Album Notes

Dr. Clarke was asked by The National Psoriasis Foundation to tackle the issue of Psoriasis with a Health Hop song. He wrote, produced and performed the “Psoriasis Rap” to present the facts about psoriasis and highlight that it is a non-contagious and controllable medical issue. People with psoriaisis are encouraged to seek regular treatment with a dermatologist.

On May 2, 2010, Dr. Clarke debuted the “Psoriasis Rap” with a live performance at the “Walk to Cure Psoriasis - New York”, sponsored by the National Psoriasis Foundation at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. Later that week, he was featured on Good Morning America Health, where he discussed the topic of psoriasis and again performed the song live. See interview at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvYjHmQFS3s

Dr. Clarke described the song as follows:
“I wanted to capture the essence of real hip-hop but in the tradition of Health Hop, where you learn valuable information but at the same time you can appreciate the artistic qualities of the song and enjoy it as you would any other record. I tried to bring a funky beat to make heads nod. I love the acoustic sound so I incorporated the tenor sax, piano, and strings with the hard percussion to give it that feel. I remember when I was first asked to address the issue of psoriasis I joked that it definitely will not be easy to find words that rhyme with psoriasis. But this is what I love about the challenges of Health Hop and making information on health topics interesting and cool. For example, if you analyze the opening lines to this song you will see that I went in deep with lots of word play, metaphor, and polysyllabic rhymes to illustrate that rhyming about psoriasis can be done in a clever way.”