UGSMag & Me

If you're a reader here, I hope you're also familiar with UGSMag.  They've been a great contributor to this online Hip-Hop game for ages, and one of the few remaining links on my Favorite Hip-Hop Sites widget after I just made another depressing cull of dead links.  They're supposedly based out of Austin, TX but always seem to be rooted in Canada, and started out posting great, original interviews beginning with SixToo back in 2000.  Then they switched to a steadier blog share format, but for underground Hip-Hop, sort of like if 2 Dope Boyz knew who Awol One was.  They also do podcast and radio stuff, but the blog has recently been put on "an indefinite hiatus, with our new focus being the UGSMAG print issues."

Yes, UGS is now a proper Magazine, coming out quarterly.  And I have a big feature in issue #2 that just came out.  It's a whopping nine pages!  And I got to interview Helixx C. Armageddon of The Anomolies, an interview I tried to make happen years ago for my blog, but couldn't get.  If you haven't heard, she's making a big comeback, and her - if you can believe it after all these years - debut solo album just came out last week.  So, as you can imagine, I had tons to ask about, and I think the piece turned out really well, if I don't say so myself.  Other pieces include interviews with Homebody Sandman, Fat Tony & LXVNDR, book reviews for Myka 9, Classified and DJ Screw, a piece on the 50th anniversary of the Technics SL-1200, and even a Canadian Hip-Hop crossword puzzle - it's not easy!  So check-a check-a check it out.  You can still cop issue #1 if you missed it, too.

Also, I know it's been a while since I've mentioned it, but that top secret, killer project with Dust & Dope Records is still coming.  There were issues with the test pressings and covers, and if you know anything about the quagmire currently going on with a very limited number of plants trying to press vinyl as the format makes a surprise comeback, you can imagine the nightmare delays.  This is why they didn't announce any street dates or take pre-orders.  But I understand we're close, and it's still definitely 100% on.  You're all gonna flip, and I don't say that lightly!  💪

Invincible Instant-Messenger Interview! (Part 2)

…continued from part 1.

