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He’s the rapper renowned for his battling skills, who signed to Ruff Ryders in 2003, and has hung out with Wyclef, Kanye and Twista in the studio. Who is he? His name’s Jin, and if you don’t know, now you know.
He
made his name on BET’s 106th & Park as one of the most victorious
battle rappers to ever grace the cable television channel’s stage.
Once on the prime time show, the rapper born Jin
Au-Yeung didn’t have too many problems grabbing
people’s attention with his quick-fire, witty rhyming skills, and
found himself to be somewhat of a mainstay on the weekly battle show.
“Every Friday, they have this freestyle battle on the [106 &
Park] show, and the winner of that Friday goes onto the next Friday and
so on and so on. When you win that seven times in a row, that’s
when they put you in this like, hall of fame, so that’s what happened
to me and that’s how I got discovered,” he explained. “It
was actually in the fourth week that Ruff
Ryders contacted the show and we started talking. They
didn’t sign me right away, but we just started talking and discussing
stuff, and by the time I had won seven times, the papers had been signed,
so I was able to announce live on the show like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m
signed to Ruff Ryders’.
Since signing with the clique that has brought us such heavyweights as DMX, The Lox and Eve, the former delivery boy has taken his time to drop his full-length album, but it’s not all down to him. “It was a combination of reasons,” told Jin. “Let’s see… first, it’s all the different labels that were involved. For example, the DMX album is a combination of Ruff Ryders and Def Jam; Eve is Ruff Ryders/Interscope, same with Jadakiss. When I signed up, they were working out big deals with all these different labels, which had nothing to do with me, and for whatever reason, they didn’t work out. So for all that time, I was signed to Ruff Ryders, but there was no distribution deal in place for my album. The other reason was just getting the album ready, pretty much. Then when finally we got the distribution deal with Virgin/EMI, there were a lot of things that they didn’t see eye to eye on, but I don’t wanna get into too much detail on that. It had nothing to do with Jin; it’s just how the industry is,” he explained.
It’s one thing breaking into the music industry, but it’s another when you’re the only Chinese rapper in the game – the spotlight’s all on you, and to some extent, you have the hopes of your community resting on your shoulders. So how does Jin feel about being the first Chinese emcee to break into the mainstream? “That’s tricky,” said Jin, before pausing to contemplate. “I never wanna say that, or I never bring it up unless somebody else brings it up, like you just did, but I guess it’s like an honour; it’s cool, but I just wanna see hip hop grow again and if I can contribute to it and make it more diverse, then hey!”
Whilst on the road to stardom, Jin fought in many a rap battle, and his ethnicity was often one of the things competitors picked up on. Admitting that this at first had him shook, the Ruff Ryder said, “When I first started freestyling and battling and it became an issue; I was kinda offended, not knowing how to take it, like, ‘is this what battling is about?’. But then eventually, it wore off. I guess everything’s a target when you’re battling: your looks, your race, what you’re wearing, blah blah blah. Now when I battle, people know that if you’re really wanting to find a way to beat me, the race, the Chinese jokes, it’s not the way to do it.” This attitude is mirrored on his debut single ‘Learn Chinese’, where at the start, Jin quips, “Yeah, I’m Chinese, and what?” The saying, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt’, instantly springs to mind.
Coming from quite a traditional family, it seems odd to me that Jin’s parents would have supported him in his chosen career path, and although there were some disagreements in the beginning, his parents, it would appear, have come round to the idea of their son earning a living in the music industry. “Now, they’re very supportive. Initially, they wanted me to think about it. I mean, like all parents, they just wanted me to pick something that was more secure, I guess, ‘cos the music industry is so unpredictable; you never know what could happen.” What if he hadn’t been on BET and didn’t have his record deal? “If I wasn’t rapping and I didn’t have a record deal, I’d probably still be tryin’ to get a deal!” You’ve got to admit it, this guy has determination. His dream was to be a rapper, so he did whatever he could to achieve his goal, even if that meant shifting a few units from the boot of his car. “I don’t have an exact number, but it wasn’t a huge lot,” he told. “Let’s put it this way: it was enough to keep me alive, enough to feed me everyday.”
