Based on hundreds of interviews and more than ten years of research, Jeff Chang offers us in Hip-Hop generation an exhaustive musical and cultural history of hip-hop, from its roots in the Sound Systems Jamaican, passing through gang and parties wars Strokes in the black ghettos of New York, until its positioning as one of the most influential sounds of the current mainstream. The trajectories of artists such as Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Ice Cube and Jay-Z, next to that of promoters, stamps and DJs, are the conductive thread with which the author reconstructs the evolution of this genre, interpreting its development as a reflection of The political and ideological tensions that the African-American community crossed since the 70's onwards.

For a whole generation, born after the murder of Malcom X and with the neoliberal governments of Reagan and Bush as a backdrop, the four characteristic elements of Hip-Hop -The DJ, MC, Breakdancing and Graphiti- became converted into The privileged channels to express their discomfort and promote a common culture. The different forms that this genre adopted, from the militancy inspired by the black panthers of bands such as public enemy to the sexist and homophobic rhymes of the gangsta rap artists, are the reflection of a generation that had to be discussed among the black consciousness generated in the Historical struggles of the African-American community and the culture of individualism, competition and consumption, exacerbated by contemporary capitalist society.