Werner: hey
Invincible: wutup!
Werner: how's it going - how was the show?
Invincible: the show was INCREDIBLE
Invincible: have u heard much of Guilty's music?
Werner: not a lot... i heard him on percee's album and i think a couple of other guest spot's, but i haven't checked any of his own official material
Invincible: ok
Invincible: yea he's a legend here
Invincible: and it was PACKED
Invincible: and he killed it
Invincible: his energy on stage is ridiculous
Werner: nice; ill have to check out his album... hopefully what he has live translates to record
Invincible: and the way he is period he is very humble and laid back even tho his music is mad street and arrogant
Invincible: the perfect combo
Invincible: yea somewhat but def gotta see him live
Invincible: you heard the song me him and buff1 did on Buff1's album?
Invincible: its called "Supreme"
Werner: you should do a bootleg volume 2, because you've got so many guest spots out, and a lot are pretty obscure (not that the buff1 was obscure... but a lot were)
Invincible: that's one of my fav joints i've done recently
Invincible: yea part 2 is in the works lol
Invincible: it will have pieces from Last Warning too since i stopped making those
Invincible: it will be a mixtape with old new and exclusives DJ Graffiti is compiling
Invincible: will come out in time for the album (right before or right after depending on when we finish)
Werner: cool... make sure you include the really hard to find stuff. haha
Invincible: like what?
Invincible: lol...seems like you got EVERTHING
Invincible: i appreciate that tho forreal :)
Werner: ha ha thanks, i try
stuff like "won't be fooled again," "war," "Confused..."
Werner: "LAMP Post" would be another good one.... even the 3 tracks off the war album
Invincible: oh yea not alot of people heard that cuz the distro was kinda wack for it
Invincible: (War LP)
Invincible: and definitely LAMP post
Invincible: u got more qs?
Werner: yeah, we didn't even get into the basics yet, of like where you're from and how you got into hip-hop…
Invincible: no doubt. Basically born in champagne. Moved to israel palestine age 1 and moved to ann arbor Michigan 6 years later and pretty much learned english thru transcribing hiphop lyrics
Werner: where's champagne?
Invincible: (Champagne, illinois) Used to trade tapes with my homie that went back n forth to ny and also thru my best friends older sister who put me on to Paris (Sleeping with the Enemy). That's what was my
Invincible: Introduction to overtly political hiphop and combined with native tongues gang starr peterock cl smooth outkast and michigan cats like boss breed etc I developed my own style inspired by all of that...
Invincible: Started rhyming at age 9 but that was just for fun. Began takin it seriously and freestylin, doing open mics at age 15. Snuck into clubs around ann arbor/ypsi.
Invincible: I'd throw my own all ages events too in abandoned buildings. Then I connected with SUN and brown who had a group UBU who took me under their wing we did shows in Detroit...at the Mahogany, Phat House, etc.
Werner: back then were you looking to grow into doing records, or was it a purely live "in the scene" kind of thing?
Invincible: Around that time I spent a lot of time on hiphop radio shows on u of m radio and met some folks from ny who I traveled out their with at age 16. I fell in love
Invincible: With the scene out there and particularly ANOMOLIES as a supportive collective of female artists so I moved out at age 17.
Invincible: It was def scene first cuz I've never been in a rush to do records but of course I was open to that too. I just always wanted the crew to come out first
Werner: so, just how did ANOMOLIES form? were you a part from day 1, or did you join a bit later?
Invincible: I joined a year after they already started so you should have the founders tell it:-)
Werner: cool - yeah.
Werner: so how did you become a part of it?
Invincible: The first time I visited ny I met DSTROY from Arsonists and he told me abt this female hiphop army that repped all elements and I was in awe. lol...the next
Invincible: Visit he introd me and Helixx at the Nuyorican Cafe and we traded verses outside the club...then I met the rest of the crew and we all clicked right away...
Invincible: So I decided to move to build more in depth with them. I stayed with helixx and our manager at the time, Tina when I first got to ny...we recorded and didshows steadily
Invincible: Learned ALOT from each of them and still do. Its a family
Werner: so, how did you find yourself in the blaze battle, and do you think it affected your career?
Invincible: Lol the blaze battle was simply a battle. I was in that phase of my development as an mc and it helped me grow. I connected with a lot of dope cats that nite
Invincible: That was the last time I saw Bugz and Slang Ton RIP.
Werner: yeah, i met slang a couple of times... he was a really cool guy - not to mention talented
were you in the studio with Bugz for "clash of the titans," or were your parts recorded separate?
Invincible: Yes I love Slang too. Really good people. I was in the studio with Bugz for clash definitely. We also saw each other around before I left and he always had my back.
Invincible: Proof was also there that nite of the blaze battle he was in my corner the whole time trying to encourage me to keep going even tho I didn't really care
Invincible: For battling but felt it was a necessary step in my process to become a real mc. Both Proof and Bugz had my back a lot that nite. I think it was controversial at the time tho.
Invincible: How did u feel about that battle?lol
Werner: i didnt see it... i read about it in the mag, though (that was first issue)... i remember you were getting props for skill, but one verse (i think with young zee) got pretty racial
Invincible: Yea it was ignorant. The whole battle was ignorant and shock value based and I got caught up in that as well. That was the nature of battling at that time :-(
Invincible: The first issue of blaze was the one pri won against young zee btw. I was against a cat from nc I can't remember the name tho...
Werner: it's been a long time... but i think i remember it was the guy you were battling made a punchline about your appearance as a white female, and you kind of played off that ... but it was a little "high concept" with a sensitive subject for a battle rap lol
Invincible: Lol high concept?
Werner: well, yeah, because it wasn't like you came out making racist comments at the guy... you were playing with the concept the other guy introduced (from my bad memory lol)
[Screw my bad memory, guys; here's the actual excerpt. And she was right, it wasn't issue #1. - Again, I apologize for AOL's image size limits... hopefully you can make it out.]

