Oya Gilbert Uses Hip-Hop to Educate Underserved Patients With Myeloma

Oya Gilbert, a 55-year-old living with multiple myeloma since 2017, uses hip-hop to engage the myeloma community and educate underserved populations about blood cancer. He discovered that combining music with advocacy creates a unique level of awareness and connection for patients, offering a fresh approach in a space where creative engagement is rare.

Gilbert’s approach involves producing music that reflects his experience with myeloma. Even impromptu raps have resonated widely, generating excitement and fostering a sense of community among patients. The use of hip-hop encourages patients to engage actively with their care, promoting awareness of the disease while making education more accessible and culturally relevant.

Transcript

Your foundation blends hip-hop creativity and advocacy. How does this approach resonate with people living with myeloma?

Well, so this is very new to this industry, which is why it seemed like it should have been there, but it hasn’t. What I have discovered is, especially in myeloma, I did a little small rap about myeloma with the International Myeloma Foundation. And it wasn’t something I was taking seriously. It was sort of an impromptu-type thing. However, when I do something, I do it with intention. So I went and wrote something real quick. We came down and filmed it, so it didn’t have the full production that I would have done sonically and everything. But when they posted it and I watched the reaction of not people that just look like me, but just the myeloma community in general, it was so overwhelming.

It made sense. They were like, “Oh, we got our own rap song now. That’s so dope.” And things of that sort. It creates a different level of engagement. It creates a different level of awareness. And so I think that’s the importance of understanding what hip-hop does and what our foundation does in the myeloma community. But not just myeloma, because our foundation is not just disease specific. I have myeloma, of course, but the foundation is trying to address a lot of issues that go along in BIPOC communities. So that’s what the foundation does in utilizing hip hop in the culture. So it’s not just about myeloma, but specifically, because I have it, we obviously lean toward it.

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