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Jean Grae (real name Tsidi Ibrahim, also known as What? What? & Da Easter Bunny, born 1976)[Salazar-Moreno, Quibian "Jean Grae Biography", Allmusic, Macrovision Corporation][Warren, Jamin (2005) "Jean Grae", Pitchfork Media, 26 April 2005] is a hip hop artist from New York.
Biography Early life Born in Cape Town, South Africa on November 26, 1976, the daughter of South African jazz musicians (her father and mother are the celebrated musicians Sathima Bea Benjamin and Abdullah Ibrahim), she studied Vocal Performance at the LaGuardia School of Music & Art before majoring in Music Business at New York University.[AskMen.com; Jean Grae Biography. Retrieved on 2008-10-03.]
Early career (1996-1998) Ibrahim initially worked under the names Major Woody & Da Easter Bunny because she thought it would be funny to hear those names announced at shows. And after working with groups including Ground Zero, she joined a hip hop music group called Natural Resource in the mid-1990s,
Solo career (1998-2004) Natural Resource dissolved in 1998, after which Ibrahim changed her stage name from What? What? to Jean Grae, a reference to the X-Men character Jean Grey.[Crockett, Stephen A., Jr. (2008) "Grae's Anatomy", The Root, 13 August 2008] Under her new moniker, she released her first LP—Attack of the Attacking Things—in 2002, and followed it in 2004 with This Week.
Jean has recorded an unreleased album with celebrated North Carolina producer 9th Wonder, of Little Brother fame, entitled Jeanius. This unfinished record was leaked on the internet, and subsequently work was stopped on this album.[Johnson, Christopher (2008) "Jean Grae: 'I Am Hip-Hop'", NPR Music] However, at the release party for ''9th Wonder's Dream Merchant Volume 2 album she stated that Jeanius was still going to be released. This album was eventually released first through Zune Live Marketplace two weeks before its disc release on July 8, 2008.[Heaton, Dave (2008) "Jean Grae ]Jeanius", PopMatters The album features the track "My Story", about the abortion she had as a teenager.[Remington, Alexander F. (2008) "JEAN GRAE "Jeanius" Blacksmith", ]Washington Post'', 5 December 2008 Her rapping on the album was described by Robert Christgau as "remarkable for its rapidity, clarity and idiomatic cadence. The writing has a good-humored polysyllabic literacy."[Christgau, Robert (2008) "Jean Grae Shows There's No Better Femcee", NPR Music] Elsewhere, it's been reported that her proposed fourth album, provisionally titled Phoenix has gone into production. It has been reported by several camp insiders that 9th Wonder will handle the lion's share of the production duties with unknown UK producer Passion hifi and NY resident Clinikal providing a beat each.
Blacksmith Music (2005-present) Previously signed to Babygrande Records, she signed a deal in 2005 with Talib Kweli's Blacksmith Records. On 28 April 2008, Jean Grae posted a blog on her MySpace page saying goodbye to her fans. She later cited disenchantment with the music industry and desire to start a family as the reasons behind the 'retirement' and said that she was working on new material and still wanted to continue in music: "You know what? I need that Grammy. I think I might be able to stop after that". As of July 2008, Talib Kweli posted a blog explaining things about the album and includes the fact that she is not retiring, and encourages fans to purchase the album by "one of the last true MCs left". Grae returned to live performance later that year.[Chinen, Nate (2008) "A Hip-Hop Classicist Defies Her Meager Turnout", New York Times, 1 December 2008]
On September 18, 2008, Jean Grae posted a Craigslist offering her creative services for $800/16 bars.[Michaels, Sean (2008) "Jean Grae becomes a hip-hop mercenary", The Guardian, 24 September 2008] On her MySpace blog entry, she states, "I don't wanna complain anymore, I just wanna change some things about the way artists are treated and the way you guys are allowed to be involved, since it IS the digital age."
DiscographyAlbums- Attack of the Attacking Things (2002)
- The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP (2003)
- This Week (2004)
- The Orchestral Files (2007)
- Jeanius with 9th Wonder (2008)
- The Evil Jeanius with Blue Sky Black Death (2008)
Copyright Citations
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