Medusa on Leimert's "gentrification"

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In the latest LA Weekly, Medusa, the self-described gangsta goddess of hip-hop, talks about living in Leimert Park and being a part of Project Blowed, home of the progressive hip hop music movement born in the Village in the early 1990s.
Ernest Hardy interviews Medusa, who after a yearlong stint in prison almost 15 years ago was reborn creatively and spiritually

She has lived in Leimert for more than a dozen years.

Leimert Park "has the heartbeat of L.A.'s rich black heritage," Medusa said. "I feel it necessary to be there to harness the energy, to bring people to it. You gotta understand, I got outta jail and started going to the Good Life Cafe, and from the Good Life Cafe I was introduced to Leimert Park. It's been like a mother and a father to me, being over there. I've grown there."

On the plan to revitalize the Village: "If you've had control of your community for a certain amount of time... and if you haven't upgraded or gotten it to achieve a certain level to where it's profitable, or seems profitable from the outside looking in, then eventually the powers that be are gonna come in and take it and make it what they think it should be. We were comfortable in it as an artists' community, but at the same time, there was a level it needed to achieve and it wasn't. I think the threat of [gentrification] has made us actually pay more attention to what we have."

Medusa is part of Feline Science and performs regularly at Temple Bar and Club Fais Do-Do.