During this period she established strong ties with the Brooklyn Academy crew, with which she would appear throughout her career. 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 moniker, she released her first LP—"Attack of the Attacking Things"—on August 6, 2002, and followed it on September 21, 2004 with "This Week". Throughout her career she has also recorded tracks with numerous major hip-hop artists, Atmosphere, The Roots, Talib Kweli, The Herbaliser, Royce da 5'9, Da Beatminerz, Phonte, Mr. Len, Masta Ace, Vordul Mega, C-Rayz Walz, Mos Def, Styles P, Pharoahe Monch and Immortal Technique among them. Grae recorded an album with celebrated North Carolina producer 9th Wonder, of Little Brother fame, entitled "Jeanius"; the unfinished recording was leaked on the internet, and subsequently work stopped on the album. However, at the release party for "9th Wonder's Dream Merchant Volume 2" she stated that "Jeanius" was still going to be released. The album "was" eventually released on June 24, 2008, through Zune Live Marketplace, then on disc on July 8, 2008. Her rapping on the album was described by Robert Christgau as "remarkable for its rapidity, clarity and idiomatic cadence. The writing has a good-humored polysyllabic literacy." Elsewhere, it was reported that her proposed fourth album, provisionally titled "Phoenix" had gone into production and that 9th Wonder would handle the lion's share of the production duties with unknown UK producer Passion Hifi, English producer DJ SonicBass and NY resident Clinikal providing a beat each. Previously signed to Babygrande Records, she signed a deal in 2005 with Talib Kweli's Blacksmith Records. On April 28, 2008, Grae posted a blog entry on her MySpace page saying goodbye to her fans. She later cited disenchantment with the music industry and desire to start a family as the reasons behind the "retirement" and said that she was working on new material and still wanted to continue in music: "You know what? I need that Grammy. I think I might be able to stop after that." In July 2008, Talib Kweli posted a blog entry explaining Grae's album, mentioning that she was not retiring.