How are tortured African American Artists expressing their mental health through music?

 Aaliyah Hall

Mixtape Project

24 April 2023

How are tortured African American Artists expressing their mental health through music?

First imma gonna start off with African American men. In society today, and also back then, it was seen that black men had to be strong and could never really be vulnerable and express weakness. In society today when black men seem to show any sort of vulnerability or emotion in public, they become memes. People see their pain as a joke. For example, with Will Smith, although we may not know what exactly was happening in his life outside of the public view, he cried at the Oscars after his altercation on stage with Chris Rock, and he literally became a meme. People see African American men’s pain as a platform for mockery, and I feel like its easier for them to express themselves through their music. Through music, I feel like it makes their pain more relatable to others,  and it’s not as public as crying in front of millions of people. Also, some men may not be comfortable expressing emotion in front of others, so they sort of speak through their music. All of my songs will represent more along the lines of “haunted African American artists', or tortured artists, that are expressing their mental health. Now when it comes to black women, if we show any type of emotion we are seen as angry or as if we are overreacting, and we are stereotyped by society. So, I feel like African American women also use music as an outlet for their mental health as well. I feel like music is a safe outlet for African Americans, which is seen even dating back to slavery. Whenever African Americans were working the fields, they would make hymns or gospels and sing songs to help each other get through the work. They used music as a positive outlet in their lives, where it seemed like all hope was lost. The main reason why I wanted to do my project on this topic, is because I do not feel like black mental health is talked about enough. I also feel like African American persons do not have a safe outlet to express their feelings, without them being stereotyped or ridiculed, and it is not fair. It feels like black people go through so much, and we just have to accept that this is how it is, and that we are a part of a system that will never love us, or care for us and put forth the effort, time, and hardships that African Americans experienced.

My mixtape targets how African American artists use their haunted pasts, whether it’s from trauma they experienced growing up at home, trauma in today's society, and racial injustice as being a black man or woman growing up in America. Also, I would like to point out how African American artists are subprime, because of the record labels monetizing off of their trauma. The songs in my mixtape detail suicide, drug abuse, paranoia, schizophrenia, depression, alcoholism, manic depression, anxiety, stress,  and ptsd.

The late Prodigy once said, “hip hop is our therapy,” but the conversation around mental health is constantly continuing to evolve beyond just making music. The first song on my mixtape is Mind of a Lunatic, by the Geto Boys. This song illustrates the actuality of ptsd that happens within the black community. This song is a part of an album that includes a multitude of other artists on each song, who share their own stories about paranoia, schizophrenia, and depression. This leads me to the next song on my mixtape called City Under Siege, by the Geto Boys, which includes that same theme. The next song on my mixtape is Suicidal Thoughts, by the Notorious BIG. This song was seen by many as a suicide note written by Biggie. This contributes strongly to how African American men do not really express emotions in public, because it was said that Biggie never really showed any suicidal tendencies to the media or public, but reveals a sort of tell all on this song. The next song on my mixtape is So Many Tears, by Tupac. This song plays into anxiety and stress, as Tupac wrote this song to express how he was feeling awaiting his prison sentence. The next song on my mixtape is A Tribe Called Quest, by Faith Evans and Consequences, “Stressed Out,” which plays into stress and anxiety, but it also brings forth a new genre of a more soft rap, that’s less violent or tough. The next song on my mixtape is Slippin, by DMX. With this song, DMX was known to have a long struggle with his drug addiction and just his overall mental health in general. In this song, he expresses a clearview on how he looks back on the traumatic events he experienced in his life, and how those events made him into the man that he became. The next song on my mixtape is I Feel Like Dying, by Lil Wayne. This song details his drug abuse, and his overall mental health journey, and how this played into his career as a rapper. I also feel like he is another example of someone who we do not really see being emotional in the media or to the public, so he expresses through music, and Lil Wayne has been in the industry for a long time. The next song on my mixtape is U, by Kendrick Lamar. This song details his depression, suicidal thoughts, and his survivor’s guilt. Survivor’s guilt is not really something that I discussed as a part of “tortured artists” mental health, but he watched one of his closests friends die because of violence in his surroundings, and he thinks back to how that could have been him, and he uses that still to continue in the industry and to make sure that he doesn’t take his life for granted. Kendrick uses his trauma from that instance, and expresses through music. This also correlates to the next song on my playlist which is Alright, by Kendrick Lamar. The song as a whole covers a lot of problems in today's society for African Americans, not just mental health, but Kendrick does include a part of the song to his friend that he watched die, and how he uses that trauma now to try to do better so other people won’t have to experience what he went through with losing his friend, because of situational violence. The next song on my mixtape is Wounds, by Kid Cudi. This song details the artist’s struggle with prescribed medicine, depression, suicidal tendencies, and anxiety. He uses wounds as a correlation to an artist’s struggle with their mental health. In a sense the wounds you gain, stay with you ever. There are memories and trauma in your wounds. The next song on my mixtape is Nightmares, by Clipse and Blial. This song details the lasting effects or the psychological toil that comes with drug abuse. It also describes the ptsd of being involved with drugs, hallucinations, and even nightmares because of the trauma. The next song on my mixtape is Losing My Mind, by Pharaohe Monche and Denaun Porter. This song is the artists’ attempt to make an addition to the circling conversation on the need for therapy or some kind of support for the mental health of the African American community. This song goes through the deepest parts of depression, and his own internal struggle with mental illness. The last song on my mixtape is Stress, by Organized Konfusion. This song changes the narrative on intertwining mental health and hip hop. First imma gonna start off with African American men. In society today, and also back then, it was seen that black men had to be strong and could never really be vulnerable and express weakness. In society today when black men seem to show any sort of vulnerability or emotion in public, they become memes. People see their pain as a joke. For example, with Will Smith, although we may not know what exactly was happening in his life outside of the public view, he cried at the Oscars after his altercation on stage with Chris Rock, and he literally became a meme. People see African American men’s pain as a platform for mockery, and I feel like its easier for them to express themselves through their music. Through music, I feel like it makes their pain more relatable to others,  and it’s not as public as crying in front of millions of people. Also, some men may not be comfortable expressing emotion in front of others, so they sort of speak through their music. All of my songs will represent more along the lines of “haunted African American artists', or tortured artists, that are expressing their mental health. Now when it comes to black women, if we show any type of emotion we are seen as angry or as if we are overreacting, and we are stereotyped by society. So, I feel like African American women also use music as an outlet for their mental health as well. I feel like music is a safe outlet for African Americans, which is seen even dating back to slavery. Whenever African Americans were working the fields, they would make hymns or gospels and sing songs to help each other get through the work. They used music as a positive outlet in their lives, where it seemed like all hope was lost. The main reason why I wanted to do my project on this topic, is because I do not feel like black mental health is talked about enough. I also feel like African American persons do not have a safe outlet to express their feelings, without them being stereotyped or ridiculed, and it is not fair. It feels like black people go through so much, and we just have to except that this is how it is, and that we are apart of a system that will never love us, or care for us and put forth the effort, time, and hardships that African Americans experience, back to us, unlike our white counterparts.