Invincible lives in Detroit…

…hold on. Before I engage in a rather ‚objective‘ approach to portray another outstanding MC that doesn’t fit in any box no matter how hard I try to squeeze things, and before I engage in constructing that very box where they¹ might fit in and you carry it away, before we do that, please let me introduce Invincible with sharing some personal impressions:

The first thing that really caught my attention for Invincible weren’t actually the lyrics but their non-verbal expressions: Invincible seems to be laid back, a modest, decent fella, very present, very serious, but cheerful at the same time. And beautiful. Seriously, how can a person have such perfectly shaped, expressive eyebrows? And who doesn’t want to be hold in those hoodies *blush*…

It is that fusion of strength and beauty I am fascinated with (Sledgehammer). Of course no one is invincible. But the attitude is what counts. And the MC and the political activist who work behind that name in one persona, both seem strong enough to admit, that they are vulnerable – without ever loosing a bit of their personal autonomy or dignity. At least that is what I read in their performance (see Ropes).

…so, Invincible lives in Detroit. And that’s where they are: doing music, being a political activist in the cause of social justice and anti-gentrification as well as working in the community to support youth organization under the umbrella of Detroit Summer’s Live Arts Media Project.

I am not on board with everything Invincible claims politically, especially not with the ‚boycott Israel‘ campaign they’re supporting. But I respect them for standing their position in the debate and for the way they are speaking up for their cause. And that is why I listen: „Selective memory / convenient amnesia“ is what Invincible founds symptomatic for the politics in Israel, the place where the MC spent a childhood. Many of their songs deal with that issue, while The Emperor’s Clothes and People Not Places explicitly illustrate and visualise their views in the aftermath of the Gaza crisis in 2008.

But Invincible’s political agenda goes beyond that. It is more an approach, a method than an opinion. The projects they are involved with are organized on the basis of shared ownership and responsibility: The label, Emergence Media that they co-founded and where the first album Shape Shifters was released in 2008 is a collective as well as their former hiphop group Anomolies, joined in the late 1990s.

Obviously there is a deep believe in cooperation and DIY running through Invincible’s creative aterias. And cooperation is what they provoke among other female MCs: reflected in the concept of the Born in Flames Tour with Jean Grae and also in The Revival, the award winning 17min. video-documentary that Invicible made on the We B* Girls tour through Europe they went on with Bahamadia, Roxanne Shanté, Stacy Epps, DJ Shortee and Eternia in 2008.

Almost everything Invincible does is activism and The Revival isn’t the only documentary they have realized. As another example for the typical fusion of political issues and hiphop music as a cultural movement, the docu/music video production Locusts gives a forum to personal accounts of experiences with the politics of displacement and gentrification in Detroit.

Also I was stunned by the statement Invincible made on the very music production by promoting the 7“ collab with DJ Wajeed with a documentation of the very pressing process of the vinyl in the local Archer Record Pressing factory. We get where this is coming from: Invincible is about grassroots and basis. Authentic. Awesome. Appreciated. +.

Wait. something more on concrete cooperation? Yes please: I heard Ana Tijoux recalling in an interview how she was a fan of Invincible and contacted her online over myspce for a feature with the amazing result of Sube. Also the relation with Bahamadia that was obviously founded in 2008 within the context of We B* Girls seems to be working: both voices Certified in the Illvibe Collective. The list also contains Mos Def, Wordsworth, Helixx, Jane Doe and many others. [tbc]

¹ Some people do not identify with either a male or a female gender identity. the english language offers the gender neutral pronoun they if one isn’t sure about a persons gender, or cannot reveal it. This is also used as a strategy to circumvent and refuse the pressure to clearly identify within the male/female frame.