Mental Health - South London Rapper succesfully raises awareness on World Mental Health Day with music video trailer in collaboration with Couture Hat Milliner Philip Treacy OBE
South London born, and Croydon based rapper COCO 7, has returned to music with a hyper funky 90’s vibe tribute to the great fashion editor and stylist, Isabella Blow a decade after her tragic battle with depression. Produced by rising star ‘Michelin Shin’ - the hip hop/ dance track advocates the on-going conversation concerning mental health and contributes to an important campaign in eradicating the prejudices that people have about mental health and its many implications.
Having worked across fashion and music COCO 7 has found that the influence of music and fashion within the UK has a lot more work to do - when looking at the well-being of those who make it happen. Supported by hat designer Philip Treacy OBE, COCO 7 was gifted with an archived hat from the couture collection for the music video trailer, dedicated to his muse - Isabella Blow. Link Up TV premiered the trailer which gained over 2.8K views in less than 24hrs on World Mental Health Day, followed by Hip Hop US heavy weight rapper, legend and creative power-house Missy Elliott liking the London Born rappers tweet!
With the likes of James Arthur, Stormzy, Jamal Edwards and Sinead O’connor all publicly disclosing their mental health battles Coco 7 started the ‘Get Your #MindRight (MR)’ and ‘Get Your #MindRightSociety (MRS)’ campaign to raise awareness of the rising number of mental health disorders and cases within the creative community. Endorsed by CEO Lynette Charles at Mind, Haringey - proceeds from MR and MRS t-shirts will be donated to the charity that supports those suffering with mental health illnesses on the ground to access professional and confidential support. Coco 7 firmly believes that "it's not what goes on your head, but what goes on inside your head which counts - which is reference to the iconic photo taken of her in the "Big Bad Philip Treacy Hat" as sang in her lyrics!
Following the announcement that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry reveal £2m funding to heal the nation's mental health, COCO 7 wrote a letter to the foundation telling them about her "it's okay not to be okay" campaign as well as her concern that creatives that freelance do not have a fixed place of work and therefore are just as vulnerable if not even more so than those within the workplace!
Isabella Blow
- Pre-order single 16/10/2017
- Single release date - 1st December 2017
EXTRACT FROM COCO 7 LETTER TO ROYAL FOUNDATION (Yet to receive a response)
Today - I ask you to WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE ☕️ What you are about to witness was not purely created for entertainment value - it supports a valuable message and addresses the fact that mental health seems to be increasing amongst many of those in the creative community / industry... but why!?... I don't have all the answers and I am but one woman who has decided to share my truth through audio and visual....This body of work is a few seconds of creativity but behind the creativity is a story of perseverance, hard-work, Self-doubt vs. self-belief, pleasure vs pain, financial struggle, depression and anxiety and an all round emotional roller coaster in the name of creativity ~ In the famous words of Isabella Blow: "Its about Emotions...Its about LOVE so why not put our HEADSTOGETHER for real and dedicate financial and emotional support to those individuals who struggle to find the help they need whilst on their creative journey! After all they are potentially an invaluable asset to the British economy!