Invincible: Yea honestly I'm more concerned with making albums and releasing classic material than battles lol. It was simply a phase.
Werner: so, tell me about that rawkus 12"... what was the A-side going ot be and what happened to it? and are there also more invincible joints locked in a rawkus vault or anything?
Invincible: a-side was a joint called "lemme find out" produced by supa dave west as well. He and I were developing a group at the time
Werner: who else was going to be in that group?
Invincible: It was he and I but it didn't go beyond those two songs.
Werner: oh ok. is there any chance that "lemme find out" will get released at any point?
Invincible: It might sneak onto a bootleg mixtape at some point but its definitely not where I'm at now. Lol
Invincible: ShapeShifters is my first official project after all these years. I'm excitedfor ppl to hear that first and then If enough ppl ask the old school might come out
Werner: so, what about the title "shapeshifters?" why's it called that/ what are you referring to with that name?
Invincible: The album title is about my versatility and innovation musically, but content wise its about self transformation, and changing our communities through
Invincible: Hip Hop, as well as through the process of taking action in our lives to develop new ways to relate to each other, our survival, and evolution. Its also...
Invincible: Inspired by my recent fascination with octavia butler and other sci fi that weaves in social and political commentary about current issues into futuristic worlds
Werner: well, ok... if we're doing an anomolies crew interview down the road... maybe a couple of questions i have would be better for the whole crew. so i guess i'll just wrap up with a couple short/fun questions and we're done =)
Invincible: Ok dope!
Werner: ok, so real quick...
Werner: since you're from detroit: awesome dre or mc breed?
Invincible: lol. That's a really hard one. I have to say Awesome Dre tho. He's so slept on
Werner: ok, and #2. since it's coming into election time... which presidential candidate (any party)?
Invincible: I vote for communities organizing themselves :-)
Invincible: And building real power
Werner: so, basically... no federal gov't at all? ;)
Invincible: Lol no that's not my point but I believe strongly in our communities determining our own fate. Whoever is in office should respond to those demands
Invincible: I favor obama as far as candidates in top running go but his middle east and other policies suck. I will continue to work for grassroots leadership when our so
Invincible: Called leaders fall short whether kwame [I believe she's referring to the current mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, not The Boy Genius hehe] or obama there is an abundance of people working to build the world they want to live in regardless.
Werner: ok, so finally, then: any parting words, or anything you want my readers to know that i didn't get to in my questions?
Invincible: Last words? Come visit Detroit. Its what the rest of the country has to look forward to. And if u want good music u gotta support it. Especially independently
Invincible: make sure to cop the presale album available on EMERGENCEmusic.net very soon! Big ups to my fam: Detroit Summer, Finale, Lab Techs, Waajeed and bling47.com!

So, now that the interview's done, you can go drop by her myspace page. You can also find the pages for the Anomolies crew and the other members in her top friends... there's some dope music on each page. And to download Invincible's "Sledgehammer" single and see that promo video she mentioned, check out: EmergenceMusic.net. Oh, and you can still order copies of her Last Warning mixCD from bling47.com (the track-listing may seem short, but there's like five or six "bonus tracks" which all adds up to a pretty full disc).

Tags: Invincible, Anomolies

Invincible Instant-Messenger Interview! (Part 1)

Any of you guys who were even passively into the NY indie hip-hop of the late 90's - the days of labels Fondle 'Em, Rawkus, and basically a million and one self-pressed 12"'s - which spawned artists like Natural Elements, Natural Resource, Thirstin Howl III, and countless others - should already know of The Anomolies crew. And all of you who've heard any of their dope, rare vinyl offerings (i.e. Helixx's killer duet with Jise One, their No More Prisons 12" exclusive B-side, Apani's massive posse cut, "Estragen") are surely as disappointed as I am that they never recorded an album. Well now Invincible is finally (FINALLY!) the first Anomolies member to be coming out the gate with a new album. And from what's been released so far, she's one of those rare rap artists whose new material is as dope as when she first came out ten years ago. I got her to come onto Instant Messenger with me to talk about it.

