JeansList

September 18, 2008 8:51 PM

Among the dopest female lyricists in Hip Hop history, fans were dismayed when Jean Grae seemed to retire from Rap. But she returned and now she's got a new plan. Want her to kick sick lyrics on your project? Check out the ad she put on Craigslist this afternoon. 16 bars for $800. "You got beats?? cd's?? envelopes?? yousendit?? protools? Whatever you got I'll try and find a way to work with it." Though she proclaims "I work fast, so you'll have em fast," you might want to be patient.

Taco Day is one of the songs she really got known for - it's 9:14 long (the version on youtube is missing an entire chunk of the song). It's especially NSFW, written from the persona of an abused teen who goes crazy and takes out everybody in her path.

posted by cashman (34 comments total)

Badass.
posted by Jairus at 9:11 PM on September 18, 2008

dear goodness, i love this so much.
posted by nosila at 9:12 PM on September 18, 2008

Never checked her recent stuff but I loved her collaborations with The Herbaliser.
posted by zenzizi at 9:22 PM on September 18, 2008

Damn, that's brilliant!

If I had $800 to spare, I'd send her this Spanish Flea loop I put together. I was going to put the Nigga Ya Love to Hate over it, but I was never able to get the a capella for that.
posted by ignignokt at 9:38 PM on September 18, 2008

That's an amazing deal for such a talented lyricist. Loved her work with The Herbaliser.
posted by sophist at 10:08 PM on September 18, 2008

Yeah, the Herbaliser stuff was good.

800$ for a featured spot, though? Proof once again that underground hip hop just does not pay for shit.
posted by paisley henosis at 10:39 PM on September 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Her verse on Post Mortem off of I, Phantom is seriously dope and "Attack of the Attacking Things" is only slightly less dope
posted by Damn That Television at 10:43 PM on September 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

I rate Jean as THE best female emcee I've ever heard, that she's not more well known and apparently hasn't ever managed to make much monies has always seemed fairly damning evidence of the overtly patriarchal nature of hiphop (or hey, perhaps the music industry as a whole).

In fact, I love her so much I just finally, after years of lurking, signed up for a MeFi account just so I could share with you my favourite Jean Grae number: Keep Livin' (Ms. Grae in awesome melancholy mode over the instrumental from Face's classic 'My Block').

Top lyric from the above: "Grew up a child of an alcoholic / Sister to schizophrenic / already inherited one and they both are genetic". Genius.

_{...And did I mention this is my first ever post? Woo!}
posted by TheTorns at 11:00 PM on September 18, 2008 [3 favorites]

This is just another reason she's Jeanius.
posted by shucksitsjeremy at 11:35 PM on September 18, 2008

I'm sure music.metafilter can come up with some great stuff for her to record or to collaborate on. $800 is not that hard to amass from metafilter donations.
posted by jouke at 1:25 AM on September 19, 2008 [5 favorites]

Awesome! I was blown away the first time I heard What? What? on the Herbaliser's Blow Your Headphones, and she's been consistently fantastic for well over a decade.
posted by Shepherd at 2:11 AM on September 19, 2008

I'm sure music.metafilter can come up with some great stuff for her to record or to collaborate on. $800 is not that hard to amass from metafilter donations.

I'm in for 5 (more) bucks. Though my first thought was to chop up one of mefi's own chimaera's albums to make a beat rather than create something from whole cloth.
posted by thedaniel at 2:23 AM on September 19, 2008

I would also put up money to get her collaborate on a MeFiMusic track. Especially if it's a remix of Punch 'Em In The Dick.
posted by burnmp3s at 4:07 AM on September 19, 2008

Convert to atheism, denounce god pronounce religion dead
Faith in nothing, trace my wrists with razors
I refuse to wait for the blaze to erase my spirit
Death - faced with it - run to it - not from it
Swallow all the pills in the medicine cabinet
Chase it with a bottle of 151, hug mommy
Head outside to smash windows in, trash my hotel lobby
Break the grip off the time at last
I find I get to him up, wish I did more sinnin
Get a strap on run up in two women
Laid in the middle of a highway wait for pain to hit me
Still a can with people lootin screamin come and get me
Find the biggest pawn shop biggest gun crowded street
Blow my brains to hell - I'm gone - and let the devil come for me

You know, everywhere online they got the lyrics wrong for this bit...it's pawn shop, not porn shop. And "hung" mommy? WTF is that?
posted by Edgewise at 4:23 AM on September 19, 2008

I wonder if she's setting any boundaries for this project.
For $800, would she be willing to drop some verses over cheesy 80's casio? Or experimental black metal? Just let me know, Jean, I'll be setting up my double-kick bass drum off in the corner here...
posted by naju at 5:10 AM on September 19, 2008

Wow, that really isn't a lot of money for someone as talented as Jean Grae.

