Jin's retiring

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I am sad to read that Jin, America's first Chinese rapper (I think. . .) and an emcee for Ruff Ryders has announced his retirement or is "putting his career on hold." I first learned about Jin when he released "Learn Chinese" and I was so excited to see an Asian hip hop artist actually making it to the ranks of MTV stardom. Too bad his career was so short-lived. I don't think his music received enough coverage and was not promoted enough for many students to actually recognize his songs or name. Anyway, having Chinese artists out there in the American music scene has had an empowering effect for many teenagers and young adults of Asian heritage, especially for me; Jin represented the Yao Ming of music in my mind. Well, he mentioned possibly going into acting so hopefully his acting endeavors will go beyond 2Fast2Furious.

[Anonymous]

I think it is best for everyone that jin retires. I mean i was just excited as everyone when i first learned that a Chinese rapper would be coming out with a single and a CD in the US, but his music is so horrible. I thought that his song "learn chinese" made no sense whatsoever, and his attempts to insert Cantonese phrases into his songs is ridiculous and unnecessary. I actually felt that his songs would have been better without any Chinese in it because to those of us who actually understands what he is saying, the language is vulgar and offensive. I personally felt that it was a bad representation of us as Chinese. I had hoped that his success would pave the way for other asian artists in the entertainment industr, but the craze behind Jin never picked up... maybe cus he was bad?[Edit by="qpang on Jun 12, 5:17:41 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

Yes, I agree that perhaps Jin's lyrics and musical skills were subpar and may be a bad representation of the Asian population and the only reason I would listen to ALL of "Learn Chinese" was b/c he was Chinese but just think about all the white and black artists who could also be guilty of poorly representing their respective cultures. I don't think Ciara singing about "goodies" or Kelis singing about her "milkshake" is very glorifying to African-Americans. Jin in and of himself is not responsible for accurately representing the musical abilities of the Asian race.

Asians in the entertainment business always have this problem of having the pressure of being the break-out "Asian" who shows the world that Asians can succeed in the entertainment world. What led me to think of this is a comment that was made by a journalist to the directors of "Better Luck Tomorrow" who asked "Why would you make a movie that is so denigrating to your race?" and Roger Ebert came to the movie's defense by yelling at the journalist "Would you ever ask that to a white filmmaker?" So in the spirit of Ebert I say that what's important was that Jin made an effort to get his music out there as an artist who happens to be Chinese and whether his ability is amazing or not is not a reflection of the Asian race but merely a testament to the fact that Asians are making an effort to breakthrough the race barrier.

Along the same lines, I made a comment on the review of Brain Failure in a previous post but I would just like to add that the lead singer of that particular Beijing band has an Asian accent as bad as William Hung. So once again I admire Brain Failure's efforts in singing in English and trying to make it on the American music scene, but the accent kind of just kills it for me, at least, and makes their performance more comical than serious.

[Anonymous]

In the left-hand side of the web-page there is a tool-bar with the notice of the most read thread in the past three days. I was intersted. Someone's retiring?

Okay, let me just start out by saying that when I first read the title of the post I was thinking in y political head and not my musical one. I began to ask myself the question: Who is jin? Is he some important person in the forum or the seminar? A political leader, maybe? And then I clicked on the link and read the post! So wrong, and yet still so political.

I agree with the point that one person is not a representation or the "face" or an entire group. How can one person expect to relate all the experiences of an ethnic group? It is impossible. I think that VinLin made a really important point when she suggested that people don't ask the same of the white people. It seems like in the system the white is the "normal" and the rest is the "other". We do this all the time, place the labels on people who are the other and then leave the normal as the unlabeled. Are language reflects the larger world-view of the society in which we live.

I also agree that the song could be attached to better beats and have more meaningful lyrics, but that is true about most of the music put out in the mainstream today. I congratulate Jin on his accomplishment of breaking through the barrier presented to people of other ethnic background besides the black or African American into the hip-hop/rap scene. Who advertises, promotes and makes the decisions in that music realm, all too often white men in business suits who make decisions based on their options about the cultures in the street or the mass-marketing potential of the artist. The portrayal of the urban face is changing in mainstream media. Finally, we are able to see pieces of what the reality is: inter-cultural and multi-ethnic.