Werner: Invincible!
Invincible: wutup!! I'm at Guilty's release party in the D but I can text for now and we can follow up on aim tomorrow if that's cool with u
Werner: yeah, that's cool 8)
Werner: well, i guess i'll start with the most obvious question - why, in over 10 years, has there been no ANOMOLIES album or even 12"?
Invincible: great question. We ask ourselves daily. ANOMOLIES is a crew and more than that a family. We all build regularly and support each other dreams.
Invincible:.But I think for now we all have many focuses solo wise and life wise. Big Tara is one of the illest bgirls alive and co-founded Fox Force 5 crew.
Invincible: Pri is focused on production and recently launched a female producers based networking site. Kandi is directing a play for the GABRIELA network amongst other things, and Helixx is consistently writing dope songs for various projects.
Werner: now, am I right in thinking that you at one time had a 12" deal with Rawkus at one point, and "Perfectionists" was meant to be the b-side?
Invincible: Yea wow how did you know that?
Werner: I heard that somewhere way back and kept waiting on Rawkus to put it out
Werner: So, what was the A-side meant to be? And did Rawkus just not put it out because they were starting to hit financial troubles at that point, or what was the story there?
Invincible: The story is verrrry long but to make a long story short I prefer putting my own music out for many reasons. Rawkus is definitely 1 of the reasons lol.
Werner: lol ok
Werner: did you move out to ny at that time?
Invincible: yes I moved to ny at age 17 to work with ANOMOLIES and partly to connect with the ny fam I had built over visits: Words, Guy, Gaston, What What, etc...
Invincible: I lived there for 3 years and moved back to Michigan shortly after 9/11 but that's an even longer story lol.
Werner: did the move back have anything to do with 9/11, or just happened around that time?
Invincible: definitely related
Werner: ok, i saw the new single is up for download now... are there going to be hardcopies available?
Invincible: I'm releasing the whole album officially on my label- EMERGENCE june 17th but I'm gonna have release parties in May where copies will be available. The new single is on 12"
Werner: and when's the single coming out?
Invincible: Its the title track "ShapeShifters" coming out along with album June 17th officially, May for the release parties I'll have copies available tho!
Werner: oh ok... so Sledgehammer!/In the Mourning/Looongawaited isn't the actual single? i heard there was like a CD single if you preorder the album or something?
Invincible: Oh yea I spraypainted by hand each and every one of the 200! Lol. Only were at shows for a limited time. But I'll have bonuses for preorders of course ;-)
Werner: haha cool... i havent seen the video yet
Invincible: U can see me spraying in the promo video. Big tara was filming me doing that in the freezing cold...
Werner: are you still involved in the no more prisons project? obviously, ANOMOLIES had a song on one of their first 12"'s, but years later you put out a song on Raptivism that also seemed to be about NMP (the door)
Werner: hello?
Invincible: Sorry bout that guilty is KILLIN IT. Its packed in here everyone is here Denaun Black Milk Phat Kat Royce Marvwon Monica Blaire and Jay Electronica to name a few…
Invincible: Guilty is the future
Werner: nice; no worries
Invincible: Sorry but yea Helixx and Pri did "'Lunchbreak" on nmp I did "The Door" on "The We That Sets Us Free: building a world without prisons." It was a compilation put out by jnow.org
Werner: so i take it that's something you believe in pretty strongly? what's the full idea behind NMP?
Invincible: I wasn't on nmp and not sure their vision but the main focus of jnows project isprison abolition. Building a world without prisons is much more work than just saying no more prisons.
Invincible: Its about building community institutions and ways ofliving that we need more of. Get to the root of the problem with sustainable solutions and action
Werner: so, really, you (ubiquitous you) wouldn't be focused on abolishing prisons until you've essentially built up better systems that hopefully eradicated the need for prisons, right?
Invincible: Yea but abolishing is still the goal, and at least stopping the building of more new prisons.
Werner: i remember seeing all the "no more prisons" stamps on the ny sidewalks... and being like, "well, jeffrey dahmer's not moving in with me!" and thinking: i hope the idea's a little more complicated then just "let's close all the prisons now"
