Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Happy to help
Album tackling male mental health stigma
A Coatbridge rapper is using the power of song to help tackle the stigma surrounding men’s mental health.
Danny “Wee D” Quinn has unveiled a new album entitled What Is Happiness? which merges spoken-word poetry with skits and music to take the listener “through a journey of someone experiencing mental health issues”.
The 16- track record is the second album Danny has released through his partnership with Powercut Productions, one of Scotland’s premier hip hop record labels, and came together after the 28-yearold researched the impact mental health problems have on men across the country.
Danny, from Townhead, told the Advertiser: “I first became aware of the media attention given to men’s mental health in May last year through my family and friends talking about it and was impacted by the stigma that seemed to surround the issue.
“The more I looked into it, the more interested I became and I sat down with Powercut Productions and spoke about doing an album with a mental health theme.
“I then found out about interesting – but horrific – figures that showed more males under 45 die through mental health problems than from cancer, lung disease and car crashes; it’s the biggest killer out there.
“There aren’t any common denominators either; men affected can live in rural areas or big cities and earn a lot of money or very little.
“I wanted to do my bit to get more people talking about the issue and touch on it creatively through the new album.”
The former St Ambrose High pupil’s creative juices then began flowing as the new album came together.
He explained: “I mixed spoken-word poetry with commercial hip hop and linked each track to the story of someone who doesn’t have mental health issues but goes through testing times in his life, like a breakup and job loss, and how this affects his character. I worked on what the story was going to be and prepared storyboards and the main points we could put across on the album.
“It’s about the impact mental health has on lives so it was a very different, but rewarding, writing process for me.
“The album has only been out for a month and because it’s quite a long one, reviews have been trickling in, but people seem to like it.
“The feedback I’ve had so far has been really good; people are saying it spoke to them on a deep level, which is something I was hoping for. It’s overwhelming to hear comments like that and people seem to genuinely like the record.
“It also works as a nice follow-up to my previous album with Powercut Productions, Shift of Modern Culture, which focused on the impact of technology and isolation.”
Danny added: “I’d like to thank Steg G, who runs Powercut Productions, for Danny wrote the 16-track album producing the entirety of the album. I consider him a joint partner in its release.
“And a big thanks also goes to my partner Jenna Adair who helped me with the research and hand-drew the album artwork with the intent of capturing what mental health issues feel like in a single visual.”
What Is Happiness? is available to buy from www.powercutproductions.co.uk, @OfficialWee_D on Twitter, or via Spotify, iTunes and Tidal.