Watch Me
Hater's Anthem
posted by fire&wings at 5:19 AM on September 19, 2008

jouke: I'm sure music.metafilter can come up with some great stuff for her to record or to collaborate on. $800 is not that hard to amass from metafilter donations.

Seriously. This shouldn't be idle talk. I'm in too if we actually pursue this.
posted by djeo at 8:06 AM on September 19, 2008

wow, never heard of her before, but damn. and she worked with Mr. Len from Company Flow? that's pretty fucking outstanding, right there.
posted by shmegegge at 8:27 AM on September 19, 2008

WOW! This is the first I've heard of her. Fucking dope. The female Rakim. Thanks for introducing me to her cashman.
posted by vito90 at 8:29 AM on September 19, 2008

The female Rakim.

Um, let's not get carried away with ourselves.

She's a female Jean Grae.
posted by Edgewise at 9:08 AM on September 19, 2008

or a female Foxy Brown.

Oh Snap! No I di'int!
posted by shmegegge at 9:10 AM on September 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

Yeah, this is really good. kudos for pointing her out. will listen to more.
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 9:57 AM on September 19, 2008

Jean Grae is definitely my favorite female rapper. Whatever it is that makes rappers good that a lot of women don't seem to have, she has it.
posted by BackwardsHatClub at 10:17 AM on September 19, 2008

I'm in too if we actually pursue this.

me too.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:32 AM on September 19, 2008

Metatalk thread on the idea to get Jean Grae to work for/with music.metafilter.
posted by jouke at 10:50 AM on September 19, 2008

Best moment at a hip hop show for me maybe ever? Dancing with Jean Grae down the line as closed the show with a Soul Train Line out of the venue.

My favorite Jean Grae track, and one of the best verses in years and years is in "Nonsense/Pardon You":

Possibly I could
drop in some knowledge--I should
But I ain't finished college and I'm not a Kanye.
Got it? Good.

Intelligent rhetoric, brain packed like a tenament
Aim back at the tenants
My face crack in a venomous rage

I really want to blaze all you
Burn you like 8 Halls do
Hurl you like Florida storm furniture

Permanent marker tagged in black up on your partner's penis
Pardon the phoenix I mark it plus I bark the meanest

Hardly elitist, I know the struggle
I mostly bubble underground
Like a soda below some broken rubble...
posted by kosem at 12:33 PM on September 19, 2008

[Sorry cashman...didn't see that you had linked to that tune, I read the rest of the FAs and YTs, though.]
posted by kosem at 12:42 PM on September 19, 2008

I like this a lot—thanks!
posted by languagehat at 2:15 PM on September 19, 2008

I wonder if she'd rap over ukulele. I'm guessing not.
posted by davejay at 3:41 PM on September 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

I wonder if she'd rap over ukulele. I'm guessing not.

Oh I think she would - we just need to get up enough money. I'm sure we can come up with a funky ukulele track.
posted by cashman at 3:54 PM on September 19, 2008

I'll go in for $25.
posted by small_ruminant at 4:25 PM on September 19, 2008

I've been listening to this for weeks, but didn't know there was a video game style video for it - "The Right" (Jean's verse is second).
posted by cashman at 10:01 PM on September 19, 2008

Jean Grae, best female rapper ever? Maybe the best female rapper lately. Best female rapper ever? Nah, never that.
posted by milarepa at 6:33 AM on September 20, 2008

Not that you were really addressing it toward me since I didn't say that, but I don't think she's the best rapper, female or otherwise, ever. But as far as best female lyricists, you'd be hard pressed to make a case for more than 1 or 2 other people outdoing her.
posted by cashman at 2:43 PM on September 21, 2008