| Jin (rapper) |
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Jin Au-Yeung () also known as '''Jin''', '''Jin tha MC''', '''The Emcee''', '''100 Grand Jin''' is an Chinese American Rapper born on June 4 , 1982 . He is the first Asian American rapper to be signed to a major Record Label . EARLY LIFE Jin was born in Miami, Florida and was raised in Miami by his Chinese immigrant parents who ran their own restaurant. In junior high, he became fascinated with Hip-hop Music and dreamed of becoming a professional rapper. He was inspired by artists such as Nas , Wu-Tang Clan , The Notorious B.I.G. , LL Cool J , Jay-Z , Big L , Tupac and other New York rappers from the early 1990s, an era now referred to as The Golden Age . When first taking up rapping, he struggled with the form of music but with much practice he realized he had talent for freestyle rap, but none with regular rap. He soon began performing for his classmates, co-workers and whoever would listen. Jin began entering freestyle battles in local hip-hop clubs where he was usually the only Asian around. He was often underestimated due to his ethnicity. Jin's talent won crowds over, and he went on to win many battles. He quickly developed a reputation as Miami's most clever freestyler. But in the hip-hop world, Miami is better known for Bass Music than clever lyrics. He knew this would be another obstacle to overcome in order to gain acceptance. BIG BREAK In 2001, he decided to move his family to Flushing, Queens , New York City . He began performing freestyles and selling his own mix tapes on the streets, in hip-hop clubs and wherever else possible. He quickly gained a huge following, just as he had done in Miami. His big break came when the BET program '' 106 & Park '' began inviting local rappers to hold battles in a segment known as " Freestyle Friday ." Ready for the national exposure, he auditioned and again was underestimated due to his ethnic background. Although he lost to Diabolic, he kept his head and proved everyone wrong by winning the battles week after week. His first battle was against Hasan, who had six straight victories and was one victory away from being inducted into the hall of fame. Jin began the competition by delivering strong rhymes during his round. Hasan countered during his thirty second round with rhymes however, with ten seconds left in the battle, Hasan lost his focus and was unable to deliver any more lyrics and stopped his performance. Jin was then declared the new champion. After winning for seven weeks straight, Jin was inducted into the show's Hall of Fame. The MCs he battled against during that period were:
Ruff Ryders Era (2002–2005) That same night of his Hall of Fame induction, he announced that he had signed a deal with the Ruff Ryders . His first single under Ruff Ryders was titled " Learn Chinese ". It took a sample from the 1992 song "They Want EFX", from rappers Das EFX . The second and final single for the album was originally supposed to be "I Got a Love" featuring Kanye West , but was later changed to "Senorita" because Roc-A-Fella Records didn't want to over-expose Kanye West. The album was originally scheduled to be released in the summer of 2003, but was delayed for over a year by the label. In October 2004, Jin released his debut album, '' The Rest Is History '', which reached number 54 of the '' Billboard '' Top 200 albums chart. It sold 26,000 copies in the first week. To date, the album has sold more than 200,000 units, and both of his singles, "Learn Chinese" and "Senorita", failed to be major mainstream successes. Nonetheless, Jin's music video " Learn Chinese " was the first video ever to be played on MTV Chi with backing vocals of Andy Tang. In Nov. 2003, Jin was in involved in a arguement with another aspiring rapper named Raymond Yu, who was a gang member linked with the Ghost Shadows street gang, this led to the shooting of Jin's friend Christopher Louie also known as LS. 1 In 2003, Jin made an appearance in the movie '' 2 Fast 2 Furious '' as a mechanic named 'Jimmy'. His song "Peel Off" was featured on the ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' Soundtrack . Jin was also featured on the American-born Taiwanese pop artist Lee-Hom Wang 's 2005 album '' Heroes Of Earth ''. He also collaborated with UK Bhangra artist, Juggy D , in the song "Kohl Aaja (Come Closer)", when he was in London to do some promo for '' The Rest Is History ''. Jin held the Fight Klub battle championship until he lost the title and a $10,000 purse to challenger Serius Jones. Although often thought to have been a racially-driven battle and mass speculation of using prewritten lines by Serius, Jin