Jean Grae

On August 5, 2018, Grae was wedded to her longtime boyfriend Quelle Chris at an intimate location, the W Loft in Brooklyn.

On September 9, 2018, Jean Grae and Quelle Chris released their 15 track joint album "Everything's Fine". Rolling Stone rated the album as the 22nd best Hip Hop Album of 2018. "Everything's fine" included many guest appearances including Anna Wise and Hannibal Buress.

On December 3, 2017, Jean Grae got engaged to fellow rapper and producer Quelle Chris. He is known for more than 15 studio albums and collaborative albums with fellow rappers.

On October 2, 2016, Grae hosted the Golden Probes, which paid tribute to "outstanding achievements in the fields of sexism and anti-abortion extremism".

More recently Grae has branched out from music, releasing the audiobook The State of Eh, in January 2014, and writing, directing and starring in the online sitcom Life with Jeanie. In 2013, she had a supporting role in the indie feature film Big Words and in 2015 appeared on the And The Crime Ring episode of CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls.

On June 25, 2011, after a three-year break, Grae released a free mixtape entitled Cookies or Comas, which features guest appearances from Styles P, Talib Kweli and Pharoahe Monch; it also includes the highly praised tracks "Assassins" from Monch's W.A.R. album and "Uh Oh" From Talib Kweli's Gutter Rainbows. This was followed on January 2, 2013, by the 10-track Dust Ruffle, featuring unreleased songs from between 2004 and 2010. Of the album she says: "It's such an interesting retrospective project because I get to actually hear myself evolve from 2004-2010. Snapshots of life." Between October and November 2013 she released a series of EPs entitled Gotham Down Cycle 1: Love in Infinity (Lo-Fi), Gotham Down Cycle II: Leviathan, Gotham Down Cycle 3: The Artemis Epoch. In December 2013 she combined the releases into one, entitled Gotham Down Deluxe. In an interview on Judge John Hodgman late in 2012 she foreshadowed that her next full-length album would be called Cake or Death.

Grae recorded an album with celebrated North Carolina producer 9th Wonder, of Little Brother fame, entitled Jeanius; the unfinished recording was leaked on the internet, and subsequently work stopped on the album. However, at the release party for 9th Wonder's Dream Merchant Volume 2 she stated that Jeanius was still going to be released. The album was eventually released on June 24, 2008, through Zune Live Marketplace, then on disc on July 8, 2008. Her rapping on the album was described by Robert Christgau as "remarkable for its rapidity, clarity and idiomatic cadence. The writing has a good-humored polysyllabic literacy." Elsewhere, it was reported that her proposed fourth album, provisionally titled Phoenix had gone into production and that 9th Wonder would handle the lion's share of the production duties with unknown UK producer Passion Hifi, English producer DJ SonicBass and NY resident Clinikal providing a beat each.

Previously signed to Babygrande Records, she signed a deal in 2005 with Talib Kweli's Blacksmith Records. On April 28, 2008, Grae posted a blog entry on her MySpace page saying goodbye to her fans. She later cited disenchantment with the music industry and desire to start a family as the reasons behind the "retirement" and said that she was working on new material and still wanted to continue in music: "You know what? I need that Grammy. I think I might be able to stop after that." In July 2008, Talib Kweli posted a blog entry explaining Grae's album, mentioning that she was not retiring. He encouraged fans to purchase the album, referring to Grae as "one of the last true MCs left." Grae returned to doing live performances later that year.

On September 18, 2008, Jean Grae posted a Craigslist ad offering her creative services for $800/16 bars. On her MySpace blog, she stated, "I don't wanna complain anymore, I just wanna change some things about the way artists are treated and the way you guys are allowed to be involved, since it IS the digital age." Since that time, all of her music has been self-released through her website and Bandcamp.

In 2008, Grae wrote the autobiographical song "My Story", which paints a vivid picture of her experience getting an abortion at age 16.

Natural Resource dissolved in 1998, after which Ibrahim changed her stage name from What? What? to Jean Grae, a reference to the X-Men character Jean Grey. Under her new moniker, she released her first LP—Attack of the Attacking Things—on August 6, 2002, and followed it on September 21, 2004 with This Week. Throughout her career she has also recorded tracks with numerous major hip-hop artists, Atmosphere, The Roots, Talib Kweli, The Herbaliser, Royce da 5'9, Da Beatminerz, Phonte, Mr. Len, Masta Ace, Vordul Mega, C-Rayz Walz, Mos Def, Styles P, Pharoahe Monch and Immortal Technique among them.

In 1995, she was discovered by George Rithm Martinez, when he recruited her for a five-song demo under his group Ground Zero. Their demo was critically acclaimed and earned the duo "Unsigned Hype" honors in The Source in March 1996. She later joined a hip hop group called Natural Resource, along with fellow rapper Ocean and disc jockey James "AGGIE" Barrett. In 1996, they released a pair of 12-inch singles called "Negro League Baseball" b/w "Bum Deal" b/w "They Lied", and "Bum Deal (remix)" b/w "They Lied (remix)" b/w "I Love This World", on their own label, Makin' Records. She also appeared on singles by fellow Makin' Records artists Pumpkinhead and Bad Seed, as well as on the O.B.S. (Original Blunted Soldiers) double 12-inch single alongside crew members Pumpkinhead, Bad Seed and Meat-pie, and produced much of the material released on the label under the pseudonym Run Run Shaw. During this period she established strong ties with the Brooklyn Academy crew, with which she would appear throughout her career.

Tsidi Ibrahim, (November 26, 1976), known professionally as Jean Grae (formerly What? What?), is an American hip hop recording artist, emcee, producer, actress, and comedian from Brooklyn, New York City. She rose to prominence in the underground hip hop scene in New York City and has since built an international fanbase. She is known as an important figure in hip hop and popular culture. Grae, unlike many rappers and emcees, seeks to "rupture the normative narratives of black sexuality" and resist the bondage of heteronormativity. Thus she adopts the language of men to "assert her mastery over lyricism and her desire for both men and women". Nonetheless, her unique music style, gritty rhymes, and lyrical mastery have earned her recognition as a favorite emcee by many rap artists such as Talib Kweli, Jay-Z, and Black Thought of the Roots.

Jean Grae was born Tsidi Ibrahim, in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 26, 1976. The daughter of South African jazz musicians Sathima Bea Benjamin and Abdullah Ibrahim, she was raised in New York City, where her parents had relocated after her birth. She studied Vocal Performance at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, before majoring in Music Business at New York University. She dropped out after three weeks of class.