Here are the lyrics...I would post the song, too but the forum does not allow mp3 attachments.

Yeah, I'm Chinese and what?
Yeah, you know who this is, Jin
Let me tell you this
The days of the pork fried rice and the chicken wings
coming to your house five years is over

[Chorus]
Ya'll gonna learn Chinese
Ya'll gonna learn Chinese
Ya'll gonna learn Chinese
When the pumps come out, ya'll gon' speak Chinese

Ya'll gonna learn Chinese
Ya'll gonna wanna be Chinese
Ya'll gonna learn Chinese
When the pumps go off, ya'll gon' speak Chinese

[Jin]
Go fuck with your head man
I know a bunch of crypts that love Redman
Blood book in New York man things done change
Stop, the chinks be all over the game
This ain't Bruce Lee, I watch too much TV
This is a game of death when I aim for your chest
Too much sex got me seeing slow motion
Eyes barely open with a roach roasting'
And your girl, she loves the gin ocean
Rub it on her body like body shop lotion
What's the commotion, you never seen me?
The original chinky eye emcee
You don't want to step to the army
And Double-R rank refugee
And the battle of the gun is gonna make you speak
another language
And amigo I ain't talking about Spanish

[Chorus]

[Jin]
This one goes out to those that order four chicken wings
And pork fried rice and throw dice
In the hood, you think this is all good?
Till the cowboys roam through like Clint Eastwood
I wish you would come to Chinatown
Get lost in town, end up in the lost in found
Eyewitnesses, you must be crazy
We don't speak English, we speak Chinese
And the only po-po we know is the pigs on the hood out in the
window
Every time they harass me, I wanna explode
We should ride the train for free, we built the railroads
I ain't ya 50 Cent, I ain't ya Enimem
I ain't ya Jigga Man, I'm a chinaman
Ginseng in the palm of my hand
She looks suprirsed in the palm of my hands
You know what's next? Safe sex
I'll be damned if I sleep in the flesh with the insect

[Hook]

(Woman singing)
(Jin speaking Chinese: This one sounds good.
Let's give her a call on the phone.)
Mr. Jin, you are the sexist man
Mr. Jin, I love the way you do your things
(Jin speaking Chinese: Really?)
Mr. Jin, you are the sexist man
Mr. Jin, I love the way you do your things

[Jin]
The moral of the story is
Don't judge a book by its cover
I know you think he's fam, but he's really undercover
I saw his name on the affidavit
It was written in Chinese and this is what he said:
(Jin Speaking Chinese: The chinese restaurant is closing soon)
Bring about some local hooligans and thugs so
Catch them at midnight when they close the shop up
Reading the Ten Commandments, cooking up heckka
Movie small posters are all over the walls
If they think you'd save me the bullet, it's so over ya'll
Me, I'm just Jin just doing my thang
Just doing my thang, just doing my thang
Why is there beef everywhere I go?
I'm drunk skewing, can't we all get along
My ladies with the thongs, my thugs with the firearms

Ya'll gonna learn Chinese (Wyclef: all the ghetto)
Ya'll gonna learn Chinese (Wyclef: all the suburb)
Ya'll gonna learn Chinese
When the pumps come out, ya'll gon' speak Chinese.
(Wyclef: Refugees)

Ya'll gonna learn Chinese (Jin speaking Chinese: di lo)
Ya'll gonna learn Chinese (Jin speaking Chinese: Hurry,
get out of here)
Ya'll gonna learn Chinese
When the pumps come out, ya'll gon' speak Chinese

(Woman singing)

[Hook]

[Wyclef]
The game will never be the same (Jin speaking Chinese:
I already played the game)
Double-R refugees (Jin speaking Chinese: Let's go home)
First Chinese rapper
First page rapper
Refugees
(Jin speaking Chinese: Chinatown)
(Jin speaking Chinese: I already played the game)
(Jin speaking Chinese: That's it)

[Author]

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