The label has gained recognition for turning out hip-hop stars DMX, Eve and Jadakiss. It stands for Ruff Ryders, the label Jin signed with during his 7-0 run on BET. During a show, I might say, 'So where my Asians at?' But I'll never go out there with a sword, you know what I'm saying?''Īlong with a shadow of a mustache, a buzz cut and the requisite baggy pants of hip-hop, Jin wears a diamond-studded, platinum chain with the letter R around his neck. ''I am proudly Chinese,'' said this rapper from Elmhurst, Queens, born Jin Au-yeung. Jin does rhyme about interracial dating, about being compared to Eminem, about Chinatown and about being Chinese-American. He does not rap about getting shot, going to jail or doing drugs. All this and Jin's debut album - ''The Rest Is History'' - on Ruff Ryders Records/Virgin Records does not even drop into stores until Oct. He holds a place in Black Entertainment Television's ''Freestyle Friday'' Hall of Fame for going undefeated seven straight weeks in the network's ''106 & Park: Top 10 Live'' rap battles, in which the best barbs and rudest rhymes often win in spontaneous, head-to-head duels. Jin has appeared alongside the rap star Ludacris in this summer's film ''2 Fast 2 Furious.'' And he has already spent part of his summer on MTV's ''You Hear It First'' tour in New York, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston.
The attention so far has revolved around Jin's being a Chinese-American rapper, but the excitement has grown as he has won fans for his inventive lyrics, a style resembling a less angry Eminem. For Jin it has meant a buzz among Asian-American and underground hip-hop fans that has extended to publications like Rolling Stone, which singled him out this year as one of 10 artists to look for in ''the next wave.'' It's the route of the National Basketball Association's top draft pick, 18-year-old LeBron James, of the R&B singer Ashanti and of the movie ''Better Luck Tomorrow'': the path in which the athlete, the singer or the film generates a fan base well before he plays in the N.B.A., she releases an album or the movie has its premiere. He's Jin, not ''that Chinese rapper guy.'' His name has dropped all over the place, well before his album will. That Chinese rapper guy wants to make something clear.
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