By Chuck D, Dr. Olajide Williams, and Jimmie Briggs | New York Amsterdam News

This post was originally published on New York Amsterdam News

(WIB) – From DJ Kool Herc dropping the needle on a record at a party in the Bronx more than fifty years ago and then experimenting with mixing beats and scratching records, worldwide legions of rappers, dancers, street artists, and deejays constantly reinvent what is arguably the most American of inventions, hip-hop. 

While even the most casual followers can identify the five elements of the culture: rapping, deejaying, graffiti art, breakdancing, and beatboxing — now on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, which falls on Oct. 10 — it’s time to recognize and amplify a sixth element focusing on health and healing at a time when the Black and Latino neighborhoods from which hip hop originated need it the most. 

Non-Hispanic Black Americans have the highest incidence of stroke, heart disease, and hypertension compared to all other racial groups, and fall just behind Native Americans regarding adverse childhood experiences, which are strongly associated with adult chronic diseases and mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and substance use and abuse.

Black, Latino, and Native American communities sit at or near the top of the starkest health indicators. Currently, Black Americans experience fentanyl overdose more than 1.5 times the rate of other groups,

In the early ‘80s, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s rap standard, “The Message,” was co-written with Melle Mel as a response to the 1980 New York City transit strike. But it also speaks to anxiety while living in a marginalized community. Any true hip hop head knows the chorus: 

Don’t push me ‘cause I’m close to the edge, 

I’m tryin’ not to lose my head, 

It’s like a jungle sometimes, 

It makes me wonder how I keep from goin’ under. 

More recently, in 2021, Logic’s “1-800-273-8255,” a song titled after the former phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, was associated with a 27% increase in calls to the hotline in an interrupted time series analysis published in the British Medical Journal.  

Amidst escalating assaults on medical research and the public health system by the current presidential administration, the opportunities for young people of color to access necessary mental health and well-being care are quickly diminishing. Project 2025, a policy blueprint disseminated by the Heritage Foundation in advance of last year’s election cycle, provided a roadmap for the White House and a single-party-controlled Congress to push cuts to Medicaid and bolster restrictions on reproductive healthcare access, substance use counseling and treatment, as well as mental health services.

But hip hop music, born from the harsh experiences of Black and Brown communities in the Bronx, has evolved into a powerful tool for promoting wellness and community empowerment, particularly for traditionally marginalized communities facing barriers to traditional mental healthcare.

In 2006, beatbox pioneer Doug E. Fresh and neurologist Dr. Olajide Williams began leveraging the elements of hip hop to address stroke symptom knowledge and the importance of calling 911. The “Stroke Ain’t No Joke” initiative led to the co-founding of Hip Hop Public Health (HHPH), an award-winning nonprofit that uses hip hop to build health literacy and inspire behavior change among youth. 

Using a scientific research-based framework, the program leverages music and culture as responses to pathological conditions afflicting Black and Brown communities, such as stroke, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, dementia, overconsumption of sugar, oral health, and the socio-emotional well-being of children.

The organization’s health literacy goals are achieved through three youth-focused vehicles: multimedia content and curriculum development, a “Health MC (Master of Classroom)” ambassador program, and a “Moving the Needle” event experience where music, health, and storytelling are woven together to create a compelling educational mosaic.

Hip hop can increase physical activity through dance, reduce stress through expression and catharsis, foster social bonds and connections that reduce isolation, unite different cultures, and promote greater awareness of critical topics.

While unraveling the science behind these mechanisms is important, leveraging music’s emotionally therapeutic effects more intentionally within mental health systems of care may very well be a cost-effective, non-pharmacological approach for reducing anxiety and depression. A sonata does not need words to make one feel calm. A hip hop beat does not need an MC to excite us, and when that MC steps into the beat, the visual imagery created by his or her lyrics can transform a person’s inner landscape from despair to joy.

Rap is (still) the Black CNN, but now it needs to be our surgeon general and therapist for the artists who perform it and the listeners who consume it. 

Chuck D, the legendary founding  MC of Public Enemy is a Grammy Award winner and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Dr. Olajide Williams is a Professor of Neurology at Columbia University and co-founder of Hip Hop Public Health. Jimmie Briggs is an award-winning journalist and lecturer based in Baltimore, Maryland.

The post World Mental Health Day: Hip hop culture can be a catharsis in a world of chaos appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.