Where The Hell is Jean Grae?

With the ubiquity of Nicki Minaj these days, one has to wonder where the hell is Jean Grae?  She has not put out a studio album since Jeanius, which was produced  three years ago, and Hip hop is in need of another female perspective other than Nicki Minaj's.What brought Jean Grae to mind was a recent Rolling Stone review of Lauryn Hill, which made a reference to Nicki Minaj in regards to who was the best female MC (Rolling Stone gave it to Lauryn). I bring that up to say I was amazed that Rolling Stone would even bring up Lauryn Hill and Nicki Minaj in comparison to who's the greatest female MC, considering the several female MCs who've made significant contributions to hip hop (Mc Lyte, Queen Latifah, Sista Souljah, Monie Love,Yo-Yo, Bahamadia, the Lady Rage, Da Brat, Foxy Brown, Lil Kim, Missy Elliot, Eve) before and between Lauryn and Nicki, not even including Jean Grae, which is, in my opinion, the most skilled female MC to come out in this past decade

Upon doing some research, I found that Jean is at work on her new album, Cake or Die, which is due to be released this spring. Two tracks, Bridge (Produced by RJD2) and Rock in My Pocket, feat. Styles P and Talib Kweli. Both are very promising samples of her album; hopefully the rest of the album is of comparable quality. If it's anywhere as good as Jeanius, (which from the leaked tracks it appears it can be) then it would definitely worth the wait. But my the first question posed just leads me to asking another: where the hell are all the female MC's at today?

Hip Hop is definitely in need of more female voices. Up until recent years there were several (Eve, Remy Ma, Foxy Brown, Lil Kim, Trina, Rah Digga) female MC's, however in the last few years their voices seem to been silenced, with the exception of occasional club banger ("Tambourine"-Eve, "Download"-Lil Kim, for example. Several of the aforementioned have run into legal problems and jail time (Remy Ma, Lil Kim, and Foxy Brown); but even more problematic than that I see that many of these female MC's fall into the trap of being the "baddest chick" instead of focusing on their lyrical skills; in other words, they flaunt their sex appeal instead of their skills on the microphone, which becomes played out very quickly (see Trina "Waist so Skinny" for example). The only exception to this rule I have seen recently was Rah Digga, who put out a slept on but very dope album "Classic", which was full of tight rhymes and slick 70's funk production by Nottz.

Female MC's falling into the "baddest chick" trap is unfortunate because women have a great deal of perspectives  they could bring to hip hop (relationships, parenthood, etc) and stances against misogyny, sexual  abuse, many negative elements that plague hip hop music and the black community. While they may not receive the fame of being the "baddest chick", they will definitely gain the respect that their hip hop forbears (MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Sistah Souljah, and Lauryn Hill) demanded when they stepped on the stage.