News: Dr. Rani Whitfield Of Hip Hop

Rap's main component, music, has done much to create an undivided nation regardless of color, religion, background or profession. And Rani G. Whitfield M.D., a board certified family physician, is a pioneering participant in that regard.

A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Dr. Whitfield earned his undergraduate degree while attending Southern University. From there, he moved on to complete a sports medicine fellowship at Ohio State University and ultimately finished up his family practice in Dayton.

Upon moving back home, he became active in the community, mostly offering his services to local schools. As the team doctor at all-black Baton Rouge High, he built a solid rapport with the students. Currently in the midst of developing the Hip Hop Healthy Coalition, he plans to merge his three favorite pastimes: music, medicine and sports for the good of the community.

Dr. Whitfield calls his most crowning achievement his sixteen month old daughter, Raina. "That's it," he says. "When it's all said and done. my goal in life is to never neglect her and always make sure I take care and do for her."

Kam Williams: You're known as "Tha Hip-Hop Doc." How'd you get such a colorful nickname?

Rani Whitfield: The name was given to me by the kids at the local high school I work with here in Baton Rouge. While riding in my car to sporting events, I would play alternatives to their sometimes "hard on the ears" music, and they began to really enjoy my music. It became a challenge as I would play old school hip-hop that was clean, but creative like Run DMC's "King of Rock" or the Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight". Sometimes they enjoyed it, sometimes they didn't, but it would bring about discussion, dialogue, and a rapport.

KW: How were you able to develop that rapport with the Hip-Hop Generation?

RW: By being accessible to my students and having a true and sincere love of hip-hop music. Young people only respond when they feel that you are sincere and actually care about them. To be easily accessible to young people makes a big difference. Even when I lecture at places away from my hometown, I think the young people can tell that I want to be there and I give my all to them.

KW: Does that lead to criticism from your colleagues, the way that Professor Cornel West took some heat, and eventually left Harvard for Princeton after making a rap CD?

RW: It has to a certain degree, but I can't let that stop me. You can always find something wrong with an approach to reaching young people. To be totally honest, I could care less if it was classical music, country music, house music, etcera. As long as it grasps the attention of these young people and educates them, I'm all for it.

KW: Have you ever been to Princeton, which is where I live?

RW: I have not, but I would love to.Send a brother a ticket. [Laughs]

KW: Why do you care about the kids, when so many people easily dismiss youngsters who embrace the gangsta' rap lifestyle, and its seeming celebration of materialism, violence, misogyny and womanizing.

RW: Well, it may sound corny and it is a bit overused, but the children are the future. I have a 19-month-old daughter and I want her to grow up in a better world. In order to do that, I have to understand this world and what's going on around her. I will do whatever it takes to have a positive influence on young people. I also see the innocence, creativity, and energy in young adults and the need for structure in their lives. The gangsta rap, materialism, violence, misogyny, and womanizing is what is produced and played, so that's what they are conditioned to listen to and learn. I feel as if it's my responsibility to bring a more positive spin to hip-hop with out jeopardizing its creativity and international appeal. If we continue to allow certain types of hip-hop music to define this generation, it will always be negative.

KW: How bad is the AIDS crisis in Baton Rouge? Is it hitting the black community there worse than the rest of the country?

RW: The HIV/AIDS epidemic hits very close to home as the Southern states have the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the country. Baton Rouge, my birthplace, has had the highest HIV/AIDS diagnosis rate in the state of Louisiana the last five years. Baton Rouge also suffers from the sixth highest AIDS case rate in the nation compared to New Orleans, which has the seventh highest rate. Hurricane Katrina placed a tremendous burden on the HIV/AIDS population throughout the New Orleans and Baton Rouge regions. Many HIV/AIDS residents, primarily African-American, displaced by the storm, have attempted to return home only to find the necessities of housing, employment, and healthcare unstable and fragmented. Statistics can be skewed and as a state we do a pretty good job when it comes to reporting. There are also campaigns, like the one designed by Mayor Kip Holden, the first African-American Mayor President in the history of Baton Rouge, to increase education and raise awareness about this dreaded disease. I serve on his HIV/AIDS task force, and one of our goals is to increase testing among African-Americans. We African-Americans are being hit hard in the state and the city, and something must be done immediately.

KW: Why do you think the HIV infection rate is rising among blacks while declining among the rest of the U.S. population?

RW: There seems to be a sense of denial in the African American community.

We survived slavery, Willie Lynch, Jim Crow, and the civil rights movement, and now we are faced with one of the most devastating diseases in the history of man. Although HIV is preventable if behaviors are changed, and there is increased awareness, we, as a community, a nation, have decided to ignore this illness. If someone is infected, they are gay, dirty, substance abusers, or promiscuous. But what about the innocent child who is infected by his mother while resting in her womb? Or the unsuspecting wife whose husband has decided to have casual relationships with men and/or women and brings the virus into his own home? Our inability to feel comfortable discussing HIV has led to the spread of this virus in all facets of our community. Church leaders, politicians, and community leaders must stand up and speak out against HIV. Until we can discuss this disease comfortably at the dinner table, churches, barber shops, and schools, the problem will continue.

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