Invincible: Lol yea its much deeper than that… Angela Davis has a book called "Are prisons Obsolete?" that breaks it down but basically "the ultimate critique is the solution" meaning if I know prisons
Invincible: Don't truly keep us safe (in the sense they criminalize and lock up millions and don't address the root issues) I need to work to create something better
Invincible: That quote (the ultimate critique is the solution) drives all my work and is ANOMOLIES' motto of sorts as well.
Werner: i'm surprised you guys didn't even just press up a 12" or two back in the late 90's when everybody was doing it. seemed like anomolies were in the right place at the right time for that
Invincible: yea it was really unfortunate
Invincible: We were and wanted to but u know the answer to that is so complicated I wouldnt know where to begin honestly.
Werner: did it have anything to do with being tied to exclusive label contracts (i.e. rawkus)?
Invincible: not at all
Invincible: We didn't have the loot ourselves. Labels didn't understand our sound our vision or how to market us. We are all perfectionists musically but also in business we wanted things a certain way...
Invincible: And ultimately almost all members had family responsibilities that had to be prioritized above the industry bullshit.
Invincible: We have all continued making music and grinding in the industry but we each found ways to balance that with those priorities. For me and kandi it was balance
Invincible: With our activism. With Tara it was with dance and with Helixx and Pri it was fam.(they both have sons) we are still working on solo and crew projects tho :-)
Werner: so are plans for a crew album still unlikely for a while?
Invincible: The working title was inspired by a trip the crew made to rock a show in detroit with me and we stopped by the motown museum we saw an old record called.....
Invincible: I'll keep that under wraps for now..but our working title is inspired by it its called MEET THE ANOMOLIES
Werner: lol ok so how far along is that? is it mostly recorded, or still a ways to go?
Invincible: still got a way to go. The crew appears on my album ShapeShifters on a song called RANSOM NOTES as well...thats an epic joint can't wait for the world to hear it
Invincible: the thing I love about guilty simpson is when I congratulated him about the album coming out he told me that he feels as if he's one of many talented artists in
Invincible: Detroit that have inspired him over the years and vice versa. And that his album just so happens to be ready 1st. That's the way I feel about ANOMOLIES & Detroit. So I hope my project is a launching pad for the rest of the crew and my people's in Detroit as well.
Invincible: Pri and I are performing at the trinity intl hiphop fest april 5th in hartford. The whole crew will rock at my nyc release may 8th at southpaw bklyn.
Invincible: They will also be at the allied media conference in detroit june 20-22 (hope u can make it out!)
Werner: =)
Invincible: Which is also related to my natl release june 17th :-)
Werner: those releases are pretty far apart... when's the album generally going to be available?
Invincible: The album is coming out completely self distributed at the may release parties (il get u exact dates and venues asap) and on my website emergencemusic.net...
Invincible: Then fat beats and other store distros as well as itunes type digital distro will kick in june 17th...
Invincible: That way the true heads will have first access to it!
Invincible: Thru EMERGENCE and my album I'm testing out a whole model of cooperative economics and hiphop that will hopefully serve as a viable model for my crew & others.
Werner: what's the model?
Invincible: My model is that artists should have full understanding of their business and marketing and that those two should be as creative and full of integrity as the music itself.
Its also connected to a larger vision for community self reliance based in cooperatively run and small businesses like your bookstore :)
Invincible: I'm bout to pass out but let's build tomorrow!
Invincible: Thanks for reachin out once again! Much respect
Werner: definitely - thanks for doing the interview and answering my annoying questions :-D
Invincible: Not annoying! Best intvw qs ever...hands down!!

To be continued immediately...

Tags: Invincible, Anomolies