Jin Au-Yeung, who performs under the stage name MC Jin, is an American-born rapper, songwriter,
and actor of Chinese descent.
Born in Miami, Florida and later living in New York City, he decided to reside permanently
in Hong Kong before returning to New York to reside permanently in the summer of 2012.
He speaks both Cantonese and English fluently, although he is not literate in Chinese.
In the United States, he was both the first American solo rapper of East Asian and Hong
Kong descent to be signed to a major hip hop record label.
Biography Early life
Jin Au-Yeung was born on June 4, 1982, in Miami, Florida, to Hong Kong immigrants of
Hakka descent.
He was raised in the general Miami area, where his parents owned a strip-mall Chinese restaurant,
and where Jin attended schools.
While a student at John F. Kennedy Middle School in North Miami Beach, Jin participated
in many rap battles with his peers.
He also had ice thrown at him daily by the varsity football team.
2001: Freestyle Friday After graduating from high school in 2000,
Jin decided to forgo college and moved him and his family to Flushing, Queens, New York
City, in 2001.
He began performing freestyles and selling his own mix tapes on the streets, in hip-hop
clubs and wherever else possible.
While battling on the streets he was spotted by Kamel Pratt who then became his manager
and they formed Crafty Plugz Entertainment.
His big break came when the BET program 106 & Park began inviting local rappers to hold
battles in a segment known as Freestyle Friday.
He won all seven battles in a row, enabling him to be inducted in the Freestyle Friday
Hall of Fame.
Unlike other competitors, Jin spoke Cantonese words in his freestyle verses.
2002–2005: Ruff Ryders Era 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 hip-hop group 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
did not 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.
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. 2005–2008: After Ruff Ryders
On 23 April 2005, Jin and rapper Serius Jones engaged in a rap battle.
The battle was featured on Fight Klub DVD.
On 18 May 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", produced by the Golden Child.
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" 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 25 October 2005.
Jin was also featured on the Taiwanese pop artist Leehom Wang's 2005 album Heroes of
Earth.
Jin and Leehom performed their “Heroes of the Earth” collaboration live in Shanghai
on 16 February 2006 at an event arranged by Chinese A&R exec Andrew Ballen.
Ballen was also the first promoter to bring Jin to mainland China in 2003 for his “The
Rest is History” tour.
Jin released two albums in 2006.
The first one, 100 Grand Jin is a mixtape/album that was released on 29 August 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.
On Jin's MySpace, Jin mentioned that he was working on another English album named "Birthdays,
Funerals and Things in Between".
Jin premiered a song called "Open Letter to Obama" on 24 April 2007, which made him become
1st on Barack Obama's Top 8 list on MySpace.
On 16 April 2007, Jin made a tribute song to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre
called "Rain, Rain Go Away".
Recently Jin has decided to make his 1 November 2006 Internet album put together by Roy P.
Perez and his team of producers at Romeo Ent., I Promise, available in retail stores.
It was to be released on 23 October 2007.
Jin released a new song through his MySpace page.
The song is titled "Fill in the Blanks", and Jin encourages his fans to record their own
verse into the song.
2008–2013: Catch Adventures Jin did a collaboration with Malaysian rapper
Point Blanc in a track titled "One Day".
The music video can be viewed on YouTube.
He has released a demo song called "Worst Enemy" which has garnered over 130,000 views
on his MySpace.
He also put the song Welcome to the Light Club on his Myspace page.
Jin is a Christian, stating in his song "Welcome to the Light Club" he was baptized in 2008.
He has featured in Far East Movement's "Millionaire".
He has done a track over a DJ Premier joint titled "World Premier".
He also collaborated with producer Trendsetter aka Mark Holiday.
Jin used to reside in Hong Kong.
He starred frequently in commercials there, and made numerous appearances on TVB like
Big Boys Club.
He is also seen as an important part of recent Asian hip hop trends.
He has recently thrown out a Hip-Hop Census in honor of the 2010 Census and Chinese New
Year 2010.
As said by Jin, this mixtape is open to anybody and will be mixed from the general population
along with Jin.
He released a mixtape entitled "Say Something", on 15 May 2010.
Jin has released an album with his friend Hanjin in 2010.
