Invincible feat. Finale- "Locusts" (docu-music-video)

Very fresh and innovative (and above all - informative) concept & delivery for both a documentary and a music video. I really hope other hip-hop artists and/or community activists are paying attention to this approach & taking notes.

I'm just mad that this video was already deleted by Current once and lost all of its views & votes. Let's hope that this time it can not only stick around, but ultimately make it on the air.

Definitely not a good look that its short history here has already been erased...but hopefully that won't affect the fate of it's future here.....either way, the base of listeners and viewers that this song/video has captivated already is pretty (pleasantly) amazing to me. I'm still in awe of the message..the production..the delivery...how solid the song is and how it stands on its own with or without the visual accompaniment. Wow...

has anyone ever made a docu-music video before? This makes so much sense. Why don't more artists with a message do this?

This video is such a brilliant way to share this analysis on gentrification, I hope folks watch it, learn, and use it to address this issue in their communities. So inspirational!!!! And the song is beyond beautiful, hope folks LISTEN. much love invincible and finale, thank y'all!

This is so real. They're gentrifying the south part of North Philly right now, changing it to Northern Liberties and plan on doing the same around Temple University & Chester. This jawn is so timely. Not just for Detriot but for cities throughout the states. Glad to see someone addressing the issue.

wow. very moving..thanks for posting this up.

This had every bit of reality and truth that a video needs nowadays. I haven't sat down to watch a music video...nevermind a documentary in a minute, Invincible put in work here! Definitely hasn't gone unoticed, Emergence and Bling47 have some pretty bright future's if art like this keeps rooting up...I Approve This Hip-Hop.

Gentrification, development, social engineering... it all boils down to those unaffected determining fates. Watching this is a reminder of the harsh fate Detroit has had to endure, foreshadowing the future of most urban centers so long as capital is valued more than people. Respect to Invincible and Finale for bringing such a serious issue to art.

Opens up your eyes to let you know what's going on behind our backs aside from the ill flows & ill beats. Much Love & Keep it movin

no one ever exposes the damage "urban renewal" causes. the skyrise lofts with balconies and 16' ceilings look awesome, but they are terrifying to the residents who loose their homes and depressing for people who grew up in the city and are trying to challenge the big businesses that don't care about anything but $$$

This is very informative ...and i respect it for that, ive watched it at least 6 times, and forwarded it to many!

To say Detroit is being gentrified is a joke. The city is dying.

You can buy a house in Detroit for $100 http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/02/detroit-...

There are barely any grocery stores in detroit http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070...

The government is corrupt
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23779083/

When people visit me, almost everyone says the same thing. "It looks like the city was hit by an atomic bomb." http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&...
(No that's not farmland, that is detroit's eastside, formerly full of houses)

The gentrification problems in Chicago, Brooklyn, LA are real and need to be addressed. Development in Detroit isn't gentrification, it's an act of pity.

This is excellent! People need to watch this because it's educational and not corny. We needs this to be on regular TV or cable.

I wish there was more truth like this in mainstream media. I think it's time for more docu-videos from artists like this. Viral media is the best way to reach today's youth, even if the kidz that this affects most will never see it... it's about awareness. If nobody knows that this is going on then nobody's gonna do anything about it. Wake up and look at life around you...

transforming ourselves and our communities.

wow... i'm glad to see the response has been so strong & positive so far. truly inspiring to see real music made about real things can still captivates people's attention.

i just wish that whoever has been voting negatively for this video would leave a comment so we could really have an open dialogue about the video.

anyone....?

The mainstream media has been bought out and will never expose the truth and its up to US the people and mediums such as current.com to get this out there. I am a fan of Invincible and the whole Detroit hip hop scene and the lyrics went very well with House Shoes beat and the feeling of the video.

It's gives a message that can be felt through out communities across the country. I myself have some first hand experience of what gentrification can do to a neigborhood and the effect it has, not only on a community but an entire city. I'm from Portland if it matters. This is a great video. Thanks Kenny!

edit: I do agree to some extent though based on my own crude knowledge of Detroits situation that it does appear to be a city "dying" rather than being over ran by gentrification.

i'm in absolute awe of this video..it gives me chills.

"Current is about what's going on in your world".
This video needs to be on the televised rotation. It's exactly the type of thing that Current represents.