lost the title. Two weeks later, Jin defeated all contestants in the Fight Klub Championship held in the Bahamas for $50,000 (Serius Jones also entered the contest, but was defeated in the 1st Round by U.K rapper Professor Green). Jin challenged Serius that same night to a rematch after the tournament was over for $10,000, but Serius was disappointed with his loss and "lack of crowd" and therefore, did not participate in the battle. On January 17 , 2005 , a New York-based radio station, Hot 97 , caused controversy when they released a song, "USA for Indonesia," making a joke out of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, which was notably offensive, especially to Asian Americans. The incident was followed by an argument between shock jock Miss Jones and co-host Todd Lynn, and Asian American co-host Miss Info, who was attempting to avoid the joke. Jin immediately wrote a song in protest, to Miss Jones, titled "Fuck the Tsunami Song." Due to the long delay on the album, sales and where the contract was going to lead him, he decided with his manager to leave. When he left the Virgin label, he also left the Ruff Ryder label. But, his contract with Ruff Ryder is still active to date and Jin is in good terms with them. BEYOND RUFF RYDERS (2005–PRESENT) On May 18 2005 , Jin revealed that he would be putting his rap career on hold in order to explore other options. To make this clear, he recorded a song titled "I Quit." The announcement was widely misunderstood to have marked the end of Jin's rap career. However, he later re-emerged under a different alias, The Emcee, and freestyled over such songs as Jay-Z 's "Dear Summer." He released a single called "Top 5 (Dead or Alive)" where Jin displays his lyrical talent in explaining the history of hip-hop's greatest artists. The legendary DJ Kool Herc , who is credited as the founder of hip-hop, appears in Jin's music video. After signing with an independent label, CraftyPlugz/Draft Records, Jin released his second album, '' The Emcee's Properganda '' on October 25 , 2005 . Though it failed to reach the Billboard 200 charts, the album sold 7,000 copies in its first week, though it had better reviews than his debut album '' The Rest Is History ''. The rapper was featured in the ''NBA: Phenom'' video game, where players are given the chance to battle him in a freestyle contest. Jin had returned to battle rapping, being featured on a few Smack DVD battles. Some of his most notable battles since his return were against Shellz, Verse, Serious Jones, Professor Green and Iron Solomon. Jin released two albums in 2006. The first one, '' 100 Grand Jin '' is a mixtape/album that was released on August 29 2006 . The single released off the album is "FYI", for which the rapper shot and released a music video. The second album released in 2006 is Jin's third LP, '' I Promise ''. Instead of releasing the album in stores, Jin released it on November 1 2006 through his MySpace, with the first batch being autographed by himself. It was then sold on CDBaby.com with limited copies being pressed and not autographed for people who were unable to purchase it before. The first single for this album is titled "36-24-36 ( Apple Bottom Jeans )", a song in which Jin gives praise to Asian girls. Jin shot a music video for the song in December, but it has yet to be released. Jin was a guest judge on BET's Freestyle Friday on December 15 2006 . Jin has stated that he doesn't like Rosie O'Donnell because of her "ching Chong" Incident . He has also recorded a song that insults Rosie titled "You're Fired." The song features voice clips of Donald Trump and uses the beat from famous Nas diss song " Ether ". The song can be found on Jin's Xanga page and the website for his ''ABC Jin'' album.
Recently, on Jin's MySpace, Jin mentioned that he is working on another English album. Jin premiered a song called "Open Letter to Obama" on April 24 2007 , which made him become 1st on Barack Obama 's Top 8 list on MySpace . Also, Jin has recently made a new personal MySpace so he can get closer to his fans. His official MySpace is now maintained by someone else. On April 16 2007 , Jin made a tribute song to the victims of the Virginia Tech Massacre called "Rain, Rain Go Away", which can be heard on his MySpace. Jin's is working on his fourth studio album called '' The Voice ''. On August 2 2007 , Jin released his first single for the album called "Going Going Gone", which can be heard on his MySpace. The album does not have a release date yet. But it said to be released in 2007. DISCOGRAPHY Albums
Singles Collaborations
Mixtapes
FILMOGRAPHY REFERENCES
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