those conditions and hip hop culture once. However, Chang’s attempts to explain the beginnings of hip hop culture in the first and third chapters are inefficient as he leaves the readers to make inferences about the connections between the various conditions at the time and how they might have led to the creation of the culture however, in the second and fourth chapters Chang makes it clear how the elements of the culture including rap, break dancing, DJing and graffiting came alive out of the struggle. In Jeff Chang’s book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, he discusses the various conditions in the Bronx and Jamaica that led to the early beginnings of hip hop. Hip Hop culture has also shown itself to grow from the concrete as it is believed to have risen out of the terrible conditions of the Bronx some might not have imagined that birth to this culture was possible given the state of disarray in the Bronx in the 1970s (Shakur, 2014 Chang, 2005).

Yet, the overall significance of hip hop culture as it has spread to the masses, makes it like the beautiful petals of a rose blowing in the wind. The music element of hip hop captures the essence of a rose almost perfectly as its sometimes explicit, offensive lyrics are like cutting thorns to listeners.

Hip Hop culture is like the “rose that grew from concrete” that Tupac Shakur speaks about in his poem (Shakur, 2014).

Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang