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With depression, suffering from the mood disorder in the “clinical” sense is more mentally debilitating and can leave others around the person suffering unable to identify with, or relate to, certain behaviors. “When people are clinically depressed, one episode can be as long as six months,” Molock explains.  “You may not be down every day but you’re not yourself. [Your] range of emotional reaction is really stunted. It’s hard to feel joy, it’s hard to laugh. You may not be actively suicidal, but you don’t care either. You’re not motivated to live, you can’t plan ahead.

“When people have not experienced that level of depression, they don’t understand. When you’re clinically depressed and you break up with a partner it’s devastating, It’s really hard for other people to get what that feels like. They don’t get that you’re so tired that you can’t get out of bed.”

 

          “Men in general don’t seek health treatment. – Dr. Shirley Moclock”

 

Lighty, died in August 2012. He reportedly shot himself outside of his Bronx apartment after an argument with ex-wife, Veronica. For a successful executive who seemed at the top of his game, cracks in his personal life—like the break up of his marriage, and financial issues—could have contributed to the Bronx native’s tragic end. His death was mourned by fans, friends, and colleagues alike, and may have inadvertently acted as a blueprint for others suffering internally. “One of things that we worry about when someone well known commits suicide [is] when it’s romanticized. You get copy cats,” Molock adds.

Despite the death of other prominent  music figures like former Def Jam executive Shakir Stewart (who died in 2008 of  a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the bathroom of his Georgia home), Hip-Hop hasn’t exactly brought up any solutions to the mental health issue. As has always been the way of the culture, rap music can be so intimate in its content that lyrics sometimes mirror a diary entry, and if suicidal thoughts creep in, they tend to spill out onto records. Notorious B.I.G., Tech N9ne and Kanye West are among some of the MCs who have musically tackled the issue.

During the Los Angeles screening of his Runaway film in 201o, West spoke candidly to the audience about how the pressures of fame, and the death of his mother made for a cocktail of depression and suicidal thoughts. In the end it was West’s ego—the very thing that has been the source of his public scrutiny and musical genius—that helped push him though. Realizing his influence and large fan base turned a painful situation into a moment of empowerment. “There’s so many people that will never get the chance to have their voice heard, I do it for them,” he said at the event.

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