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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.

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.

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.

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.

RR Cinema Interviews Invincible (Video)