A few years ago super-talented New York hip-hop lyricist Jean Grae threatened to quit the music business altogether. Luckily for hip-hop fans everywhere, who treasure the relatively few positive female emcees in a male-dominated field, that temptation to call it quits passed and Ms. Grae stayed in the game and continued to both perform and record (she is in good company on Talib Kweli's label Blacksmith Music).  Currently on tour she headlines Oakland's New Parish tomorrow night, September 7th, on a bill with Mr Len from Company Flow and local (by way of NY) DJ Ren the Vinyl Archeologist kicking things off, along with host Flossafee.

A while back I caught up with Jean Grae to ask her about her once thinking of quitting, and also what it is like to be a female in such a male dominated genre? "It's really hard to not quit. It's gonna be eighty times harder than the dude next to you," she said of being a woman in rap, adding that "It's definitely a difficult place to be and it definitely requires a thick skin. And sometimes it's hard and sometimes you want to quit." But she noted that having good supportive and positive people in your immediate circle and a "love of" what you do, makes it all fall into place.

Jean Grae headlines tomorrow, Wednesday September 7th, in the East Bay show. Doors 8pm. Tix $15 The New Parish is located at 579 18th Street near San Pablo in downtown Oakland More Info

The Soft Pack were set to play Sunset Junction last weekend. That didn’t happen, but the L.A. by way of San Diego band did set up for a surprise backyard show in Highland Park with Devon Williams in an awesome D.I.Y. way that made Sunset Junction’s absence less of a bummer. With the addition of a saxophone player that also played on their upcoming new album, The Soft Pack sounded stronger and more focused than ever before, honing their garage rock into perfect-summer-day surf rock. I chatted with drummer Brian Hill about the changes the band has made over the years, from their first album, as The Muslims, to 2010’s self-titled album, to now. Bonus: Free download of "Extinction" by The Soft Pack recorded live at Amoeba.

PST: Your guys’ transition from the Muslims to The Soft Pack across the two albums saw you guys employing a cleaner sound with more hi-fi production. What can you tell me about the new recordings so far?

Hill: So far, we've got a little more than half of the new record written and recorded. We went into a nice studio again, so the hi-fi sound is still a factor. We've gotten a lot more into doing actual tricks and production as well, overdubbing a lot of cool keyboard, sax and percussion tracks. That's kind of been the coolest part for us this time around.

PST: Are you playing any of the new songs live? What are some new songs we should look for in your live sets?
 
Hill: Actually, the new set is going to have about six or seven new songs in it. We're trying to get them down, so they don't sound like utter garbage. Also, we'll be bringing our friend Tony out on the road with us to help play sax, keys and extra guitar. We're trying to step up our game as much as possible for the next record. You gotta keep yourself entertained as well.

Exactly eighteen years ago on this date, the word DEF was officially laid to rest. It was that day when Rick Rubin - who initially was a part of Def Jam but later broke away and set up his own Def American Records label, which in turn morphed into American Records -- supposedly officially layed the dated hip-hop slang word to rest. This he did via an extravagant funeral service and even went so far as to get a legal death certificate, buy a real life size casket, secure a plot at the Hollywood Cemetery (which is still there to this day), and hold a faux solemn, funeral ceremony with Rev Al Sharpton acting as officiator.

Rap music industry vet and author Dan Charnas worked for Rick Rubin at Def American's headquarters in LA at the time and in his recently published book, The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop, he dedicates some space to the topic of the death of "def." This week I caught up with Charnas via phone from his New York home office to ask him about this date back in 1993 when the word "def" was laid to rest.  Charnas, who had already been working a couple of years for the brilliant (but oft quirky) Rubin, recalled how, back as early as 1991, his boss had told him, "Eventually I am going to change the name of Def American to just American. And eventually I am going to bury it. I am going to have a funeral." Charnas said that then Rubin asked with a laugh, "And then what's Russell gonna do?"  Charnas recalled of Rubin, "It struck his Bud Abbott-esque need to prank Russell [Simmons of Def Jam]," and that the death of def was combined with other factors. "It was the fact that he wanted a divorce from his past. The fact that there was some consumer confusion. The fact that he could prank Russell a little. The fact that the word was very much out of style," said Charnas. "So he wanted to do a grand piece of performance art."

Dub Esquire (a.k.a. Dub Esq) is one of those Bay Area hip-hop soldiers who has been quietly on the grind for two full decades.  Since the early '90s, the Oakland-born and bred emcee has been tirelessly putting his heart and soul into his favorite art form. He is one of those dedicated hip-hop heads who may not be known on a mainstream level but yet has been paying his proverbial dues since the early '90s when he first arrived on the scene in the long-defunct but oft-referenced underground Bay Area hip-hop group Misfitz Ov Stylz. More recently he's been getting props for his solo recordings -- recordings that often blur that division between so-called "rap" and "hip-hop" with the release of the album G-13 and the EP Rap Starz. However, soon both of these fine releases will be eclipsed when, in 2012, he drops his most ambitious project yet, his album The Odyssey with its impressive line up of guest spots that include such luminaries as The Grouch, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Sadat X.

For the past decade, unique and refreshingly quirky Illinois hip-hop wordsmith Serenegeti has been quietly amassing a large body of work (about sixteen albums worth) via a string of solo albums matched by an equally impressive series of collaboration projects with such other artists as Polyphonic and Hi-Fidel - not to mention a slew of memorable cameo appearances in verses on other emcee's albums. Clearly rarely idle this prolific Mid West artist recently found time to relocate west to Cali. He now calls Los Angeles home and for his just released latest (and perhaps most accessible to date) album,  Family & Friends released on CD and vinyl, he reconnected with the Cali based Anticon label through whom he also released the 2009 Polyphonic collab Terradactyl. He also recorded parts of it in Oakland, CA in Why? front-man Yoni Wolf's home studio.  The new album's other producer, Advance Base (otherwise known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone) also has a knack for bringing out only the very best in this left-of-center lyricist. The result is Serengeti's best (and one of 2011's best hip-hop) albums to date.

For Family & Friends Serengeti delivers more of his trademark engaging stories (his albums are like books with the songs been character-driven chapters - this one an 11 chapter collection of short stories) delivered in a stream-of-consciousness sounding flow. As usual you know it's Serengeti the moment he opens his mouth and you hear his distinctive voice followed by these  lyrically rich, deep tales of complex characters - all personas (part fiction, part reality) that he adapts so convincingly that you are sure he is talking in first person, and from first hand experience.