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  • July 6, 2010
    EXAMINER.COM: "Emcee and Director of ‘The Revival’, Invincible Talks Why Go Indie"

    Excerpt:

    JT JOHNSON: How did you come to be a part of Can A Sista Rock A Mic?

    INVINCIBLE:  I first met Kimani about 10 years ago. There was a mutual friend of ours named Yejide the Night Queen, and she was throwing a women in hip hop event every month, and he came out to one of her events.

    Then about four years ago, my friend, Stacy Epps. came out and did Can A Sista Rock A Mic? and I came out and performed a song with her.

    So I always knew about the festival and, then, this year they asked me to be a feature at it, and I’m just honored to be part of this legacy of DC supporting women in hip hop, and bringing out of town artists to connect with the local DMV movement.

    READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT EXAMINER.COM

  • July 6, 2010
    AUTOSTRADDLE.COM: "There are many reasons to become a fan of Invincible."

    Excerpt:

    There are many reasons to become a fan of Invincible. For one, the girl’s got things to say – she’s an activist for social and political change, creating tracks touching on issues from the plight of the Palestinians to gentrification of Detroit. But she doesn’t just sing about change, she gets out into the community and creates it – an example being her ongoing work with the youth group Detroit Summer.

    Invincible’s talent is reflected in the company she keeps, having toured the globe as part of the We B-Girlz tour with renowned emcees like Stacey Epps and earning the acclaim from the biggest players in the Hip-Hop community.

    READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT AUTOSTRADDLE.COM

  • July 6, 2010
    SALON.COM: "'Ropes' wrestles with suicide in a nuanced and empathetic way"

    Excerpt:

    Invincible, a fiercely talented hip-hop emcee from Detroit, submitted a music video for her song "Ropes" to mtvU, the MTV channel that targets college students. If aired, it would be an especially prominent platform for any indie artist, especially one who -- as a gay Jewish woman from the Midwest -- eschews the stereotypes of her genre. Invincible was told that her video had a high likelihood of being accepted and was asked to send a reformatted version. She did -- at a cost of several hundred dollars. Just a couple weeks later, though, in mid-March, Invincible received an unusual email: MTV's content department officially approved the video for airing, but the standards department rejected it. She was advised that "Ropes" was "too problematic" with its "suicidal undertones."

    READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT SALON.COM

  • May 4, 2010
    WNYC's Soundcheck Dives into the Discussion of the Women in Hip-Hop Movement

    Female emcees, or "femcees," have always been a minority in hip-hop. But in this decade, they became almost an endangered species. The few women in the genre are not nearly as successful or engaged as rappers like Queen Latifah or Foxy Brown, who made inroads in the 1980s and '90s.

    To examine this question we're joined by Quentin B. Huff, who wrote a column about the issue for PopMatters.com; and Lah Tere, a member of the Bronx-based hip-hop group Rebel Diaz. She is also the founder of Mommas Hip Hop Kitchen, an annual all female hip hop showcase

  • May 4, 2010
    More Post-SXSW: Invincible intervewed by Studio SX 2010

    Invincible interviewed by Matt Sonzala, SXSW Music Festival staff.

  • April 24, 2010
    Pop Matters: "The Revival: A Declaration for Female Emcees"

    Cultural criticism magazine Pop Matters has published a piece by Quentin Huff on the prospects and conditions necessary for a resurgence in the women in Hip-Hop movement. The author uses Invincible's The Revival film as a jump off point for this discussion in his essay "The Revival: A Declaration for Female Emcees."

    Part one of this piece explores the history and social conditions surrounding the female emcee. Part two uses The Revival film as inspiration for a five-point strategy for the rising women in Hip-Hop movement.

    Check out the article: PART 1 | PART 2.

    Watch the original The Revival film.

    The Revival:SXSW, a sequel to the first film, coming soon from EMERGENCE.

  • April 24, 2010
    TheTop13.com: Invincible is #5 top female emcee of all time

    5. INVINCIBLE

    The mere existence of this relatively unknown Detroit MC flies in the face of nearly every stereotype in hip hop – a female MC, Jewish (though fiercely critical of Israel), white, and gay. Nevertheless, Invincible's highly political, multisyllabic lyrics and ferocious delivery make her a must for this Top 13. Though she's only released one album, when she raps on her fantastic ShapeShifters that she's "striving to be one of the best period / Not one of the best with breasts and a period," it's hard not to think her goal is within reach.

    CHECK OUT THE FULL TOP 13 LIST.

  • April 24, 2010
    EYE Weekly: "The inevitable rise of Invincible"

    Toronto's EYE Weekly interviewed Invincible when she was recently in town for Shell Toe Live.

    Rather than marketing yourself as a commodity, you’re using another model to get your music out. Are you inspiring other artists?
    Definitely. Aside from what I’m doing, I’m just building off what other people are already doing formally. In Detroit hip-hop, we pool our resources together. People barter beats for verses all the time; that’s a common practice that people don’t often speak about openly. But there’s a lot of cooperation and a lot of ways that people actually do counter the crabs-in-a-barrel mentality of the music industry. There’s a distinction between the music industry and the music community and to take that approach, that community-building approach within that musical realm, with EMERGENCE and what I’m doing — I do community organizing aside from my music — I definitely apply the same values and skills to bringing folks together on the music side.

    READ THE FULL INTERVIEW.

  • April 24, 2010
    More Post-SXSW

    Footage above from Invincible's performance at Monkey Wrech Infoshop during South By Southwest.

    Here's some more SXSW press and media coming out of EMERGENCE's presence at the festival last month:

    We helped organize and participated in a protest of the official presence of the Israeli Consulate at the festival. This protest action by the Austin Palestinian community, activist community, and international artists was in support of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel. The action was covered by Public Radio International's "The World." LISTEN HERE.

    NPR's "Studio 360" did a nice piece about the rising presence of women in Hip-Hop at SXSW. For this segment, Studio 360 caught up with Invincible following the EMERGENCE-presented "The Revival: SXSW" Women in Hip-Hop showcase. CHECK OUT THE SHOW HERE.

    Sub Centric blog posted a photo series and review of the EMERGENCE-presented "DXSW" Detroit Hip-Hop Showcase: "Headed by Invincible, Emergence brought what felt like the entire city of Detroit to Victory Grill. The lineup was nothing less than stellar. Producer/Emcee Black Milk along with Slum Village headlined the showcase which consisted of solid acts such as, Invincible, Finale, & Monica Blaire as well as host Illa J." CHECK OUT THE FULL REVIEW AND PHOTO SERIES.

    Shout out to journalist Gavin Dahl who provided some critical logistical support during "The Revival: SXSW" showcase and then went on to produce this interview with Invincible in the Boise Weekly. "Over the years I have been offered dozens of record deals which I turned down to avoid exploitation and misrepresentation. The focus of EMERGENCE is not just to build myself up as an artist, or necessarily even sign other artists, but to actually develop a new model to share with other artists to 'teach them how to fish' not just feed them a fish fillet sandwich from McDonalds." READ THE FULL INTERVIEW.

  • March 29, 2010
    RR Cinema Interviews Invincible (Video)