My Gut Reaction: Jean Grae & 9th Wonder - Jeanius (July 8, 2008)

In 2004, Brooklyn-based rapper Jean Grae released her second full-length project, This Week, on Babygrande Records. It was met with critical acclaim, if not a lot of commercial success, but that seems to be par for the course for an underground artist who used to go by the nickname What? What?. My own review, published earlier this year, seemed to fall in line with my general opinion of Grae: her writing is polished and has only improved over time, but she hasn’t yet found the right production to underscore her messages and boasts. Jean Grae seemed destined to only have a loyal cult audience, but in no way is that to be considered a bad thing.

If you were following the Interweb back in 2004, however, you would be forgiven if you thought Grae was a much more popular artist than she truly is, as her third full-length, Jeanius, was rather heavily bootlegged, so much so that it took her team four years to get their shit together (and for Grae to work herself into a better label situation) in order to release it to the public in a proper fashion.

Jeanius aimed to solve the conundrum that was her ear for production, doing so by hiring on North Carolina-based beatsmith 9th Wonder (of Little Brother fame) to handle the entire project. One would think this meant that 9th would produce every single beat on here, but apparently it doesn’t, as he calls in favors from a couple of his friends throughout. I mean, listen, other producers are capable of handling full collaborative projects from start to finish, so I don’t really know how 9th got away with this, but whatever.

Originally set to be distributed by Babygrande, Jean Grae ended up taking Jeanius to Blacksmith Records, the vanity imprint of Talib Kweli, after she was able to finagle her way out of her contract. Jeanius saw a proper release in 2008, four years after rampant bootlegging almost caused her career to prematurely end (the lesson here, kids, is to fucking support the artists you enjoy listening to, because you’re taking food out of their goddamn mouths when you steal their shit). She stayed active in the underground and mixtape circuit, but wasn’t able to release an album in between This Week and Jeanius due to label drama. In 2008, though, she wasted no time getting her name back out there once she was finally able to move past this project.

Kweli and Blacksmith released an updated version of Jeanius with some bonus songs and numerous variant covers in a nod to Grae’s beloved comic books, each one designed to mimic some of her favorite hip hop albums such as Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… and Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back. This was intended to give listeners the impression that Jeanius was a throwback to the good old days within our chosen genre, when lyrical skill mattered and set you apart from the masses. Whether or not that happened is anyone’s guess, however: likely due to the rampant bootlegging four years prior, Jeanius didn’t exactly set the charts on fire. But I imagine it to be held in high esteem among hip hop critics and heads of a certain generation.

So let’s see what I can do to take it down several notches.  (I’m typing these paragraphs after having written the rest of this review, so you may see this as giving away the ending. Do with that info whatever you wish.)

1. INTRO

Jean is back on her bombastic bullshit, which is fine, as this is a rap album intro that features two verses from our host, likely what everyone was hoping for in the first place. Grae sounds pretty damn good, too, confident and cocky without apology. My biggest problem with “Intro” (and my biggest fear for Jeanius) was 9th Wonder’s instrumental, which isn’t celebratory, isn’t grandiose, and doesn’t announce the impending arrival of Jean Grae: rather, she picks up the mic as though Jeanius were a program already in progress, having previously been interrupted by a weather alert or a car chase. 9th’s work here isn’t bad, but right off the bat it doesn’t appear to fit our host, instead choosing to challenge her to meet his requirements, and that could be a huge fucking problem. Sigh.

2. 2-32S (FEAT. DAILY PLANET)

Simple and straightforward, with a fairly sparse 9th Wonder instrumental providing the barest of bones for Grae to build her verse. “2-32s” consists of two verses at thirty-two bars each (making that the most descriptive and utilitarian song title ever created), one apiece from our host and her guest Daily Planet, whose rap name I just dig. The rhymes are blasé shit-talking from two artists who could pull out the big guns to impress the listener, but fuck it, bragging is much more entertaining, and they’re not wrong. The only parts I didn’t care for one here were the intro and outro, where Jean’s ad-libs sound completely artificial and forced, so poorly so that it’ll be difficult for me to ever want to sit through this one again, even though I really fucking liked the verses. The hell?

