Jean Grae

When the bling era was beginning, and female MCs who lacked sex appeal were relegated to the sidelines. For rap to be a serious music-label rainmaker, its sales had to be boosted by any means necessary. Women MCs entering the game who relied on lyrcial skills above glamour or sexual magnetism could not move units. Jean Grae the Brooklyn-based MC embraces by lovers of lyrically dense, classical produced rap almost threw in the towel more than a decade of rhyming. A highly respected underground MC since 2002's acclaimed Attack Of The Attacking Things, Grae hearkened back to an era in Hip Hop that predated marketing, promotion, and the "sex sells" mantra. Frustrated by the culture's challenges in the digital era her third album, Jeanius, was heavily bootlegged, she blogged about goodbye to her fans on MySpace in 2008, but soon aborted her premature retirement. Grae is quite possibly the greatest female MC of all time.