“There are many rewards that can be garnered through sharing our cultural reflexivity, honoring the voices of the people we serve, involving ourselves in honest and open cultural dialogue, and delving into uncomfortable topics involving race, class, power, and privilege. Hip Hop provides a funky interstellar vessel within which discourse can unfold. As a healthcare provider who utilizes the creative forces of Hip Hop as therapy, I feel the weight and responsibility of this task.”
Exploring the Discourse in Hip Hop and Implications for Music Therapy Practice
Music Therapy Perspectives, Volume 34, Issue 2, 2016, Pages 138–146,
Abstract The purpose of this article is to explore the discourse of Hip Hop Culture within the context of music therapy. Spellings and definitions of Hip Hop, as proposed by KRS-One (2009), will be provided and then extrapolated in relation to various topics in music therapy, such as treatment planning and theoretical perspective. The position of this paper is that music therapists must adopt reflexive positions on issues such as the cultural appropriation of Hip Hop’s artistic elements and the manifestation of power and privilege within its musical and therapeutic relationships. Hip Hop offers a multidimensional theoretical perspective for music therapy theory that views the ability of its artistic elements to transform and produce Spirit, enabling individuals and communities to move from a location of marginalization to that of an empowered, collective voice.
Hip Hop therapy: the primacy of reflexivity and cultural dialogue
Oxford University Press Blog
The rise of Hip Hop as a medium for health, activism, and spirituality within various therapeutic disciplines signals the obvious: Hip Hop is not mere entertainment or a specific genre of music geared towards one particular demographic…
Hear Our Voices: A Music Therapy Songwriting Program and the Message of the Little Saints
Co-Author with Scott MacDonald
Chapter 9, Therapeutic Uses of Rap and Hip-Hop, Edited by Susan Hadley and George Yancy