Women are underrepresented and under respected in every professional layer of society, be it even worse in the arts and music industry. In hip hop the term femcee is sometimes experienced as belittling or offensive.
Female hip hop prodigy Tsidi Ibrahim(1976) AKA Jean Grae, formerly known as What? What?, is a skilled rapper and producer.
Grae's parents were jazz musicians, their daughter reaped the fruits of her parents' love for music. She enrolled in La Guardia School to study Vocal Performance and majored in Music Business at NYU.
This classically trained musician was part of the disbanded Natural Resource crew in the nineties. What? What? changed her artist's name into Jean Grae, after the X- men character Jean Grey.
The comic lover is a self-made underground artist who is clearly driven by her passion for writing. This polysyllabic wordplay talent excels many a man. In addition the MC has a great flow and a unique sound.
She uses wit in her storytelling and moreover always keeps it real, a rare characteristic only a genuine MC possesses. She earned a lot of respect because she does not show her sexy booty in order to sell records as it is commonly done by lame superficial musicians.
Hip hop's all about the music, not the appearance.
No wonder the Cameo Queen worked with Mos Def, The Roots, Phonte, Ground Zero, Talib Kweli, Abdullah Ibrahim,The Herbaliser, Atmosphere, Masta Ace, Immortal Technique, Vordul Mega, C-Rayz Walz, Brooklyn Academy Crew, ... Mr Len( Company Flow) also featured Grae on his solo album, paving the way for a somewhat more mainstream public.In 2002 Grae released her first LP Attack of the Attacking Things. In 2004 she released her second album entitled This Week.
With 9th Wonder she recorded her third album Jeanius(2008) from scratch. 9th had no pre-made beats, Jean no pre- written lyrics.
The record contained autobiographical and emotional elements( e.g. My story about abortion) and featured Phonte, Median and Lil' brother.
According to rumour Grae is currently collaborating with 9th, Clinikal and Passion Hifi on her fourth album Phoenix. Childhood friend Talib Kweli signed her to his Blacksmith Records and commonly refers to her as one of the few true mc's. She should simply be worldwide recognized as one of the best mc's...
This musician is all about realness, wordplay, beats, be it what hip hop should be. She breathes it, she lives it, she is hip hop.
Article written by Ann Timmermans
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