3. DON’T RUSH ME (FEAT. 9 TH WONDER)

This is going to sound strange, but try to follow my train of thought here. I kind of really hated this song. It’s not as though Grae sounds any different than usual, though: her bars are fire, confident as they always are. But they sound hesitant and awkward, likely a result of 9th’s beat, which sounds like the exact wrong instruments and computer programming trickery were used to form music: it’s one of the most frustrating things I’ve listened to in quite some time, because even though I’m not a fan of 9th Wonder, I know he can put together a good beat. “Don’t Rush Me” is fucking terrible. The combination made my ears bleed. So here’s the strange part: “Don’t Rush Me” was a bonus track on Jean Grae’s previous album This Week, and I loved the song when it appeared there. I suppose one could look at this as an interesting study in how an album’s context can affect how certain songs affect or are affected by the listening experience. Presented on Jeanius, this song can go kick rocks, but I argued that “Don’t Rush Me” “bangs like nothing else does on This Week”, so maybe our host should have just left it on her prior project and moved forward. Still, that’s kind of weird, right? Do you two have examples of this phenomenon of your own? Let me know in the comments.

4. MY STORY

Okay, this one was pretty great, if incredibly fucking depressing. “My Story” follows Jean Grae’s past abortions, accidents that occurred due to the boredom she experienced as a teen, and how they’ve affected her both mentally and physically since. Rappers talk about considering suicide all the time, but our host is one of very few who has actually attempted to follow through on the threat. The care present on “My Story” is in the details, which are prevalent, as our host wants to listener to understand what she was thinking at the time. The second verse, where she describes waiting for the procedure, hits hard, and 9th’s instrumental knows better than to intrude. Grae’s ability to twist her own personal experiences into a wrenching, but teachable moment for the listener is at its strongest on “My Story”. A must-hear.

5. THE TIME IS NOW (FEAT. PHONTE)

As you know, not every song needs to be so serious, so our host plays up her boisterous goofball side on “The Time Is Now”, her duet with Phonte, who used to work regularly alongside 9th Wonder in the group Little Brother. A reference to Jean and Phonte being “the Ashford and Simpson of this rap shit” at the very beginning turns literal after the guest completes his verse, as the two fuck around with “Solid As A Rock” until they just can’t keep straight faces anymore. For a rap song, it was alright, but not great. As an example of artists actually having fun with this weird-ass career choice, though, it’s infectious as hell, and the moment they broke character left me with a smile on my face.

6. BILLY KILLER

Grae’s ode to a former lover and partner who helped her deal with music industry bullshit, along with some of the other issued in her life at the time. 9th’s instrumental is the backdrop for a third-person tale of… well, not revenge, exactly, but “Billy Killer” describes a man who is persistent about getting Grae the money she’s owed, so maybe use the word “persistence” instead. As she is obviously still a part of the music industry, the names of specific record label executives called out on here have been censored, although she’s since revealed that her anger was directed, at least in part, toward her former label, Babygrande, so at least this one track likely wasn't a part of the leaked version of Jeanius. 9th’s selection of soul sample didn’t click for me, but our host shows her affection for the subject of her song regardless.

7. THINK ABOUT IT

9th Wonder’s beat asks for one of two things it never receives: a guest star, as it’s constructed simply enough to amplify any artist’s verse, and why should Jean Grae hog it all for herself?; and/or placement at the very beginning of Jeanius, as its sound is far more grandiose than “Intro” was. The beat is good, is what I’m saying. Lyrically, however, Grae is all over the place, her boasts-n-bullshit never finding the pocket, disrupting the flow of an otherwise-decent track. At least until the end, when the song goes off on a racist rant that is played for (questionable) laughs, but makes zero fucking sense within the presented context. The hell did I just listen to?

