She's Invincible. Really!
by AngelaWednesday, May 14, 2008
Ilana "Invincible" Weaver.
Detroit emcee, Invincible, has endured her fair share of that whole "East Coast/West Coast" thing. But when I say "East Coast," I mean the Middle East and when I say "West Coast," I mean the Mid West.
Ilana "Invincible" Weaver moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan from Palestine, Israel at age 7. Through jotting down her favorite Hip-Hop lyrics as a kid and looking up the words, Weaver says she learned English and bulked up her vocabulary, particularly with an ear for political Hip-Hop. Since landing in Michigan, albeit having a brief stint in New York, Invincible has become a bona fide Detroit Hip-Hop artist. Since she began rhyming at age 9, she's come complete with a long and credible track record (both experience and music), her own record label, Emergence, and a heavy hand in the community.
Parked in Detroit for the week, promoting her new and first solo album, "ShapeShifters," Invincible had just performed at her New York and Phiily release parties and after her official Detroit album release party she'll be headed to Cali to give Long Beach, Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco some of her flow.
Here's what she had to say about Detroit, being a woman in the music industry, the power of youth, Miss Rap Supreme and her own personal style.
So aside from all the work you've done with Platinum Pied Pipers and Waajeed, "Shape-Shifters" is your first solo album. This is pretty huge for you, no?
I'm really gearing up for Saturday. Yeah this is huge, I've been rhyming since I was like nine and I've been performing and doing shows in the area since about '96 so now, twelve years later, finally being able to release it!
You're recognized for your craft as a Hip-Hop artist, but you're also noted for your involvement in the community and your push for social change. Are these things that have always gone hand-in-hand (or mic-in-hand-in-hand) with your music?
Definitely. I think growing up in the Middle East, you get politicized early and obviously Michigan has a large Middle East community so at a young age. Me and many of my friends from Arab backgrounds discussed what was happening back in the Middle East and we formed our political opinions at a very young age. We would be having political discussions in middle school and elementary school, all that. We were always thinking about how that affected us.
When you're that impacted by things around you, you look at things more analytically. In general, I always just took notice when there was an injustice and looked at it as interconnecting with my own struggle and seeing that injustice anywhere and inseparable from injustice everywhere. I was listening to Paris, like overtly political stuff at such a young age and between that, listening to Gang Starr, A Tribe Called Quest and Michigan artists like MC Breed, it always felt like Hip-Hop was inseparable from speaking about the real issues that are happening.
So what organizations are you involved with in Detroit?
The main one is Detroit Summer. We work with youth through a program called LAMP, and (it) stands for "Live Arts Media Project." The main focus of LAMP is creating a space for youth leadership to be at the forefront of changing what's happening in (Detroit) schools and the city. The youth are from (ages) fourteen to twenty-three. We work with basically, teens, some of 'em are in school, some of 'em have dropped out, but they all have a first-hand perspective on what's happening in the schools. It's definitely a huge issue for me to look at what's happening in the school because I almost dropped out of school.
If I hadn't had one certain teacher that had my back, that was able to say 'Oh you're writing rhymes, let me give you an English credit,' I wouldn't have made it through school, I wouldn't have graduated but he was able to validate what I was doing in the eyes of the school system. But you have youth today that are being so disrespected at schools and are literally being treated like criminals. I spoke to a middle school student the other day, she told me in her school if somebody gets into a fight, a security guard will come in and start macing everybody without any warning or preventative measures.
LAMP proposes we need to create more peer mediation and we need to create more holistic root problem-solving approaches and the only way we can come up with these solutions that are effective is if the young people are developing them themselves. We create a space for them to create media around the issue so they can research. They interview people, create Hip-Hop songs and poetry.
I read "ShapeShifters" begins with the declaration "Music is not a mirror to reflect reality/ It's a hammer with which we shape it." So you're saying that aside from discussing what's happening now, music changes the way things are done for the future.
Yeah, that's the concept behind "ShapeShifters," like how we do have an impact. We don’t realize or we kind of underestimate our power to affect change. We don't realize what a ripple effect everything we do can have. That's the concept behind it, as well as showing my versatility as an artist and that I can shape shift into different perspectives and styles, 'cuz I've been so many places.
As a twenty-seven year-old woman paving her way through a male-dominated industry, what are some of the struggles you've overcome?
The industry doesn’t know how to deal with or market a female artist and they're very lazy. They have a cookie-cutter formula approach particularly with females. They don’t know how to do anything. They push everybody into those boxes like you either have to be completely sexual or completely asexual and there's nothing in between for them. There's two ways that I approach that. First of all, I'm part of an all-female Hip-Hop crew called "The Anomolies" which stands for "No More Lies," no more misrepresentation of women in Hip-Hop and we really represent a model for an alternative for an alternative to the misrepresentation because we are so different. We represent a whole spectrum of women and that just show that women in Hip-Hop are not just some two-dimensional cookie cutter things.
I had to turn down so many record deals in my life based off the limited perspective these labels had on how to put me out. They were trying to change my image or trying to control my master and my publishing, something I feel that every artist should have the rights to. Secondly, it shows that we can work together and not cat fight like the Miss Rap Supreme Show.
I was going to ask for your take on Miss Rap Supreme…
I think it's hilarious but if anyone takes it seriously I would highly advise them to take a second look at all the incredible female artists that are out there doing it already. It's a whole movement.
Who are some of the female artists and musicians that you most respect?
Besides "Anomolies" who are like my big sisters, Miz Korona is a huge ally for me here locally. Theory who's out in Flint, she's really, really dope. More nationally, Bahamadia is one of my favorite emcees of all time and I had the honor of touring with her last year in Europe. I'm actually about to tour with her and another one of my favorite emcees Roxanne Shanté in Europe this coming August. And last but not least, Jean Grae who's incredible.
So you had enough with certain record labels. Is that how Emergence was born?
That's how Emergence was born, out of a whole movement of independent Hip-Hop, particularly here in Michigan. Waajeed has Bling47, that was huge inspiration, also Underground Resistance and Submerge were a huge influence. They both really taught me so much…logistical ways on how to approach putting out your own music. I look at all of it as an art form, if you start being creative about how you approach everything then it's no longer just some tedious task. Don't get me wrong there are some tedious aspects to running a business but its necessary to understand it.
Lastly, when you're on stage performing, what must you wear to feel the best and most confident?
For me, its all about the hat and the kicks. I always got to have my fresh hat and my fresh kicks. Everything else kind of accessorizes with those. I really like having exclusive stuff. Right now I got some camouflage New Balance joints that I rock and I really like to support the local Hip-Hop clothing shops. I go to Spectacles, Gear 4 Ur Closet on 7 Mile and out to Burn Rubber. But when I travel, I like to go out once in a while to get something no one else got locally.
Check out what Detroit has that no one else has locally- Invincible performs her new album Saturday May 17 at Alvin's. She'll also be premiering her new "docu-music video" on gentrification and development in Detroit.
For more information go to www.emergancemusic.net.
