Music therapy has been around for more than fifty years. It has been widely used as a treatment to help patients soothe their physical and mental pain through the emotional engagement with music. It is through music that patients find themselves in a composed manner, extract negative thoughts, and strengthen themselves in other aspects in life. A plethora of researches on music therapy highlights the success of the health treatment; its effectiveness has greatly impacted patients’ lives with social development and psychological stability.
Hip-Hop Therapy, however, is a new concept. Similar to the conventional music therapy, hip-hop therapy focuses on healing souls and creating emotional supports for people in need. In contrast to the traditional music therapy which generally employs classical music or music with tranquil characteristics, hip-hop therapy promotes wellness through means of rap music. Since rap culture has been increasingly popular among youths’ community in the past decade, many hip-hop therapy programs have been established to assist young adults in the society.
ELEMENTary Hip-Hop Skool is a hip-hop therapy program launched in 2009 in Tucson, Arizona. Past volunteering experience with drug and gang prevention at a Tucson social services agency has allowed Usiel Barrios to acknowledge the impact of rap culture on people aging 12 to 24, and he wanted to use this influence to build up positive changes in youth community. The program was then created with an aim to empower young adults with critical leadership skills and inspire them to be engaged in the community for a good cause. Through rap music, people find themselves relief, relate themselves to the struggles, and find motivations for change.
As part of ELEMENTary Hip-Hop Skool program, Usiel Barrios and co-founder Spencer Brummer travelled to areas in Tucson where gang activities, alcohol consumption, and drug use are prevalent, and set up speakers, turntables and graffiti boards. This instantly drew great attention from people, as many young adults jammed in to express themselves through hip-hop. This was something new to them. In a neighborhood where chaos frequently took place, activities like this are rare. There were no resources for them to engage in something positive in the community. In these events, Usiel Barrios and Spencer Brummer reached out to people, introduced and analyzed the power of hip hop music, and related it back to community development. “It’s something positive for them to do on a Saturday,” said Usiel.
While developing the program, the founders faced many obstacles. Rap music and hip hop culture has been so widely associated with negative influences that many fail to comprehend this unique approach. They believe that rap culture is the root to young adults’ negative behaviors and contributes to the increasing rates in crimes and negative social aspects. What they usually ignore is the power of connecting hearts and enlightening minds of rap music that can incite new positive thoughts in youth community. With a little re-guiding, hip hop culture can be a foundation to great changes.
ELEMENTary Hip-Hop Skool is not the only hip-hop therapy programs. There are a myriad of outreach programs employing the popularity of rap music to inspire great minds, such as Hip Hop HEALS and the Hip Hop Therapy Project. Rap music is about to change the world.
jmm7346 says
This is a great blog in terms of pointing out one of the greatest gifts of not only hip hop music, but of all music in general. The healing power of music in terms of music therapy is one of the most interesting things I have studied. This only supports the importance of music and the arts not culturally, but also its importance in terms of their psychological power.
jpm5919 says
This is a wonderful example of what the blessed can do to give back to those in their less fortunate communities. The wonderful thing about a lot of modern rappers is the understanding and empathy they have for their “homies” and their “hoods”. This empathy will go a long way in helping make the hoods better, because there is no better teacher for kids to get out of a bad situation than those fortunate people who have done it personally. As Kendrick Lamar explains in “Black Boy Fly, “the chances of getting out of the hood are one in a million. I wasn’t jealous of their talents, I was scared they would be the last black boys to fly, out of Compton.”
Obviously the people who rise from the bottom are the most influential on the youth, so for them to give back and inspire faith in the kids is truly magical. It is a beautiful message from the human spirit.