8. #8

Khrysis’ beat wasn’t bad: both whimsical and melancholy, it has the structure of a good hip hop song built into its DNA. But Jean Grae wasn’t the best rapper to give it to. The bars are on point, but her flow sounds uncomfortable with the surroundings, leading to awkward, clipped phrases and a general sense of lacking. The eighth song on Jeanius doesn’t even have a proper fucking title: is that indicative of the level of thought given to this track? Khrysis should have held this one back for someone else: my mind immediately thought of Styles P for some reason. Sigh.

9. AMERICAN PIMP (FEAT. MEDIAN)

Curiously, “American Pimp” is also credited to Khrysis and not 9th Wonder, so why exactly does 9th receive second billing on this project? Our host and her guest, Median, each use up a verse from their respective notebooks to tell isolated tales of hardship, Grae, in particular, speaking on a woman who turns to prostitution as th seemingly sole means of taking care of her children. Until she’s found murdered at the end of the track. So, this is some sad shit indeed. What none of “American Pimp” is, though, is entertaining: the two instrumentals Khrysis provides act as a vehicle for the verses to move along with, but that vehicle is a beat-up Ford Escort with one headlight and the driver’s door missing: nothing you'd ever want to use yourself, but technically proficient. Also, Median’s contribution is kind of awful. At least our host seems invested in her words, even if nobody else here is.

10. THIS WORLD

I liked this one for what it was: a quick three verses (and a hook) from our host where she talks her shit, exerting dominance over 9th’s simple, soulful loop that works in a vocal sample (taken from Love Unlimited’s “If This World Were Mine”) that both gives “This World” its title and takes the place of Grae uttering the words herself every fourth bar or so. “This World” is just another one of those rap songs where Jean Grae claims that she’;ll never stop doing what she’s doing and how she’s doing it, but that doesn’t make it any less engaging to listen to, especially as there isn’t anyone out there actively campaigning for Jean to quit rapping (and if there are, they’re not worthy of hearing out anyway). I also appreciated how 9th just ends the track, as opposed to fading out the beat, even with Jean Grae talking about “this world fad[ing] out” during her hook. It’s the little things for me.

11. LOVE THIRST

The longest song on Jeanius and it isn’t even close, but that classification comes with an asterisk. “Love Thirst” is a love/lust/sex rap from our host, complete with the attention to detail we’ve come to expect from our host, but her contribution over 9th’s loop only lasts for two verses, leaving roughly half of the instrumental to just… play. Obviously “Love Thirst” was built with a guest appearance in mind: how Blacksmith let this one go in such an incomplete fashion, especially after the heavy bootlegging postponed its original release, seems to be a questionable business decision at beat, and a major fuck-up at worst. At least 9th’s beat is pleasant, but it isn’t one you’d want to hear playing all by itself for three minutes. Ugh.

12. DESPERADA

Our host diverts from the “Love Thirst” trap to get back on track, using “Desperada” as a way to work through the pain she experienced during her failed suicide attempt. She sounds grateful to have been given another chance, but still details her state of mind prior to everything happening in order to provide proper context. Rap songs about the importance of maintaining your mental health are few and far between, and they were even more sparse back in 2004 (again, when Jeanius originally leaked), so the mere existence of “Desperada” is, by and large, a huge fucking deal. 9th Wonder generally stays out of Jean’s way on this one, with an unobtrusive beat that gives our host all of the tools she requires. I’m not sure why “Desperada” fades out nearly thirty seconds before the track ends, leaving a prolonged silence that doesn’t lead to anything except the final song, but I’ll chalk it up to “the label fucked up and shipped a product without proofing it.”

