Breaking barriers as a white female from the upscale university town of Ann Arbor, MI, Alana Invincible Weaver gained fame in Detroit’s underground rap scene with her intelligent rhyme style. After moving from the Middle East to Michigan in elementary school, Weaver started writing poetry, and by the age of fifteen she was battling in freestyle competitions. In 1999 she was a semifinalist in that year's BET-televised Blaze Battle and after meeting a similar-minded artist named Helixx at a local open-mic night, she moved to New York to take Helixx’s side in the female MC-fronted group the Anomalies. By 2002, she returned to Michigan and set up shop in Detroit. Shrugging off offers from major labels looking for “the female Eminem,” Invincible chose to start up her own independent label (Emergence) with hopes of releasing her future albums without any industry marketing agendas. Her long-awaited debut ShapeShifters was released in 2008. ~ Jason Lymangrover, Rovi