By Ben Edmonds/Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — Buffy Sainte-Marie. If you’re a baby boomer, the name surely rings bells. There’s probably a picture attached, circa the early-’60s folk music explosion, of a young American Indian girl with an acoustic guitar and a strange, singular vibrato as she performs protest anthems “Universal Soldier” and “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone.” If you’re a pop scholar, you think of her as the writer of “Until It’s Time for You to Go,” a hit for both Elvis Presley and Neil Diamond, and as coauthor of the 1982 Oscar-winning song “Up Where We Belong.”

In the decades since those pictures were fixed in our consciousness, the Canadian singer and songwriter has developed parallel and equally distinguished careers as a painter, computer artist and programmer, actor (there are those who know her only from her recurring “Sesame Street” role), educator and social activist.

She attributes our incomplete and out-of-date picture to U.S. government pressure resulting from her political activism, particularly regarding American Indian issues. “I was blacklisted, taken away from American audiences in my prime,” she says, “but that didn’t stop me. I had the rest of the world and lots of creative options to explore.”

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Jean Grae, “Jeanius” (Blacksmith Records/ Warner Bros.)

By BRETT JOHNSON/The Associated Press

For most indie-rap diehards, pairing producer 9th Wonder (Jay-Z, Erykah Badu) with South African-born, Brooklyn-bred rapper Jean Grae is an ideal match-up. Formerly of underground hip-hop darlings Little Brother, 9th Wonder’s known for subtly textured, retro-sounding beats - looped, dusty soul samples and drum kicks that pop. Meanwhile, Grae’s respected for being among a species of rapper facing extinction - the female MC.

Her immodestly titled disc “Jeanius” fulfills much of the promise of the vaunted collaboration. (An early version of “Jeanius” surfaced as a bootleg in 2004). Grae’s conversational flow is packed with equal amounts boasting and poignant insight. She’s as adept at punchline rapson “2-32’s” she explains: “Impeccable rap flow/ second to that wordplay/ akin to a verb hitting a piñata on the eve of it’s birthday.”

Yet Grae’s also willing to reveal details of a past abortion on the solemn “My Story” and her indie rap struggles on “Don’t Rush Me.” On the latter, she rhymes: “There’s nothing like knowing yourself/ Like the way I know that smoking’s kinda broken my health/ Like the way I know my flow don’t make appropriate wealth.”

By mid-disc, it becomes more evident that mainstream success has eluded Grae in part because her dense, deliberate flow - now over Wonder’s hypnotic, mid-tempo tracks - is strictly headphone music. Her songs require close listening to be fully appreciated. But that suits a lyricist like Grae, a cult heroine who’s sorely needed in today’s hip-hop world.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: On the sultry “Love Thirst” Grae plays a hyper-literate rap coquette, proving she’s not all about b-girl posturing and identity politics.

By Chris Catania/PopMatters.com

“… Side effects might include just being who you really are.”
—Lyric from “Niggy Tardust”

CHICAGO — Saul Williams wants to liberate you.

As an actor, screenwriter, poet, and musician, Williams has been offering you the opportunity for the last 10 years by releasing books of poetry, a feature film, and three albums, including his 2007 effort “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust” — a self-released concept album unveiled in a pay-what-you-like Radiohead-style purchase method via his Web site.

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