Yes, it's Ruff Ryders, a mainstream rap label. The next album is China's solo album: the rest is history. As described in the title of the album, Kim's ambition is obvious: just as Big Pun brought the Latin world into the rap territory, just as Amro the Rambler really brought white people into the rap game, Kim's background is hip-hop culture in China and Asia. He is the spokesman of Asian Hip-Hop cultural circle, just like Yao Ming plays in NBA, and Kim is the yellow blood of black Hip-Hop culture in mainland America.
Once the door is opened, it is not easy to close it again. Perhaps, this 2 1 year-old China young man named Jin can has indeed made history in hip-hop.
While the name "King" is heating up in the United States, there is a popular post on various Internet forums in China on the other side of the ocean-an unclear video with a commentary: "This is a rap communication video between China people and blacks. In a famous American TV program, a nigger who discriminated against China used rap to ridicule and satirize China people. As a result, this China also retaliated against the nigger with rap and defended the dignity of China people! " . This is a post that makes hip-hop people laugh and cry, and China people who "defend their dignity" are Jin.
Freestyle can be said to be one of the key words of hip-hop culture. Explained by its basic "improvisation" meaning, the four elements of HipHop culture-rap, street dance, graffiti, DJ and an important branch of street basketball-can all be "freestyle". The so-called "freestyle fighting", as the name implies, is to compete with your own improvisation. The freestyle combat in the field of rap is to sing the lyrics created on the spot in the form of improvisation against both sides, whether it is swearing or word games, in short, to prove that the other side's rap level is better than others. As a competition, freestyle combat itself allows a certain degree of personal attacks, and the lyrics are humorous, just like the two sides who are punching each other in a boxing match, they may be a pair of friends in life. In freestyle combat, the personal attacks in the lyrics lose their meaning immediately after the battle. Because of this, a rap game that seems to be full of personal attacks will become hysterical "crazy scolding" to outsiders who don't understand it.
As long as you pay a little attention, you can find King's "The Battle to Defend China's Dignity"-in fact, he has set a record of seven consecutive victories. In the "Freestyle Friday" rap competition program broadcast by BET TV (a black entertainment TV with far-reaching influence in the field of hip-hop) every Friday, Kim used witty and pungent satire to make the defending champion Hassan speechless into the microphone for six weeks. In the next six weeks, five black challengers and a white singer were ruthlessly cut off by Kim and became his offerings to enter the "Freestyle Friday" Hall of Fame. Seven weeks later, everyone knows that there is such a terrible rapper in China. No matter how you ridicule him, these words will backfire and become a weapon for Kim to fight back, and they will be fatal. His witty lyrics, sophisticated and calm improvisation and adaptability greatly surprised and admired the old beauty in front of the TV, and excited Joaquin "Waah" Dean, vice president of Ruff Ryders Records Company. After winning all seven games, Jin, who was promoted to the Hall of Fame, took out the Bling Bling necklace hidden in his coat on the spot. The pendant is a big and dazzling "R": Jin, who wears Ruff Ryders' exclusive diamond ornaments, is no longer a fan of "Double R"-but has become one of them.
