Jeff Chang Quotes

"I entered at an interesting time, after the L.A. riots, when the field was in crisis. A lot of the movement was down with solidarity with other races, but the riots were a shock. The focus became interracial relations, and they wanted to know what I thought. It gave me a weird credibility in the field. A lot of us got published in academic journals right away."

"There is so much about hip-hop culture that is peculiar to New York, and I got to understand it from that point of view."

"It was just one of those nights. It was an out-of-body experience."

"That's what it's supposed to do--speak truth to power. I'm not surprised by this...hip-hop tells the micro history, but it also tells the counter-history to the official narrative."