Five Reasons to Cop Invincible’s Shapeshifters

Photography by Erik V. Stephens

Very few Metro Detroit Hip-Hop artists have achieved commercial success and many purists would agree that in Hip-Hop’s current state, that’s a good thing. Eminem may have made the professional development from rocking underground stages in “The Dirty D” to topping charts and filming his memoir 8 Mile for the big screen, but artists like Phat Kat, Guilty Simpson, Athletic Mic League and Quest M.C.O.D.Y aren’t names popularly recognized in the rap game beyond Detroit’s ‘burbs, unless you naturally crave a brand of Hip-Hop that isn’t specifically crafted to cater to the likes of MTV mimics and the uninspiring soundtrack of BET. Of course, there was that Chevrolet commercial featuring Slum Village, which played out like a clichéd music video. However, if that’s the ingredient for super success, Invincible is steady cooking up a healthy alternative through activism, community service and a hefty message in her rhymes.

She’s “Striving to be one of the best, period. Not just one of the best with breasts and a period,” as Invincible proclaims on the appropriately titled “Longawaited,” which is the second track on her debut solo album Shapeshifters, the album that her supporters have eagerly been in anticipation of since her introduction in 1998.

Invincible can still spit a verse of Poison Clan, the infamously misogynistic group of Miami who simultaneously blessed and cursed the 90s with “Shake What Yo Mama Gave Ya.” After moving to the states at seven from Israel-Palestine, Invincible counted on Hip-Hop lyrics to assist in her transition as an English speaker.

“For me it wasn’t just about learning the language. It was about gaining an understanding of the new culture I was in as far as moving to a whole new country. That was a frame of reference. I was able to get a more full perspective on what it was really like through the stories told in Hip-Hop songs at that time,”

After immersing herself in Hip-Hop, Invincible started performing in shows around Ann Arbor before she was legally old enough to gain entrance. Befriending bouncers and being sick on the mic gave her some leeway at open mics, but eventually Invincible grew tired of having to sneak into her own shows and began converting abandoned buildings into Hip-Hop performance arenas by covering the windows and adorning the walls with graffiti. Soon after, she was featured on the album of her musical colleague Sun in ’98, moving on to join the all-female collective Anomolies in NYC with she was seventeen, and her track in Hip-Hop is still fresh and evolving.

Currently working on mixtapes and prepping for an upcoming project with Anomolies, Invincible has already turned down a million dollar deal to focus on her own company, Emergence Media. As she told L.A. Records, “First of all, a million is not a million—it’s a million-dollar loan. And it’s not only a loan, but it’s from a person who’s gonna tell you how to spend every cent in ways you disagree with.”

Shapeshifters is debuting via her own entrepreneurship, and without droning on and on about why Invincible is a real, skilled, and relevant artist, here are the top five most important reasons why copping the album is a good idea:

5. She’s the ultimate Hip-Hop minority: a female, Israel-Palestine born lyricist. Hip-Hop has a need for Affirmative Action. For every two testosterone driven, misogynist men who belt out rhymes in praise of money, cars, jewels and women, there should be a female in tow, showing the more positive and lyrical end of the genre. If ever there was a poster child for this initiative, it’s Invincible, who’s used to being the odd one out and well equipped for the challenge.

She says, “Being from Israel-Palestine was definitely a challenge because I didn’t speak the language. Even before the music industry, when I was living in Ann Arbor, I was in a largely Black, Arab, and Asian school. So even with my friends, I was the minority in that space. From a young age when I moved to the states, I developed my identity as that person who was different from the rest. I was used to it by the time I got into the Hip-Hop scene. It wasn’t anything new for me at that point. It definitely used to bother me a little bit that people would have certain preconceived notions about what I would sound like, but as soon as they heard me and saw my sincerity as far as that I was in it for the right reasons, all that kind of fell away.”

4. She has true versatility. Everything from Invincible’s rhyme style to her beat selection proves that she was built for the mic and she credits her early immersion to Hip-Hop for that feat.

“In Detroit, we can hear a hardcore Public Enemy song next to a booty song. I’m happy to have such a wide range of influences so early on,” she recalls, “and that’s the things about being from the Midwest. We grew up listening to the Ghetto Boys just like we grew up listening to Common, just like we grew up listening to all the different East Coast people coming out at the time. So we have influence coming from all directions. We weren’t just limited to one coast.”

Of the debut, Invincible also says, “The concept of the album is versatility, just having versatility with my style, my flow and my choice of beats. The second meaning of the title is that all of us are shape shifters. I’m making the point that all of us have the power to transform ourselves, and I feel that Hip-Hop have transformed myself and shaped who I am. I feel that it has shaped a lot of people’s identities, personalities and outlooks. Because we’ve all been transformed by the world around us and by Hip-Hop, I feel that we also have the power to transform the world through Hip-Hop and through our critical thinking or whatever our expression is.”
That means that when you grab your copy of Shapeshifters, you’re promised quality and variety.

3. “People Not Places” and “Locusts.” “”People Not Places” is about different places in Palestine and Israel that have been erased by the colonization of Palestine. I plan to do another documentary music video for that song and show that side by side with “Locusts” because I see a lot of similarities between gentrification happening in our cities in the US and the way they’re colonizing Palestine. I just want to show the connections through our video pieces,” Invincible shares.

Both “Locusts” and “People Not Places” rhythmically magnify the issues of Detroit and Palestine-Israel respectively. “Locusts” has already infiltrated the web with an accompanying video that highlights both the problems and solutions that shape the city she now calls home. “People Not Places,” which her company Emergence Media is prepping to bang out, is sure to be just as noteworthy and thought provoking.

2. Shapeshifters is a cohesive album. True school Hip-Hop fans crave albums that inspire thought, deliver brilliant messages and make sense. Shapeshifters does all of the above, maintains itself as a unit versus a mixtape of splendid randomness, all the while remaining vivaciously versatile.

1. Invincible is sketching the blueprint for what the future of Hip-Hop should be. She doesn’t keep her message in the confines of the recording booth. She’s a community activist who has an excellent record of giving her time and energy to rebuild and revitalize Motown. Her efforts are largely focused with initiatives like The Hope District and Detroit Summer, a creative collective that confronts community problems through creativity.

As Invincible said when speaking on “Locusts,” the documentary music video featuring Finale, “Detroit is a place that has infinite potential, not just musically. Obviously, our music coming out of the city is incredible and constantly innovating the way the world listens to music. But also in the way community is transforming itself in the face of different issues.”

Invincible is definitely doing her part is transforming a city that has been marked with crime, high levels of unemployment, and a faltering system of education. Other artists should take notice and proceed with note taking.

For more on Invincible, check out EmergenceMusic.net or stalk her career on Myspace.