Jean Grae Has “Paid Dues”

The noise coming from the Paid Dues Festival is enough to drown out Jean Grae’s voice as she sits in her dressing room. Dressed in simple blue jeans and a black top, Jean has that around-the-way Brooklyn girl appeal that makes her sexy yet unapproachable at the same time. Her voice and the lyrical content are plenty approachable, though. With several successful albums under her belt, she got the invite to perform at Paid Dues, the seminal alternative Hip-Hop showcase that started years ago at small spots in Hollywood and now literally drives out thousands to the National Orange Show fairgrounds in San Bernardino, Calif. “I don’t know what being home feels like,” says Jean, reclining in a small sofa. She looks rushed, and asks about a certain alcoholic beverage to calm her nerves before she goes onstage. The fact that her computer crashed and she’ll have to do her show off the iPod probably doesn’t help, either.

Jean realizes the vodka won’t arrive and she moves on as expected of an artist who is her own manager. Besides, she reveals that reading, writing and pool are more important to her — and cooking. “I have a lot of dinner parties and just people coming over,” she says.

At the moment, Jean is reading Truman Capote‘s “In Cold Blood,” which the Oscar-winning
“Capote” was based on. Seeing her story told in the New Yorker one day, the magazine for which Truman Capote worked, would be up there with being on Saturday Night Live, she says. Big time may be around the corner or it may not, but Jean has figured emceeing is her meal ticket for now. Traveling home to South Africa before soccer’s World Cup in 2010 and funding her mom’s dreams of opening orphanages and AIDS clinics in the country will have to wait. Currently signed to Talib Kweli’s Blacksmyth imprint at Warner Bros., Jean is working on her first major label debut, due later this year.

“I like working with producers and don’t like taking beats off a beat CD,” she says, words coming out almost like a warning. “I record most of my shit at home, and I go away. I never write anything beforehand.”

Among people she’s lined up to produce her are Buckwild and Nottz. Lord Finesse will also be in the mix, but not before a special arrangement. “We need to have our pool game first, because we’ve been throwing insults at each other,” Jean says, her Brooklyn wit on full display. And speaking of Brooklyn, that’s home base. Touring nonstop the last several years has driven Jean to appreciate home that much more, and appreciate her own roof and four walls without a roommate. If and when she’ll get there is uncertain — she’s on her way to Miami the day after Paid Dues — but it doesn’t stop her from a moment of reflection in the midst of madness. “Being a grown up has been interesting,” she says.