Nov. 27: hip hop artist Jean Grae AKA What? What? and Da Easter Bunny is 34 today.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1976,and now living in New York, Jean's given name is Tsidi Ibrahim. She is the daughter of South African jazz musicians, the celebrated musicians Sathima Bea Benjamin and Abdullah Ibrahim.

(Press album cover for direct link to the entire Amazon Website):

Jean studied Vocal Performance at the LaGuardia School of Music & Art before majoring in Music Business at New York University. She also did some modeling during her teen years.

Ibrahim initially worked under the names Major Woody & Da Easter Bunny because she thought it would be funny to hear those names announced at shows. After working with groups including Ground Zero, she joined a hip hop music group called Natural Resource in the mid-1990s, along with rapper Ocean. In 1996 they released a pair of singles called "Negro League Baseball" on their own label Makin’ Records.

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 name, she released her first LP, Attack of the Attacking Things in 2002, followed by This Week in 2004.

Throughout her career she has also recorded tracks with numerous major hip hop artists including Atmosphere, The Roots, Talib Kweli, The Herbaliser, Da Beatminerz, Phonte, Mr. Len, Masta Ace, Vordul Mega, C-Rayz Walz, Mos Def, and Immortal Technique.

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