Mental Health in Hip Hop

   Mental illness is no stranger when it comes to Hip-Hop. Many of our favorite rapper have been open about mental illness, or rapped about how they cope.

From Geto Boys’ “Mind Playing Tricks On Me” to DMX’s “Slippin,” mental health has been one of the most discussed and controversial issues in Hip-Hop. High profile artists like Eminem and Kanye West have used their depression and anxiety to give us some of what is considered their best work but they aren’t the only ones struggling or constantly learning how to cope.

We’ve seen rappers like Lil Boosie and Gucci Mane teeter along the lines of insanity to point where jail time changed and might have saved their lives.

The mental health discussion recently skyrocketed after Kid Cudi revealed that he was taking a break and checking himself into rehab to get well after having “suicidal urges.” The move and announcement sparked the #YouGoodMan hashtag where numerous Black men and other people close to the Hip-Hop lifestyle came out in support of Cudi and other suffering from mental illness.

Lil Wayne even recently revealed a suicide attempt on his guest verse from Solange‘s song “Mad.”This episode I will be exploring how the hypermasculine culture of hip hop can leads artist to see mental illness as weak and how it reflect black culture’s point of view of mental health in general.