It looks like the talented Jean Grae finally has a release date for Jeanius, her long-delayed album with producer 9th Wonder. It's scheduled to hit stores on June 15. (May 28 update: The digital version was released to iTunes on May 27; the physical CD comes out July 8.)
Jeanius has a tortured history. It originally appeared on
peer-to-peer networks such as Limewire way back in 2004; according to who you talk to (and when
you talked to them), it was leaked by the artists themselves or someone
in their camp. Everyone who heard it said it was amazing, so why didn't
it officially come out? Fast forward to 2005, when Talib Kweli's
manager Corey Smyth landed a distribution deal with Warner Bros. for the duo's new
venture, Blacksmith Records. One of Blacksmith's first signees was Jean Grae.
And it's been a waiting game for Jeanius ever since.
Last
month, Jean Grae posted an item on her MySpace page titled "Thank You
For Letting Me Be Myself." The post was widely misinterpreted as a retirement announcement:
Everyone who has been on this ride with me since the beginning and
continues to be a supporter of music that makes you feel something true
and vulnerable and honest by being just that.
It's been a wonderful and awful journey all at the same time. Mostly leaning towards the wonderful part..lol.
Thank
you for letting me share what I could with you and sharing yourselves
back, as you have really been the reason that I kept on.
It's always nice to know that you could be the voice of someone who didn't have one, or know just how to say it. No comment or letter or statement of appreciation has ever gone unnoticed. I love to write, I love to be able to create imagery and a world out of just words.
I will always love what I consider to be true hip hop music... from the bottom of my soul.
I
hope you will continue to distinguish those who are contributors to the
evolution of hip hop and other black music as both an auditory
stimulation and a culture, taking care that they are put in a position
to do so.
Thank you listeners, whom I consider my friends and family....
Oddly, Jeanius isn't coming out via Warner
Bros. Instead, it has been demoted to Alternative Distribution
Alliance, Warner's distribution line for indie companies. It's similar
to Consequence's situation when his Don't Quit Your Day Job! came out through Sony's RED
Distribution instead of Sony itself. However, unlike Consequence's
wildly uneven solo debut, Jeanius should be a great album. If the
soon-to-be-released version is as good as the leaked edition from four
years back, then Grae has finally made the classic her fans have been waiting for.
