2 Books Published by Sutton Place Publishers, Incorporated on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Nobody asked Erica Lorraine Simpson if it was okay for her husband to die. Not God, not her husband. Nobody. But he did die, leaving Erica alone and widowed at the age of 45. Anger has her now, sprinkled with grief, disbelief and profound sadness. It’s the worst part, she thinks. But Erica’s wrong. It’s not the worst part. The ‘worst part’ is on its way and it will take her places she never dreamed she’d go. For Erica, the ‘worst part’ is learning how to keep on living when the one who meant the most to her is gone…

Featuring an introduction by D.J. Kool Herc.

Forged in the fires of the Bronx and Kingston, Jamaica, hip-hop became the Esperanto of youth rebellion and a generation-defining movement. In a post-civil rights era defined by deindustrialization and globalization, hip-hop crystallized a multiracial, polycultural generation’s worldview, and transformed American politics and culture. But that epic story has never been told with this kind of breadth, insight, and style.

Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, graffiti writers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip-hop’s forebears, founders, and mavericks, including DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, and Ice Cube, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop chronicles the events, the ideas, the music, and the art that marked the hip-hop generation’s rise from the ashes of the 60’s into the new millennium. Here is a powerful cultural and social history of the end of the American century, and a provocative look into the new world that the hip-hop generation created.