Hip-Hop heals
To ideologists and educators, Becky Inkster of the University of Cambridge, and Akeem Sule of the South Essex Partnership Trust, have come together to create Hip-Hop Psyche, a model and concept they will debut at the Festival of Ideas at the University of Cambridge next week, highlighted by the idea that Hip-Hop can serve as a source of healing for mentally ill people.
Inkster on the initiative:
There is so much more to hip-hop than the public realises. I grew up in the 90s during the golden era of hip-hop, when it exploded into mainstream culture. It is rich in references to psychiatric illnesses that have not been properly explored and which could be of enormous benefit to patients. We want to work with rappers, charities, medical groups and others to promote its real potential.
Well said. It is the belief of Inkster and Sule, as well as their supporters, that because a lot of the prominent narratives in Hip-Hop center around emanating from poverty, illness, neighborhoods dominated from violence and other shortcomings, patients are able to relate to the subject matter, and empathize with the sheer emotion being conveyed to them from guys like Tupac, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, who Inkster admits are some of her favorite artists.
Applaud them.
