Hip-hop 'can help people with mental health issues'

Two scientists in the UK are using rap lyrics to treat depression, addiction and bi-polar disorder, BBC.co.uk reports.

"Hip Hop Psych is opening up a new culture which branches across medicine and hip-hop with amazing responses," neuroscientist Dr Becky Inkster from Cambridge University tells Newsbeat.

"I've always been a huge fan of hip-hop, I didn't even live in a community where it was popular.

"My first album was Basement Flavor featuring MC Lyte."

She's a big fan and so's her colleague.

"I've been listening to hip-hop since its inception," says consultant psychiatrist Dr Akeem Sule, who usually works at South Essex Partnership NHS Trust but is also a tutor and honorary visiting research associate at Cambridge University's department of psychiatry.

"I wanted to be a rapper, but my parents wanted me to do psychiatry. I'm from Nigeria. You did what your parents said."

He says academics often "jump on the bandwagon" but don't understand the culture.

Together they're using hits from the likes of J Cole and Professor Green to get people with mental health problems to open up.

J Cole's been part of online magazine Soul Culture's mental health campaign #OKNotToBeOK.

"When you listen to the album you'll notice how it flows from darkness to light, from hell to heaven, depression to happiness," J Cole said ahead of the release of his second album Born Sinner in June 2013.

"It literally was a way out… I'm writing my way out of a negative place, a darker place."

Ice and Stickz are part of Key Changes, a charity which uses hip-hop and other urban music styles to help young people in hospital and the community to express their thoughts and feelings through lyrics and music.

"We've used this as a passion and a vehicle to connect with young people," says Dr Inkster.

"It's hard to make contact with them and hard to transfer the knowledge but using hip-hop means they discuss things and they flow.

"For instance, we can be having a conversation about who's better - Nas, Biggie or Tupac - and that can really open up the conversation."

But she's quick to point out that it's not just for young people.

"A high ranked professor who doesn't like hip-hop saw what we do and he says he went home and talked to his son about Stan by Eminem. It changed the way he talked to his son and he connected with him."

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