Hip Hop Public Health, the New York City-based nonprofit striving to achieve health equity by harnessing the transformative power of music, art, and science, held its virtual Remixing Public Health Gala live on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, where over five hundred guests came together to celebrate the work they have been doing to inspire behavior change and improve health literacy for over fifteen years.
Attendees of the private event witnessed the premiere of “Let’s Talk About Salt” – a boldly youthful, creative, and educational animated music video PSA starring honoree, Grammy®-winning Cheryl “Salt” James.
Hip Hop Public Health was inspired to remix Salt-N-Pepa’s 1991 global hit, “Let’s Talk About Sex” which samples Staple Singers’ 1972 civil rights anthem, “I’ll Take You There” because it opened up conversations, influenced behavior change, and increased awareness about the AIDS pandemic at the time, saving millions of lives globally.
The nonprofit’s 2020 rendition, funded in part through the American Heart Association’s New York City Community Impact Grant, encourages hypertension prevention by teaching young people about healthy eating and salt consumption with a visually stimulating music video.
A multidisciplinary group of artists, doctors, public health experts, producers, and designers were engaged to create the song and animated music video which was developed by an all-women team of designers from Mylo the Cat and Cartuna.