Having been born and bred in the Dirty South, (in Miami, Florida, to be more precise), you’d be right to question the distinct East Coast feel to Jin’s flow, but, as he told me, this was one of the things that just ‘happened to be’. “Well, I was raised mainly in Florida, but when I started listening to hip hop and getting more into it, probably the stuff I’m more influenced from, it was the Wu-Tang, Nas, Biggie, and Jay-Z, so that’s probably why my own style has more of an East Coast feel. I listened to everything though; stuff from the West Coast, like Snoop and stuff like that, so they all influenced me in some way.” Now that he’s making his dreams come true, is there any chance of a collaboration between Jin and one of his idols? Maybe not just yet, he says. “I met Snoop before, but as far as working with him… sh*t, I wouldn’t mind!” Although Snoop Dogg may be a stretch too far at the moment, Jin has been able to hook up with some of the hottest producers and rappers around, including Just Blaze, Kanye West, Twista, and Wyclef Jean, who produced his lead single. “The record label basically ask, ‘who do you wanna work with?’. Not to take nothin’ away from those guys, but if you have enough money, you can work with anybody! Some producers and artists genuinely wanna work with you, but even if they say that, they’re still gonna send a bill to the label! Unless, like there’s some scenarios where it’s just ‘you do me a favour, so I’ll do you a favour’ kinda thing. But that’s not always the case. Everyone I worked with on the album was cool.” These valuable experiences taught Jin the importance of hard work, as he comments, “[I picked up] their work ethics, mostly.”
The last major topic we discuss is the recent controversy surrounding New York radio station Hot 97 and their Morning Show team. Several key members of the Morning Show were fired in February this year, when radio jock Miss Jones and her crew made the now infamous ‘Tsunami Parody Song’, a song that poked fun at the victims of the Asian Tsunami, and in the process, making a couple of racially offensive slurs. After hearing the track, Jin immediately posted a diss track aimed directly at Miss Jones and her colleagues on his website, a track which quickly spread like wildfire. Jin voiced his concerns about the whole situation. “First of all, I thought, ‘Damn, this thing is f*cked up’. Not only for me being Asian, but for them to make fun of the tragedy of so many people dying, that was just f*cked up. What drove me to write that response, to go into the studio and record that rhyme was all of that combined; the fact that I thought it was f*cked up, the fact that I’m part of the Asian-American community, and that they did, sort of, make a coupla racial comments, not only in the song, but in their discussion prior to playing the song. I didn’t think it was gonna be such a big deal; I just went in the studio, recorded it, put it on my website, and the next thing you know, it just blew up.” This whole incident led to the formal apology issued by Hot 97, condemning the song in question, and firing thoses they saw as the ‘key instigators’ in the controversy. Yet, the storm is far from over, as the show host, Miss Jones, is back on air, following a brief suspension. “Justice hasn’t been done, ’cos she’s back. The target is not just Miss Jones though; it’s the whole, big, corporate structure. They’re all a bunch of con men,” Jin said, disgusted at the thought.
Moving the conversation back to more light-hearted issues, we get talking about the European tour that Jin was on, and wrap up the interview with his hopes for the future, albeit the near future. “I just wanna do this tour and make sure I get home safe. I don’t even need to think that far. Whatever comes up, comes up,” reasoned Jin. Any last words? “‘The Rest Is History’ of course, if you haven’t checked out the album yet, go check it out. Just support real hip hop. Oh, and sign the petition to get all those idiots off that Hot 97 morning show!”
Jin's new single, 'Learn Chinese' is out now, and the album ‘The
Rest Is History’ is to follow in April 2005. For more information
about Jin, visit his official websites: www.the-raft.com
and www.jinsite.com.
