You’ve got to be on your toes with the trendiest techniques if you want
to reach the youth of America. Raising awareness about HIV among the
MySpace set takes video games, celebrities—and music. Rani Whitfield,
the 38-year-old African-American physician known as the Hip Hop Doc,
believes that hip hop in particular is a powerful way to reach a
generation at serious risk. Since 2000, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
native has been using the music—not the hip hop with misogynist lyrics
and materialist attitudes, he says, but the socially conscious stuff—to
grab the attention of young African Americans and relay pressing health
information about HIV, obesity, substance abuse and hepatitis C. He
gets urban radio listeners pumped up about their health and visits
Baton Rouge prisons every day. He has also testified before Congress to
help get more AIDS money for Louisiana, appeared on BET’s 106 & Park and toured the country with Gil Robertson to promote Robertson’s HIV anthology, Not In My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community.
Kellee Terrell: How did you become the Hip Hop Doc?
Rani
Whitfield: It was a term of endearment that was bestowed upon me by the
youth. I am a team physician for schools here in Baton Rouge. On the
way to games after school, I would drive some of the kids when there
wasn’t room on the bus. Some of them thought I was cool because I am
young—or because I have an affinity for certain hip hop music. I’m not
talking about the degrading music they wanted to hear or were used to,
but old-school artists like Run DMC, Kool Moe Dee or LL Cool J. Or more
contemporary rappers like Common, Kanye West and Talib Kweli. Some of
the kids liked my music and some didn’t, but I realized that they were
comfortable around me and would open up about what was going on in
their lives. After a while, the kids just started calling me the Hip
Hop Doc. The name stuck and I thought to myself, “How can I use this to
really teach them something?”
Terrell: What did you decide to do?
Whitfield:
I started doing health-related radio commercials on local urban radio.
I would incorporate urban beats while rapping jingles* about condoms
and getting tested. Then in 2006, I started my Hip Hop Healthy Coalition, which sends me to schools to give presentations.
My
presentations start off with a two-minute hip hop song out on the
stage. Then I show them pictures of me and some big people, such as
talk show host Tavis Smiley, Olympian Jackie Joyner Kersee and rap star
Ludacris—all for shock value, of course. It gives me that street
credibility. Then I yell to the crowd, “When I say hip hop, you say
healthy!” The kids are pumped up and ready for my PowerPoint
presentation.
I have even been in the churches, talking in the
pulpit about the importance of condom use, getting tested, substance
abuse—you name it.
Terrell: Why do you think HIV rates are rising in the black community?
Whitfield:
Denial. Too many people still think this is a gay white man’s disease.
They don’t think it can happen to them. Gil and I went on tour to
colleges to talk about his book. In one racially mixed class, it took
the African-American students half an hour to admit that they had some
risk factors. We couldn’t believe it.
Terrell: How bad is the HIV epidemic in Baton Rouge?
Whitfield:
Looking at the 2005 stats, we were ranked sixth nationally. But because
of Hurricane Katrina, Baton Rouge has inherited so many people from New
Orleans that the numbers have been skewed. And I have seen a huge rise
in heroin use [a contributor to HIV infection] since Katrina.
Terrell: Do you believe that hip hop is the best way to reach our youth?
Whitfield:
It’s not the best way, I won’t lie. There are some things about rap
that I do not like—especially the videos with the [fancy] cars, the
half-naked women and all the jewelry. But those are the newer additions
to the culture. When hip hop first came out in 1973 in the Bronx, it
was about stopping the violence and teaching the community. I am trying
to focus on its positivity. But I do believe that these additions to
hip hop are [emblems] of a subculture of people who I want to reach.
I
work in the prisons and in an all-black high school, so a majority of
these kids have a relationship with hip hop culture on multiple levels.
So, let me be involved to the point where I can influence them. There
is something powerful about hip hop—I mean Bill Clinton said “for
shizzle.” And last year, Barack Obama teamed up with Ludacris for World AIDS Day 2006. These politicians understand its power. There just isn’t enough of a hip-hop and health presence.
I
will say that there’s something about me being accessible to the
students that also makes a difference. They see me taking time out of
my day, coming to them—they can see me and I am persistent and a
constant in these kids’ lives.
Terrell: What kind of response have you gotten from the older generation?
Whitfield:
One of my biggest accomplishments was winning the support of an older
jazz musician from Chicago. He told me, “You converted me! I think rap
is terrible. But after listening to you talk today and seeing how you
used it, I will be more willing to listen to what my grandson has to
say—and be a little bit more understanding of the genre.” I said,
“That’s all I want you to do. I don’t want you to go out and buy a
hundred CDs, but I do want you to able appreciate it because there are
some artists out there that have some positive things to say.”
Terrell: Why is HIV such an important issue to you?
Whitfield:
There are more than a million Americans infected with HIV and half of
those look like me. There are so many things that are preventable, and
so many of us are dying. This is the first generation of young people
who are actually going to experience a decrease in life expectancy due
to poor choices. We have to take control of our lives and our health.
* Lyrics from “Oh No,” by the Hip Hop Doc
“Oh no, it just can’t be I'm waiting on my test results for HIV It really wasn’t serious, a one night stand But now I'm in the doctor’s office with a Bible in my hand. Praying: Dear God, don’t let this be How could I be infected with HIV? The cutie that I met was in tip-top shape But now they tell me HIV won’t discriminate...”