13. SMASHMOUTH (FEAT. K HILL, EDGAR ALLEN FLOE, & JOE SCUDDA)

Jeanius ends with a posse cut that sounds very far removed from the rest of the project: hell, Jean Grae’s verse seems more like a contractual requirement than it does an excited collaboration. The instrumental eschews all of Fatin’s soulful samples in favor of a generic bouncy loop, and every single rapper that appears on “Smashmouth” sounds uninspired. I take that back: Jean was okay, as was Joe Scudda, but not good enough that you’d ever want to listen to this shit ever again, especially after hearing the dreadful chorus, which literally contains the line, “Smash mouth, smash your mouth.” How anybody saw this as a proper ending to Jeanius has me questioning my own life choices.

There’s a deluxe edition of Jeanius that contains the following additional tracks.

14. LOVE THIRST (REMIX) (FEAT. BUSTA RHYMES)

Well, this is bonkers: the official remix to “Love Thirst” features the exact same 9th Wonder instrumental (which isn’t a negative) and, finally, a guest star (Busta Rhymes, who most certainly is the biggest name on the project), but runs nearly two full minutes shorter than the album version. What the actual fuck? Trevor opens this remix, spitting some bars about boning so as to stay on theme, while Grae’s verse is the same as her second on the original. Seriously, how hard could it have possibly been to just add Busta to the empty space in the first take? “Love Thirst (Remix)” is okay, in that it’s nice to hear our host collaborate with an artist of Trevor’s magnitude and hold her own, but this re-do goes south so quickly that it isn’t even worth tracking down. So many questions.

15. THAT’S WHAT’S UP NOW (FEAT. TALIB KWELI)

It’s weird that in the bonus tracks would be where the big name cameos would be hiding, but that’s just where we are as a society now. “That’s What’s Up Now” features Grae’s label boss at the time, Talib Kweli, but unlike “Love Thirst (Remix)”, it’s clear from the jump that she actually worked with Kweli on here, as the two pass the microphone back and forth, creating a more playful vibe over Rich Harrison’s instrumental. (Yeah, that’s right, 9th Wonder and his team had fuck-all to do with this song.) “That’s What’s Up Now” was pleasant and entirely forgettable, so it certainly was a song that happens to exist, but it’s entirely inoffensive to hip hop heads, and at least Jean Grae seems to be enjoying herself.

THE LAST WORD: I didn’t really care for a lot of Jeanius, but the blame does not fall anywhere near Jean Grae’s shoulders: for the most part, her rhymes are wielded skillfully, and I appreciate how she is able to touch upon subject matter that most rappers would avoid like the plague, and in the same breath, she can provide the listeners with the boasts-n-bullshit inherent within the genre. She has a few missteps, but for the most part Jean Grae did her part. At least in my ears, the fault for Jeanius not completely working for me lies squarely at the feet of producer 9th Wonder, who fails his host by providing soulful instrumentals that have no actual soul, having been constructed in such a hateful manner with so little care that I’m almost convinced that he’s trying to dismantle hip hop from the inside out. He’s certainly capable of crafting the great beat here and there, but his work on Jeanius borders on spiteful, and his work feels generic and paint-by-numbers, of the “insert soul sample here” variety. That sounds incredibly harsh, and it is, but I honestly don’t see what everyone else likes about his work both in and outside of Little Brother. I’m sure he’s a good guy, and he’ll likely hate my guts if he ever reads this, but his production has never clicked for me, and he inadvertently drags down Jean Grae as a part of this mess. You know how everyone seems to love a certain director or actor, but you’ve tried multiple times and you just can’t see the appeal? That. Grae carries the successful tracks on Jeanius through sheer willpower, her best lyrics rivaling the finest our genre has to offer, and I’m happy that her career wasn’t derailed by the heavy bootlegging of this project. Sadly, though, I can’t say that I’ll ever want to listen to any of this again: the most creativity 9th Wonder showed with Jeanius was in the different variant album covers he took part in. I must note that there are a handful of 9th Wonder-produced songs out there that I unequivocally love: however, none of them appear on Jeanius, so.

-Max

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