After waiting a year and a half of being denied a voice by corporate media, independent female emcee Invincible is finally getting play on MTVU for her video, Ropes. In 2009, MTVU banned Ropes from being aired over their network. Initially Invincible’s video was given the go-ahead by MTV but was later rejected by MTVU. According to MTVU, the problematic content of the video that brings to light depression, mental health and suicide was too sensitive for viewers.

After MTVU’s decision not to air the video, Invincible’s listeners began protesting the ban and demanded for the video to be aired. According to Invincible’s Emergence website, “The video found supporters at Half Of Us, a project housed within MTV that confronts issues of mental health on college campuses. Half Of Us joined the chorus of people championing Ropes leading to a resolution with MTV: the Standards Department lifted their ban and cleared the video for airtime and now ‘Ropes’ is airing on mtvU and mtvU.com as part of the Half Of Us campaign.”

Invincible responded on her website to the actions taken by her listeners in saying,”I never requested for my listeners to write letters to MTV. In fact, my work is focused on creating community-run independent media outlets, not spending that energy placing demands on mainstream corporate-owned entities, but I still think both approaches are useful at different times. Ropes getting aired is a powerful example of how people were able to come together and put pressure on a multinational corporate media outlet to be held accountable to its viewers.”

This is just one example of how Invincible is one of the strongest voices leading the independent hip hop movement today. She is an activist, emcee and owner of her own independent record label Emergence. As Shook Magazine accurately states, “Invincible is one part emcee, three parts revolutionary, but the recipe is all Hip Hop.” It’s no wonder why Metro Times labelled Invincible as “Detroit rap’s fastest rising star.” Invincible summed up nicely why the incident was bigger than Ropes.

“The video being denied by MTV in the first place opened up an overdue dialogue online about mental health in the hip hop community and beyond, and showed how taboo the subject is which is why many people are still facing it in secrecy and silence,” said Invincible.Invinvible has recently released her latest single, in collaboration with Wajeed ‘Detroit Summer.’ In 2008, she released her full-length LP Shapeshifters. Both her newest single and her LP are available at amazon.com and emergencemedia.org.