Olajide Williams is the founder and director of the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center at Harlem Hospital, a series of health awareness programs that use music to teach pre-adolescents about strokes. The center’s sponsors include GE, the New York City Council, and the National Stroke Association. Similar programs are being developed for obesity and cardiovascular health.
Mission: To reduce health care disparities through context-relevant, cost-effective, intergenerational educational interventions focused on disease prevention and health promotion.
To make sure that music is on point, Williams tapped two of hip-hop’s originators, Doug E. Fresh and MC Easy A.D. The artists help the center not only establish credibility among kids who eat-and-breathe hip-hop, but also with crafting beats and rhymes that rise above the standard fare of children’s music.
“New York is the birthplace of hip hop,” Easy A.D. says. “These kids know if they’re listening to real deal.”
A.D., one of the founding members of a 1980’s hip hop group, the Cold Crush Brothers, says he never thought he’d be dropping beats about the importance of exercise and diet, but health has always been a priority of his.
Hip hop legend Doug E Fresh is the spokesperson for the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center at Harlem Hospital Center. He uses his wit and mastermind behind beat making to create a difference.
To learn more about Hip Hop Public Health visit www.hiphoppublichealth.org.
