Jin is that Asian cat who battled fools on 106 and Park, and got
signed by the ruff ryders as a result. He's got a website. You can
get his mp3's from said website.

The Lambdas (an Asian Fraternity) brought him down to Austin, where I
reside.
It was 10 presale, 15 at the door. And to think I almost didn't bring
the flyer, got in for 10. Kaching.

The spot - Buffalo Billiards is a really big pool hall at one of the
ends of our little strip in ATX, known as 6th street. I've only
played pool there once. Not a bad little spot. Tables down stairs,
dance floor, and they had more tables and a bar upstairs.

I was rocking my yellow hyperflights, baggys, white shirt, white
t-shirt, and red tam.

The Shorties - well if you're an asiaphile, you'd been in heaven. But
by my eye, there were only 4 chicks worth the time and effort. 2 I
already knew. 1 with her man. And the last one got swooped on by one
of the other 5 black people in the spot. (But I so could stepped in
on that. The black X on her hand meant I should let ol boy handle it)

The Dj - Repping for South Asia, my boy Kurupt was spinning. He spins
at the black community radio station on Fridays, so the playlist
definitely appealed to the core audience, unlike E-Rock spinning @
people under the stairs which appealed to a more specific crowd.

Dancing - One black cat I knew was housing in a cipher with 2 other
asian cats. I didn't step in cause my new school b-boy skills are
still in their adolescence. Lots of folks who could do the C-walk,
but few if any could harlem shake or do the Southside.

The Scene - I went to the roots last week, and really that's the only
way I would have gotten a flier. They didn't really promote this
outside of their circles at all. As a result, it was like 1 Latina, 4
Mexican dudes, no sistas, 5 black dudes, and the rest of the spot was
all Asian. And hella black X's on top of that. A lot like stuff you
see on the east side, folks don't necessarily show up for the music,
they because so and so is going.

I still don't know what to make of hip hop crowds, full of people
that don't regularly attend hip hop events.

But let's get down the nitty gritty.

h2o, Jin's hypeman, had been getting the crowd up for about 40
minutes. He did the harlem shake, said what's up to all the "fine
asian women in the house", generally a doing what hypemen do.

Jin finally hit the stage.

When you're an mc new to your audience, you can't just come out and do
your own songs and expect folks to feel you. I've always maintained
that hip hop is something that is almost better relived. You gotta
know it b4 you step in the door, otherwise you can't really appreciate
the performance.

If you don't know the songs, you can get hype to the punchlines, or
notice when the mc's mess up. On top of that, I can only think of a
handfull of hip hop shows (and I been going to shows for a decade),
where the sound was so perfect that you caught the intricacies of the
beat and nuances of the lyrics (or vice versa).

So him and H2O started with Move Bitch (c) Ludacris. If you've heard
the SQAD stuff, it was sorta like that. Go with the familiar you
already know and tweak it such that you can understand his skills.
From Luda, he went to Cam'Ron's Oh Boy. "I'm a chinese boy" got the
crowd hype as hell. Finished up the set with his version of Nore's
Nothin.

He did his first song, Holla Front. Um, yeah.

Content wise, your boy is typical new york. Cocky, Arrogant, and
tries to spit funnies about chicks. He's got punchlines, but can he
make a record.

To answer that question in my mind, he has a song called, "I don't
know"

He doesn't know if he's gonna blow up, is pretty much the point of the
song. And hating to draw this comparison, it's something that I would
expect from Eminem, if he were back in Jin's shoes. He speaks on the
industry Trials and Tribulations, and the sorta feedback he's been
getting from his own peeps.

From "I wish there were some Asians in the game"
to "Damn, you sold out"

At some point he addresses the crowd, and him being at hip hop shows

my favorite mc's would always say "Where my black people at"

So Jin does the same
He points out me and the brethren, "All 4 of y'all" everyone laughs

Where my latinos?
"Yo the bartender counts"

Where my white folks at?
(the crowd actually starts booing, damn)
"Naw, it ain't like that."

Jin - "But I never hear, I never hear...
"Where my Asian people at"

The places goes bananas.

The dj drops into "Girls, Girls, Girls" Rmx

i love girls, girls girls
asian girls galore
put your number on this napkin
maybe we can make something happen..

"I know Ms. Saigon
she's straight Viet
I call her doo doo
cause her body's the shit..." (laughs)

"I got this Korean chick...
she always wants Gucci purses" (folks falling out on this one.)

"I had to tell my Chinese chick to stop bootlegging my shit,
but damn she be selling it quick"

Throughout the night, he flips the "chinky eyes" metaphor 2wice.
Earlier with his boy h20 smoke so much weed, that he thinks they're
related. And he ends with something similar about loving a woman
whose eyes are slanted but she didn't have to smoke out.

All in all it was a good show, but the @ remainz...

To be very honest with you, I don't know how to describe the
race/cultural dynamic of Jin's music.

On the one hand I want to say that white mc's, generally do not focus
so much on their whiteness. I hardly ever hear rhymes about good
credit and mayonnaise (lol, that was a joke, white folks so quick to
holla reverse discrimination)

But seriously I haven't payed attention to Eminem enough to know if
this was a big part of his 3 records.

But Jin is very proud of his heritage and definitely uses that aspect
to speak to his folks.

Going back to Big Pun, a major reason why he was the first Latino to
go platinum, (if you don't count Gerado and Cypress), is that the
folks who make the decisions in hip hop are anti-change. There is a
lot of resistance from all angles to really embrace folks that aren't
young, black, male, and from New York.

I don't know how much Pun put Boricua culture the back burner(in terms
of singles), and if the so-called Latin craze that gave love to
Enrique, Ricky, and J.Lo helped him out. But I think of both Pun and
Em when I think of Jin.
holla back,
k. orr