Jean Grae Biography - Raised From Musical Roots, Forged Career Of Cameos, Found Limited Recognition, Maximum Frustration, Poised To Become Future Rap Star - Selected discography
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1976—
Rapper
Grae, Jean, photograph. Getty Images.
From the moment she picked up the microphone in the early 1990s, hip-hop aficionados have proclaimed the genius of Jean Grae. Her in-your-face raps were fueled by literary lyrics and visceral imagery. Her rise to stardom seemed assured, but the limelight eluded her. Despite putting out several acclaimed albums and earning the respect of the most-respected of her rapping peers, Grae was still waiting for major success a decade into her career.
Albums
Attack of the Attacking Things, Third Earth, 2002.
The Bootleg of the Bootleg, Babygrande, 2003.
This Week, Babygrande/Orchestral, 2004.
Sources
On-line
"Amazing Grae," Eye Weekly, www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_05.15.03/thebeat/extended.html (March 11, 2005).
"Biography," Jean Grae, www.jean-grae.com (March 11, 2005).
"Grae's Anatomy," Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages, www.citypages.com/databank/24/1194/article11599.asp (March 11, 2005).
"Jean Grae: Going Against the Grain," Jive Magazine, www.jivemagazine.com/article.php?pid=2281 (March 11, 2005).
"Jean Grae: Growing Pains," Vibe, www.vibe.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=519 (March 11, 2005).
"Jean Grae, She Wants to Move," Prefix Magazine, www.prefixmag.com/features.php?t=interview&f=Jean_Grae_%20PartOne (March 11, 2005).
"Jean Grae X-ecutes the Competition," Vibe, www.vibe.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=137 (March 11, 2005).
"Not Your Superwoman," The Village Voice,
www.villagevoice.com/music/0238,allen,38392,22.html (March 11, 2005).
Additional Topics
Jean Grae was born Tsidi Ibrahim in Capetown, South Africa, in 1976 to Abdullah Ibrahim, a world-renowned jazz pianist, and Sathima Bea Benjamin, a jazz singer. Both of her parents traveled worldwide, performing with legends such as bandleader Duke Ellington. Regardless of their musical stature, Ibrahim and Benjamin were blacks during the dawning of apartheid in South Africa, and therefore second-…
By her early teens, Grae had begun to hang out in New York's West Village, home to musicians, poets, and emcees. Grae recalled on her Web site that there were "beats everywhere," giving rise to some of rap's most respected performers, including Mos Def and Talib Kweli. In the early 1990s, Grae formed rap group Ground Zero and changed her name to What? What?. She left in…
Early in 2000, Grae adopted the name Jean Grae, based on an X-Man comic book character who possessed telekinetic powers. Grae released her first solo album in 2002, Attack of the Attacking Things. Recorded in her tiny New York apartment in just two weeks, the album was rough around the mixes. Nonetheless the lyricism of the songs came through loud and clear. "What it lacks in flam and polis…
In 2003 Grae's career arced upwards. She did a successful tour with hip-hop heavyweights, The Roots. "It was incredible to get on the road and just be out there with so many talented people," Grae told Prefix Magazine. "[Having] a live band and hearing your music replayed. It just gives it a totally different feel, a totally different emotion." The following year…
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