Why Hip Hop and Medicine ?
Dear hip hop head,
It might be strange to visualize sucha link but its there. Hip Hop has become the universal language for that which is cool, new, barrier breaking and global. Many of us have watched hip hop grow as we have been molded by it also. It has shaped our fashion, interactions, eating habits, sexual habits and views and more than anything they way we communicate with each other. And.... there enters medicine. I dont just mean the medicine we take, I also mean the medicine we create when we began to empower ourselves to heal ourselves. One of the biggest crimes of the 21st century is the issue of health disparity. A health disparity occurs when there are are differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the U.S.
Today one of those specific groups live in urban communities where access to medical care, health education, proper nutrition and access to healthy food are minimal at best. There must be investment in these communities. These lives matter and always have. So, here we are HeartBeats and Hip Hop, meeting the people where they are. Whether it be on your street corner, your party, your supermarket, your favorite art gallery, your school or your shelter... We are on the way. The only time you have access to gain emposwerement about your health should not be at your clinic visit , if you have health insurance. See y'all soon.
XOXO,
Dr. Khaalisha Ajala, MD, MBA aka DocBintu
Internal Medicine Physician
Founder and CEO of Heartbeats and Hip Hop, Inc
