Science and music seem to be a match made in heaven, according to a University of Cambridge academic.

Dr. Becky Inkster, a Cambridge neuroscientist, claims there is a potential benefit of hip-hop in the treatment of mental illness.  Along with University of Cambridge doctor Akeem Sule, ‘Hip-Hop Psych’ has been established, and the pair intends to fully explain its benefits at the university’s annual Festival of Ideas next week.  The duo hope that their project can help with  “demystifying mental illness through authentic beats and lyrics”.

Hip-hop lyrics are often infused with messages concerning addiction, poverty, destructive families, psychosis and personality disorders.  Dr Insker has said that these unexplored references “could be of enormous benefit to patients”. 

She herself grew up in the “golden era of hip-hop” and considers rappers, often from deprived backgrounds of drugs, violence and poverty, as crucial in understanding how people in similar situations can be helped. 

Dr. Inkster wants patients to “use rap lyrics to outline their future histories”, thereby using song-writing as well as the music itself to aid their recovery, combining listener with artist. 

Even the President of the United States, Barack Obama, has expressed his thoughts on the importance of hip-hop: “The thing…is it’s smart, it’s insightful.  The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable”.

The pair is keen to stress the hip-hop aspect of the project after the Guardian recently included lyrics from Pharrell Williams’ pop hit ‘Happy’ in their coverage of the project.

Dr Inkster claimed the project had been “misrepresented in terms of our hip-hop credibility”, writing that “while we appreciate the song Happy by Pharrell Williams, we do not use that song as an example as we feel it represents pop culture and we are keen to dissect hip-hop lyrics as we are incredibly passionate about hip-hop”.

She emphasised that artists who will be featured at their Festival of Ideas presentation will be drawn exclusively from the hip-hop world, such as “Tupac, Kendrick Lamar and J Cole … we love all kinds of hip-hop artists, not just commercially successful ones.”

This innovative method for dealing with mental illness, which will provide suffers of mental illness with “a sense of empowerment”, according to Dr Inkster, is to feature in the Festival of Ideas schedule on 20th October 2014, at the West Road Music Hall.