Author Topic: Straight Jin, No Chaser Pt 1 (Read 120 times)

Skindiana bon3z · « **on:** July 10, 2003, 10:29:09 AM »

Straight Jin, No Chaser Pt 1
By Jesus Trivino

Aside from being heralded as two of the finest spitkickers of all time, Big Pun and Eminem also eradicated barriers for their respective ethnicities. Before their presence Latinos were pigeonholed to the low rider stereotype and Caucasians were regulated to ridicule due to the Vanilla Ice debacle.

Similarly to those two lyrical luminaries Jin Tha MC could be the Great Yellow Hope Asians enamored with Hip-Hop have yearned for – a respectable artist that will earn them props in a clout-first industry. After honing his skills on the underground circuit the young spunky emcee won convincingly on BET’s “106 and Park’s Freestyle Friday.” His exceptional performance facilitated Jin to select the Ruff Ryders, the label that boasts superstar DMX and tough guy rappers Jadakiss and Styles. So stuff your dim-witted egg roll wisecracks away, this Asian kid can serve emcees their demise at the drop of a line. Jin plans to bring his skillz to stores in his album spring 2003

Allhiphop.com: You have the opportunity to be an Asian Big Pun. Are your ready for that responsibility?

Jin: You know what’s crazy. Oh my God! Like I would always say to myself ‘What I wanna do is do for Asians what Pun did for Latinos.’ Like granted before me there were a lot of Asian emcees, underground or commercial or whatever. Before Pun there were a lot of Latino emcees but Pun just like took out the roof and ran with it. Definitely that’s what I wanna do, sales-wise or just as far as acclaim-wise. Just to drop an album that’s solid. And just so no matter what happens afterwards everything will trace back to it. Like even if three years down the line there’s an Asian artist that comes out and he does crazy numbers, real dope album. It will trace back to three years ‘the first Asian artist to ever was on Ruff Ryders. You kids might not know about him but Jin . . .” That’s just amazing right there. I guess I can say I’m halfway there with what I accomplished with “106 and Park.” That’s cool but now it’s the next move. That album just gotta be crazy.

AHH: Are you nervous?

Jin: I’m still nervous now when I go up on stage and perform. I don’t think you ever get rid of that butterfly in your stomach. I think when you do is when you’re not interested in what you do anymore. But BET was just life changing. From the first time that I actually went on, every episode was something new.

AHH: Growing up, how was the hip-hop scene in Miami?

Jin: I didn’t get into the whole shows and battles until I was 14 or 15. At that point there were rarely any shows or venues where you could go [in Miami]. In New York you can be like there’s three or four shows we can go to. But in Miami someone said ‘Yo there’s an open mike this week.’ Everyone had to go to that one because you never know when the next one is gonna be.

AHH: How did you afford to travel back and forth from Miami to New York?

Jin: Prize money. I would save up what I can working to get finances to come up and basically if I win the battle I have money to go back and I’m missing work back in Miami. I always had the money to continuously come back up and other than just winning the prize money I also built that reputation I guess.

AHH: What kind of music did you listen to as a child?

Jin: I don’t know why but I’m losing my memory my parents told me I was a big Michael Jackson fan. They said I was doing the moves. I started listening to hip-hop at 12, 13. Even at that point it was whatever was on the radio. Oh yeah LL, Kris Kross. When I got to 15, 16 it was a wrap. As far as CDs ‘oh Redman, 36 Chambers,’ all of that. My life totally revolved around Hip-Hop as far as when I started becoming a teen.