One of the things Detroit is best known is the music that has emerged from it. What better way to address this city's issue than well articulated lyrics from two of it's finest emcees?

Whether you categorize these events as gentrification or a city "dying", you can't deny that people are being displaced. Big up's to Invincible and Finale for shedding light on this issue. Hopefully this video will see more circulation and inspire change.

Great song, great message.
This kind of coverage of gentrification deserves more exposure.

I really like this video, especially because I am from Rochester Hills, about 40 minutes away from Detroit. Growing up, all I ever heard about D was how dangerous it was and how if I went there I could "Get shot." Regardless, my friends would go anyways, and visit the abandoned train station.

I wish I could show this to everyone who lives in my community, and create some kind of dialogue around this issue. For instance, being able to ask my parents why they decided to move from Warren to Roch. Hills when i was born in 88. Watching the movie "The end of Suburbia" helped me a lot to understand why anyone would fall into the delusion of living in the suburbs.

Plus, perhaps this video didn't touch much on the positive aspects of these troubles. Gardens in the city are happening in abandoned lots, and I for one, am intriuged in giving back to my area of birth. I just don't feel right about going into another community and doing any community building there. And I think the problems that we, collectively are facing in this time are creating beautiful oppurtunities to unite and be creative with our individual talents. and to create new forms of media to match these times, that combine conciousness with creativity. Check out the Allied Media Conference in D june 20-22 if these things or more interest you.

~Jenny

Invincible is the illest of sick MCs - thanks for spreading the word, love.

Had the pleasure of hearing her, when she was featured on Hard Knock Radio (KPFA 94.1); she's a smooth-talkin' queer community activist with a knack for sci-fi writer Octavia Butler, Malcolm X, and Palestinian resistance.

This video spans so many important issues... watch it, and spread the word... word!

Listen to her conscious socio-political beats n rhymes: http://www.myspace.com/invincilana

Live in the S.F. Bay Area?She's in the Bay for her CD release party tomorrow night!

"ilana invincible" June, 6 @ CLUB 6
for CD "ShapeShifters" REALESE PARTY w/ Waajeed, Finale, Mamaz, Femi, Sake 1, Aiko, Aima + more +! **
Club Six : 60 Sixth St. B/W Market & Mission, SF.
Cost : $10 ($5 w/ flier)

You can cop the album before it hits stores at her own, Indy label site Emergence, at : EMERGENCEmusic.net

Thanks for sharing with your people.

And congrats to all, on some hope for a change (Obama-rama's officially begun).

-Lo

For those of you who have hit me up asking for the lyrics to this song, here you go (provided by sweeneykovar.wordpress.com) :

part 1:
(FINALE)
Condos remodel my old turf,
For what its worth, soul got left in the earth
on a search i stood in front of Compuware-
The Hudson building spoke first and said "I was here"
From old bricks all over downtown
to Sears with the Roebuck attachment-
Purple Gang used to move thru your block like a mafia pageant
Move around in my town where spittas talk
And if u leave, forget us and try to come back?
I hope you turn into a pillar of salt
Every jackhammer cracking the concrete,
thats a lost and forgotten piece of The D
We’ll never see in a book or paper
Replaced with a temp casino, strip mall, liquor store
Another stadium doubling as a palladium, eateries
The D speaks to me
Now watch yesterday get swept away beneath a pile of debris
Commitees pickin from a lottery for the hottest riverfront property
Sign over your deed,
shocking to see us go from peoplemover to people movers
Let the people choose a better way.
They set up shop and sped away
Landmarks come and go like a john with a pro
Led astray and they run up on Detroit for consumption
So I look back and see my city under construction,
I look back and see my city under construction

by the LOCUSTS

Surrounding, suffocating the city and trying to choke us
Ravaging the crops making the situation hopeless
But we staying focused,
Never let the locusts approach us

