While it is no secret two popular groups are coming to Tuscaloosa this Friday, the University has recently boasted another, less talked about visit from two internationally acclaimed artists.

This past week, members of the department of telecommunications and film filmed a professional, full-length music video titled “Roto” featuring artists Wajeed and Invincible.

According to an artist bio, Invincible is a female hip-hop artist from Detroit who founded her own label and media company. She later became an MTV sketch writer for MTV’s Lyricist Lounge show and is performing as a solo artist and is recognized internationally.

Wajeed is a hip-hop producer who was previously a part of the hip-hop crew “Slum Village” based out of Detroit, according to the same bio.

Matthew Cocozza, a junior majoring in telecommunications and film, co-produced the music video and described it as a “a 1984 Orwellian-inspired world.”

Cocozza described the story line of the music video as a dystopian society where eventually Waajeed and Invincible begin to broadcast out their own message of truth and freedom, along with images of past revolutions of the people.

Rachel Raimist, a professor in the TCF department, helped procure Invincible and Wajeed’s presence at the University.

“The back story is, I met Invincible when she was 17 years old,” Raimist said. “That was over a decade ago when I made the first ever film about women in hip-hop called ‘Nobody Knows my Name’ and I did a screening at a conference at the University of Wisconsin.

This was the first hip-hop conference that had a whole day dedicated to women. I screened the film and at the end of the screening, Invincible walks up with her crew from New York.”

Raimist said she and Invincible have been friends ever since.

For this semester Raimist created a TCF class on how to direct music videos after the request from a student, Micah Russell, who worked heavily on the music video.

“Early in the morning I made a Facebook status for my class about bringing two female artists and I tagged Invincible and Medusa, another female artist,” Raimist said. “And a few hours later Invincible commented and said she wanted to come.”

From there everything fell into place. The TCF department awarded Raimist $2,500 to make the music video, and with outside donations from participating students they were able to spend a total of about $3,000.

“We only had enough money to pay the amount of the plane tickets and the hotel rooms for a week for the two artists and used whatever was left over on the music video,” Raimist said.

However, Raimist explained that with the amount of equipment used each day and the prices of how much she would have had to pay students and paid to rent certain facilities, the music video would have cost close to $250,000 in the real world.

“In order to get ready for this music video we shot with actual local artists,” Raimist said. “We studied things from various professional videos.”

“It’s about the study, the theory, the message and putting it all into practice,” Raimist said. “These students have gained so much more than they could ever have gained in a classroom.”

Mary Catherine Keith, a senior majoring in TCF, said Raimist has been very helpful ever since she came to the University.

“Ever since Dr. Raimist sat on board two years ago we had more classes, new equipment and more experience,” Keith said. “It makes students excited and get them more motivated.”

Keith said the music video is a good thing for the TCF department as well as a really great production.

“It should be exciting because it means the TCF department is expanding and growing where we need it to,” Keith said. “It’s going to be great. The music video turned out way better than expected, better than the artists expected as well.”

“The artists had a good time down here,” Cocozza said. “It was a great experience.”

Cocozza said while they finished shooting this week, there is still a good bit of work to be done on the music video.

“They are still coming out with a new album and the version from the song isn’t even the final version,” Cocozza said. “They still have to add instrumental and there is going to be a lot of post-production. It will probably be available starting mid-summer, but before that there will be a website where pictures and footage will be released.”

Cocozza also said the artists plan on coming back in the fall and will include Tuscaloosa in the tour for their album.