Banish the word backpack from your brain and forget all about the redundant ‘female rapper’ category – there’s only one box to put Jean Grae in and that’s that of dope-ass rhymer.
“You know it’s 7.30am here right now,” groans Jean Grae down the phone, live and direct from New York. “But it’s cool – I have my cigarette and a Red Bull, so we’re good to go.”
The early start (and recipe to remedy it) pretty much sums up the career of this enigmatic emcee. No matter how tired the 27 year old has been – metaphorically or literally - Grae has demonstrated an incredible ability to keep at it, push on and weather all storms no matter how brow-beaten, beat-down or beat-up she’s become. “I didn’t want to be a quitter,” she states about her ability to strive on through her nigh on ten year career that has suffered a number of false starts, hiccups and F’ ups. “My mum is pretty much the same picture as me, just 40 years older and she’s still recording, doing her concerts, still getting out there and fighting to be heard,” she says of her jazz singer mother, Sathima Bea Benjamin. “I would feel very lame giving up after watching her all those years and she raised kids at the same time! So seeing what she did with her life and how she did it, I knew I couldn’t quit.”
But finally, one of hip hop’s hottest rhyme constructers that slings schemata like “Your hand’s not fucking with mine/ It’s just sucking your own dick like un-tucking your spine.” may just be about to achieve the acclaim she deserves. “I rap pretty damn good,” she breezes none too modestly, perhaps. “So it’s been frustrating, yes. But I’m glad I had to work for it because now I can say ‘yeah, I do deserve to get what’s coming.’ It’s a very good feeling that it’s getting there. There’s still a way to go but…”
The South African born, Big Apple raised rapper began life under the real name of Tsidi Ibrahim before joining the ‘Source Unsigned Hype’ group Ground Zero, after hanging out in New York’s West Village with then unknowns Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Another crew called Natural Resource followed before the solo moniker of What?What? emerged However, while 2003’s EP “The Bootleg Of The Bootleg” and LP “Attack Of The Attacking Thing” achieved some critical acclaim, Grae couldn’t seem to get recognised on the same level as her Black Star spit-mates. Writing on www.allhiphop.com a year or so ago it seemed Grae had finally had enough. “I hate the music business because it has shit to do with music,” she raged.
But wait – it’s amazing what a change of record label, a guest appearance at a Kanye West show (“I’m waiting for that freebie beat Kanye”), a tour with the Roots and a hook up with Jay Z producer 9th Wonder can do. “The Roots were great, wonderful boys,” she says before dismissing rumours that she has become the new female member a la Eve before her. “No, I’m not,” she says emphatically. “Because I’m Jean Grae and they’re The Roots.” It was on the Okayplayer tour that she met 9th Wonder who she got to come up onstage and “dance about a bit” while she spat over his “Threat” beat from Jigga’s bow-out “Black Album.” It proved to be a fruitful meeting, with 9th producing a number of tracks on her brand new disk, “This Week” as well as exclusively desk-doctoring the highly anticipated but also mightily bootlegged “Jeanius” album. “It kinda came out before it was supposed to,” she admits. “But we really love the album and we had a great time doing it, so it would definitely be a waste to not put it out.”
But forget who Grae knows or leaked albums yet to come out – just listen to the ethereal, meticulous metaphor boasting masterpiece “This Week” and realise why we’re writing about this rhymer. “There are no carbohydrates,” she laughs. “You can buy this album and feel completely guilt free, cost’s really, really good for you. It’s a week in my life from Sunday to Sunday,” she continues of the concept. “Days have different emotions too so I just tried to tell that story.”
Known for her dark material, Grae keeps it grimy on “This Week” with rhymes that will make your head reel. “Maybe I have some crazy shit going on in here,” she laughs of lyrics like ‘Lately I’ve been thinking I’d be better dead/ Put a bullet inside my fitted cap and call it a end.’ “But I think it’s more a chance to express things that everybody thinks about, but you can’t do it in everyday life cos you’d get arrested. It’s an exciting experience being able to live another life through a character,” she decides. “I would say the extreme stuff is being able to jump outside of yourself, for me anyway. I’ve always been into stepping out and stepping into someone’s head to think the way they do.”
But as to where such complicated rhyming couplets come from, and Grae is unsure. Point to her prodigious upbringing of teacher mother who sang and had her daughter reading at two, or consider perhaps her father is an accomplished jazz pianist, Abdullah Ibrahim – but maybe it’s more to do with just that ‘thing’ that some people have. “I have no idea or answer to tell you. I go through dry spells that suck – they can go on for months. But when it’s there, it’s incredible and I don’t know where it comes from, I really don’t. There’s a track on the ‘Jeanius’ album where I kinda blacked out for 20 minutes,” Grae adds. “I think it’s the furthest that I’ve taken that kind of writing where I want to go to.” Which is? “Where people don’t sound like they are trying or making an effort. That’s when you’ve mastered it.” Pointing to Jay, Black Thought and Pharaoh Monch as those rare ‘word-manipulation masters’, Grae would rather see herself in a category with those cats as opposed to that of the ‘backpack’ or ‘woman wordsmith’ ones. “You don’t have to label yourself, people are going to do it regardless,” she points out. “So as long as you don’t put any labels on yourself and understand who you are that’s a beautiful thing in life.” There really is only one label for Grae, and that’s the owner of an album that you really need to have in your life. So please do yourself your favour and go cop that shit.
Jean Grae releases “This Week” on Babygrande/ Orchestral on November 15th 2004.
A version of this article appears in Blues and Soul Magazine
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