On 10 July 2010, Jin collaborated with Mandarin singer Hanjin Tan to release another Cantonese
album 買一送一(Buy one get one free).
Jin also released a music video for his English single "Angels".
In December 2010, Jin joined forces with Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang to release
a Christmas music video entitled "Rap Now 2010", which he performed for free.
The video featured a number of lines ending with "Act Now!", echoing a Hong Kong government
slogan.
A CNN report described the video as an "official eyesore" and "a political message thinly veiled
as a Christmas card", and further criticised Jin's rapping as resembling "awkward nursery
rhymes", in contrast to his earlier performances.
However, local newspaper The Standard, in response to critics, stated in an editorial
that "Tsang, like the millions who post videos of themselves or their loved ones, only wants
to have fun."
On 7 March 2011, Jin released a music video for a song from his upcoming English album
entitled "Charlie Sheen," collaborating with artists Dumbfoundead and Traphik/Timothy DeLaGhetto.
Jin released an EP titled Sincerely Yours, a Christian-oriented and self-improvement-oriented
EP featuring many positive messages about life and many insights on his own life.
Jin released his new single called "Shoot for the Moon" on 4 June 2011.
On 16 May 2011, Jin released the track "AIYA" featuring label-mate, Toestah.
He released a video on his YouTube channel consisting of hundreds of pictures of fans
holding the aiya logo.
On 8 August 2011, Jin released an all Cantonese album, "Homecoming" in Hong Kong.
And has since released several singles and music videos on YouTube.
Jin also announced that he is working on his next full English album for 2012.
Jin has since returned to the United States to reside permanently in New York again.
In February 2012, Jin released a re-vamped version of his EP, Sincerely Yours 2.0, featuring
some of the same lyrics, but many others changed, slightly altering the overall feel of the
record.
In August 2012, Jin released his English album, "Crazy Love Ridiculous Faith," an album in
which he positively addresses both Christians and non-Christians.
This album is intended to show a maturity in himself, as well.
He released it for free download immediately at crazyloveridiculousfaith.com .
In December 2012, Jin released an EP called "Brand New EP," which includes many new singles
and also carries a very positive energy.
2013-present: The Great Company In late 2013, Jin signed a new deal a independent
label named "The Great Company."
The first track to be released on the label was called"Hypocrite."
In December 21, 2013, Jin released the first Ep under the label called "Hypocrite."
In October 21, 2014, the label released Jin's first album under their label.
The album was called XIV:LIX.
The album featured Teesa, Hollis, Stacie Bollman, Tim Be Told, Bére and Storm.
Personal life On 12 February 2011, MC Jin and his Chinese
American wife, Carol, got married in Puerto Rico.
In summer 2012 Jin had a son whom he named Chance.
MC Jin has been a born again Christian since 2009.
He has expressed his faith in his music since becoming a born again Christian.
Other activities In 2006, the PlayStation 2/Xbox video game
"NBA Ballers: Phenom" featured MC Jin as one of the rapper characters along with Ludacris
and Hot Sauce.
Responding to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Jin participated with Jackie
Chan and numerous other celebrities in a special three-hour charity concert on 1 April 2011
to help raise funds for Japan's disaster recovery effort.
Aiya!
Aiya! is Jin's catchphrase and has been used by him many times recently.
It is also a typical phrase or interjection used by Cantonese people that simply means
"Oh my gosh!"
An image/logo has been created recently that was designed by Tom Ngo.
The Logo could be printed out and then you could take a picture of yourself with it and
get into the video for his song "Aiya!"(featuring Toestah).
Jin also refers to his fans as his "AIYAfambam" or as the "AIYAmaniacs".
Discography
Music videos Filmography
Awards Rap battles
References
Further reading Jay, Jennifer W. "Rapper Jin's ABC: Acquiring
spoken Cantonese and transnational identity through restaurant culture and Hong Kong TV".
Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics: 379–391.
External links
Official Website Old Website
Jin battle rap profile on Rap Grid Jin at the Internet Movie Database
Jin on Myspace Jin(English)'s channel on YouTube
Jin(Cantonese)'s channel on YouTube Jin(English – old)'s channel on YouTube