An Interview with Jean Grae
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUPThis interview was conducted by telephone in March, 2006, between College Station, Texas and New York City.
WALSH: Could you detail a bit your growing up in the hip-hop culture?
GRAE: It's kind of hard to pinpoint. I think at that time, going to high school in the early nineties, there was no way you could escape it. It was just the climate of New York, the amount of talent that was coming out was what we were looking at—the golden era of hip-hop and a lot of indie kids. It was a real interesting time. I grew up not having too much of that in the home aside from my brother who was older than me and put me on to a lot of stuff. He was a KRS fan and an Ultramagnetic fan, so that was kind of my first exposure at home to it. Beyond that, just being a normal New York teen listening to the late night radio stations and Hot 97, the huge "where hip-hop lives" station, known as the freestyle station before it was anything. Not so much radio until I got older and started listening to Stretch and Bob late night and independent or college radio. It was a thing when kids finally realized that you could put out your music yourself and you didn't have to wait around and get signed. It was possible to learn for yourself and be able to put out music on your own or on an underground level. It was kind of unavoidable to be a part of it, I guess. I wasn't rhyming at first. I was definitely writing, but I wasn't doing a lot of rhyming though I would make beats. I wanted to be a DJ and I was a really, really horrible DJ. I didn't carry around a lot of records—them coffins were very heavy, so I opted to take something that was a little lighter and I figured a pen and a pad would be pretty damn light.
WALSH: So what did you look for as far as the things that you were really into?
GRAE: Kind of a strange question, I guess.
WALSH: Meaning what qualities of what you called "the golden age of hip-hop" were the qualities of the things that you looked for the most?
GRAE: Anything different. You know what I'm saying? There was a time when it wasn't looked down upon to be different or to have your own style. You could have Kool Keith on one side and Q-tip or Kool G Rap on the other. So, there was definitely more of a variety [End Page 816] and everyone could kind of have their own thing—like Special Ed, you know, and Heavy D. You could find something that you could enjoy and dance to in the club and there's nothing wrong with that.
WALSH: And that diversity, where do you think it has gone? Why has it dissipated?
GRAE: I don't think it has dissipated. I think there's a lot of kids that are talented and creative out there. Things changed when the media and larger companies realized that this was something that you could make a lot of money on and wanted to find something in the genre that works. That's pretty much how everything else goes. If it's not broke don't fix it. If something wins, recycle it over and over again. I don't think the creativity ever really stopped. I think it's a little scary to know that if you get creative on your first project, it'll get you no attention at all. Let's say you do have a chance to be on that kind of major label and get it out there, if that first single doesn't pop off that's it. It's over for you. Is it...