(INVINCIBLE)
Locusts and buzzards circle and hover above the
abandoned houses, shattered windows with the crooked shutters
Cross the street construct a cookie cutter condominium
Lining Woodward, its the prime meridian,
you divide the city in
In the hood wonder why you pay two times the premiums?
They been redlining the dark skinned
Owners of homes where they loan with a sharks fin
Arson the property probably for the insurance policy,
Its a prophecy thats self-fulfilling
They claim to cure us of poverty BUT
its serving removal
of residents with urban renewal
The reverend is the realtor
here to save and heal ya!
They even “buy ugly houses”
and its memorabilia
of a myth of a city thats a mystery
Auto industry’s widow
On the auction floor they start to bid low
on houses with hanging gutters and peeling shingles,
Purchased at a nervous pace and a cadence
I heard a wrecking ball hit a building thats mistaken for vacant
A sleeping city awakened by bulldozers and the wool pulled over our eyes,
It comes as no surprise
Why the rents are more from The French to Ford
To the Illiches
Trying to pillage the village and milk it for all that its worth
while they killin us
But we still got resilience

against the LOCUSTS

Surrounding, suffocating the city and trying to choke us
Ravaging the crops making the situation hopeless
But we staying focused,
Never let the locusts approach us

lyrics part 2:

(INVINCIBLE)
Selective memory, convenient amnesia
Enemies scheming on land seizures
pretend to be well meaning but stampede us
I know you not supposed to bite the hand that feeds ya
but its poisonous, spread injustice like fungus candida
Predatory planning, Eminent domain
Mowed down Motown for a parking lot next to the game
Empty sentiment of development for pennies to gain
Forget memory lane – this is history
Its like erasing Proof, only remembering Eminem’s name (huh?)
Many stories - only ones written in pen will remain (I'm sayin)
With jobs, we at least in a drought
Met a construction worker hates demolishing buildings
but gotta feed his seeds and his spouse
Told me the city pushes people into leaving they house,
They cut the lights and gas - it freezes em out
Who decided the divide between suburb and ghetto corner?
Henry Ford swinging his chain - the Nazi medal of honor

and the LOCUSTS


(FINALE)

I'm lookin at this strip
where Lottie The Body, she prolly shook dem hips
The malnourished and wild flourish
among style murderers
who wanna pile dirt on us
The word on the street is that we wont last long
And is it me, but if the history o’ my city was passed on
Could we physically, in spirit & mind
find a way ta move & grab at this song?
And I was young, but snuck in
Mahogany put stars in orbit, unsupported foundation
We aborted sound, allowed rape and now
Its a bar where men and women getta frequent
And spit a slick thing in each other' ear
And sip a mixed drink and beer fa sport
And now the block can not hear,
And how we got here? we’ll never know
They showed a broken up Hip-Hop Shop board on VH1
Like "Ay, come here, come see where they from"
Ad that sh*t was too hard fa me ta chew, like I hate gum
And yall can play dumb like Jim, man
All I want is another Lush Lounge for us,
A new United Sounds around to bust,
So people can see us before the debris & dust, and what was
And I am not tryna rap, man - I'm time travelin…

why did it let you put up the lyrics but was fronting on me when i was tryin all of last night?


.......current tv......haha

On a side note, in relations to Invincible and Finale - they are both performing live tonight @ Club 6 in San Francisco. Locusts live? I hope so. I hope this docu/vid is reaching international audiences they way I feel it truly should be. Gentrification is happening right here in the city of San Fran as well..it's really not looking good for any of us.

innovative and compelling. thank you.

this is amazing! Detroit is full of talent, beauty and hope. This is innovation at its best!

Showing my support for a great video and a real message that needs to reach more people, so it can be supported!

wow...deep and intensely moving. this years anthem.
everybody should check this out...spread the word, Invincible for President!

This is the GREATEST song/video of all time!!
Yeah, of all time. Invincible and Finale-Keep making music to move us. Tell all the others reppin the "D" to keep it up as well.

WE LOVE YALL IN CALIFORNIA!

Mad respect,

AS

Big up Invincible and Finale for the continuous effort of bringing that truth to the masses. Although the docu-vid is dope, Detroit still remains to devour and suck the life out of the poor and have not. With God's grace, people will see how detroit REALLY is...power to people by any means neccessary. Uno

Lionhead

dusted the stage @ Club 6. damn, Lady!!

large up!!!!!

This is great stuff, great to see detroit area artists representing, and presenting an alternative worldview than the bling and the gangster--

peace and respect to Invincible and Finale-- I want to know more abou the "Summer" program--

detroit heads (and beyond) holler at your man--

This is Hypestyle- hip-hop blogger/commentator

http://hypestyleshomebase.blogspot.com

that's the most inspiring video i've seen in a long time! invincible broke new ground (again) with this.
walking the talk is a powerful thing.
amandla!