Profile of Jin Auyeung on Famous Like Me

Jin Au-Yeung (Simplified Chinese: 欧阳靖; Traditional Chinese: 歐陽靖; pinyin: Ōuyáng Jìng), also known as Jin tha MC or simply Jin, is a Chinese American rap artist who speaks Cantonese.

Jin was born on June 4, 1982 in Miami, Florida. The son of Chinese immigrants, Jin watched his parents work extremely hard every day as they ran their own restaurant. In junior high, Jin 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. and other New York rappers from the early 1990's, an era now referred to as The Golden Age. Realizing he had a talent for freestyle rap, he would perform 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 person around. He was often underestimated due to his Chinese ethnicity. But Jin's talent won the crowds over and he was awarded the championship every time. He quickly developed a reputation as Miami's cleverest hip-hop lyricist. But in the hip-hop world, Miami is known more for bass music than clever lyrics. He knew this would be another obstacle to overcome in order to gain acceptance.

In 2001, his parents decided to move the family to Chinatown, New York City. Jin realized that living in the birthplace of hip-hop would be a huge stepping stone to making his dream come true. He began performing freestyles and selling his own mixtapes on the streets, in hip-hop clubs and wherever he could. 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 have freestyle battles every Friday. Jin was ready for the national exposure. He auditioned and again was underestimated due to his race. But Jin proved everyone wrong by winning the battles week after week. (Although to be fair, the quality of his competition was never that high.) After winning for seven weeks straight, Jin was inducted into the show's Hall of Fame. That same night, he announced that he had signed a deal with Ruff Ryders; the same record label as DMX and Jadakiss.

His first single under Ruff Ryders was titled "Learn Chinese." In October 2004, Jin released his debut album, The Rest Is History, which reached the top 100 of the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. The album only sold 100,000 units and both singles, "Learn Chinese" and "Senorita" didn't break through the mainstream.

On May 18th, 2005, Jin revealed that he was putting his rap career on hold to explore other options. To make this clear, he recorded a song called "I Quit." This announcement was thought 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." His latest release is "Top 5" where Jin yet again displays his lyrical talent in explaining the history of hip-hop's greatest artists. Now under an indie label, CraftyPlugz, Jin will release his second album, "Jin Presents: The Emcee's Properganda" on October 25th. He hopes to be someone that other aspiring Asian-American rappers can look up to.

Trivia

Jin made a minor 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 has a tattoo on his neck of his given name (靖), which means "tranquil."

The legendary DJ Kool Herc, who is credited as the founder of Hip Hop, appears in Jin's latest music video, "Top 5 (Dead or Alive)".

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