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Since its inception, Hip-Hop has been a source of stress relief for both the artists and the listener. Recently, a pair of scientists at Cambridge University in England launched a study to connect the link between Hip Hop music and mental illness treatment. “There is so much more to hip-hop than the public realizes,” Becky Inkster, a neuroscientist in the university’s department of psychiatry, told The Guardian. She and consultant psychiatrist Akeem Sule have teamed up to form Hip Hop Psych.

Via MTV:

Hip Hop Psych believes that the music can not only be studied, but also used as an actual treatment for patients dealing with psychiatric problems.

“One technique we want to explore is to get individuals who are seeking therapy to write out where they see themselves in a year or two and to use rap lyrics to outline their future histories,” she added. “Many key rappers and hip-hop artists come from deprived urban areas which are often hotbeds for problems such as drug abuse, domestic violence and poverty, which are in turn linked to increased occurrences of psychiatric illnesses. These problems are rooted in their language and in their songs.”

“Hip-hop in general, and rap in particular, often carry messages that are much more complex than is generally appreciated,” added Inkster. “That makes it an ideal medium for helping individuals understand their psychological problems and for finding ways to deal with them.”