Like Yao Ming, who brought Chinese influence into the NBA, Jin Auyeung hopes to bring Asian flavor to the rap industry.
He claims in The New York Times on Aug. 12, 2003 that he does not want to be known as “that Chinese rapper guy,” but he raps about his ethnicity quite a bit.
With a song on last summer’s “2 Fast 2 Furious” soundtrack and rhymes about import cars and custom made racing outfits, he very much embraces the Chinese stereotypes.
“The days of the pork fried rice and the chicken wings coming to your house by me is over,” he says in “Learn Chinese,” the first single from Jin’s debut album due out March 23.
“He’s rare — he’s not just a gimmick rapper,” Joaquin Dean, one of the owners of Ruff Ryders Records, said to the New York Times. “He has true talent.”
Jin, 21, is not a gangster by any means.
He does not rap about getting shot or going to jail. He raps about interracial dating, Chinatown, being Asian-American and in response to comparisons of another rap world minority — Caucasian.
His style is much like Eminem’s in that it imitates a complex spiral of unusual word choice and delivery that works, according to MTV News.
“I haven’t heard it yet, but if it’s good, then it’s good,” said Brenner Corry, a mass communication sophomore. “I don’t care where it comes from.”
Jin grew up in Miami and after high school he moved to Chinatown in New York to pursue his music career.
In Chinatown, he freestyled for attention as he sold self-recorded CDs outside of music stores. In the process, he caught the eye of a manager who assisted Jin in auditioning for the freestyle battles on Black Entertainment Television’s “106 & Park,” according to a June article in New Jersey’s Courier Post.
“You wanna say I’m Chinese/ sonny, here’s a reminder/ check your Timberlands/ they probably say ‘made in China’,” Jin said in one of the battles.
During his stint on the show, Jin won seven weeks in a row and was signed to Ruff Ryders, the record company that gained recognition for putting out high-profile artists such as DMX, Eve, and Jadakiss.
He spent part of last summer on MTV’s “You Hear It First” tour, holds a place in “106 & Park’s Freestyle Friday Hall of Fame,” and has been named one of 10 artists to look out for in “the next wave” by Rolling Stone magazine.
New singles and the release of the album, “The Rest Is History,” along with a tour are in the works for later this year.