Editorial: Is The Female Emcee A Lost Artform?

My all time favorite studio moment happened in a dark Durham cavern, watching Jean Grae flip verses in the booth with producer 9^th Wonder at the controls. What I saw that day was declared “off the record,” and to my knowledge, remains unreleased, but rest assured, genius isn’t the half of it when it comes to Jean Grae.

Fatigue settled in  as the clock turned from P.M to A.M, but she paid little mind to the passing hours, entirely focused and concentrated on her objective — to kill it — adding more nuances with each take.  Though I was there to write about 9^th Wonder, Jean’s talents remain etched in my mind. Five years later, I’m still waiting for Jean Grae to blow up the way she should, with her rich material and storied catalog, garnering a Grammy. She addresses the universal heartbreak of relationships with exactly the right words and all kinds of frustrations most of us have dealt with in our lives. She’s accessible, because she’s real. Jean Grae should be the future, but outside of sophisticated circles, she’s still sailing under the radar.

The above is an excerpt from one of the best articles that I’ve read about the female emcee in a long time. You can read the rest of it right here. I agree with most of the points in this article, and I think it’s a serious problem that pretty much every mainstream female emcee goes the hyper-sexual route these days. The above video is a featurette on Jean Grae that I’ve never seen, and I claim to be a fan of the woman. Respect to Tamara Warren for writing the article and the kidnamedHenny for the heads up.

Related posts:

1. Video: Eternia x Jean Grae x MC Lyte – “R.I.P. to the Female Emcee?”
2. Eternia Featuring Joell Ortiz – (Produced By Moss)
3. Video: Ludacris Hopes Battle Of The Sexes Makes ‘Female Voices’ Heard
4. Eternia & MoSS Featuring Tiye Phoenix & Jean Grae – The BBQ (Remix)
5. Video: True Hip-Hop Stories: The Homeless Emcee