From a Guangdong expatriate with an American dream to a general of Ruff Ryders Records, you can disdainfully call this boy lucky-this does not affect Jin's efforts to achieve higher achievements. In fact, the freestyle ability, which is now universally recognized as a "talent", also started with hard training and bit by bit accumulation. This child who wants to change his life with HipHop has been freestyle with his classmates in the school cafeteria since the eighth grade (equivalent to the second grade in China). Soon after, he began to participate in various battles and even performances in Miami, his birthplace. Like an energetic and aggressive little beast, he never misses every possible opportunity to fight. Even when he went to the cinema to see a movie, he hurried to the bathroom to solve the problem-as a result, he was assassinated in the bathroom with a strange cinema employee. His desire for fighting and constant training made him grow rapidly and become famous in the local hip-hop circle. He began to record rough music samples and sold them around for about $5. The expansion of influence has brought more challengers and made Jin stronger and more mature. Miami, which lacks a strong hip-hop background, can't keep the gold that is interested in hip-hop music. With the rapid rise of a new generation of rappers such as Nas, Wu Tang Gang, Mobb Deep and Onyx in the 1990s, the position of new york, the birthplace of hip-hop, has been consolidated again, and Kim has also found a new battlefield to pursue his rap dream. 9. After11",in 2006.5438+0 10, Kim, who graduated from North Miami Beach High School, moved to new york with his parents, which was tantamount to making him a tiger in the forest. From the corner of Times Square to 42nd Street, Kim's figure haunts every hip-hop stronghold where you are fascinated by "Jay-Z" and mini "Pastime", and he frequently fights with various masters. The most common day was a performance in front of new york record store "Fat Beat", but Kim met Kamel Pratt, who later became his agent.
Encouraged by Kamel's "cunning Praz" agency, Kim participated in the BET TV station "106&; The column "Freestye Friday" in the program "Park"-the result failed and failed to achieve the expected good effect. Kamal, who was full of confidence in Kim, encouraged Kim to try again, knowing that the boy could easily win as long as he played his normal level-the fiasco of defending champion Hassan six weeks later confirmed Pratt's vision.
The black origin of hip-hop culture does not affect China people to play this game better. In countless battles, black people with pure blood took Kim's native place of China as the attack handle. As a result, Jin, who has always been proud of his China ancestry, always countered skillfully with witty lyrics: "If you want to accuse me of being from China, I have to remind you/I'm afraid that the Timberland boots on your feet say Made in China". A similar statement is not uncommon in Kim's battle. The first single released after Kim signed Ruff Ryders in 2003 was called "Learning Chinese". It is not enough to sing "You all have to learn Chinese" at the climax of the song. Jin simply exploded a string of Cantonese in it, causing an uproar in the Chinese hip-hop circle in the United States. Because of the scenery experience in BET before, Learning Chinese and its MV have been widely expected and paid attention to, but the effect is not ideal. As a rapper who is good at words, Jin, who retired seven people in a row in the "BET battle" program, has high expectations. As a result, the first single failed to make fans hear the gorgeous and exquisite lyrics as they hoped. The whole song has neither profound ideological content to explore, nor good word games, as plain as boiled water. To make matters worse, the music given to Wyclef Jean is only average at best, and it can't drive "learning Chinese" whose lyrics are already weak. Fans are generally disappointed with the songs, and even the actresses in the MV are jointly reprimanded as "disgusting figure". Learning Chinese has been a complete failure.
Ruff Ryders certainly won't give up easily because a song fails. Not long after "Learning Chinese", an exciting news came out: "Kim's next song will cooperate with Kanye West!" As one of Jay-Z's royal producers, Kanye West's production is almost equivalent to a hit single, and in 2004, his solo album "College Dropouts" from creation to production was even more popular. Is Ruff Ryders really willing to throw money at Kanye's support fund? The subsequent single "I got a love" gave a positive answer. After all, kanye west helped a lot. The performance of the new single is obviously better than that of Learning Chinese, and it has also been widely recognized. However, this work of Jin did not become a popular song as people hoped. Although much better than previous works, Jin's lyrics are still far from the expected level. Fans expect Kim's single to be as eloquent as his freestyle, and Kim always looks so breathless at this time.
The first single suffered heavy losses, and the follow-up singles with big names were still tepid. Ruff Ryders began to lose confidence, and Kim's whole promotion plan seemed to be decided at once. After two attempts, the release of the third single was postponed, and the album originally scheduled for release in the spring of 2003 also became postponed. In the past six months, there has been almost only one style of official news about Kim: "the release of the new album has been postponed to X month X day". The name Kim began to fade out of people's sight.
In fact, Kim has not been idle for some time. In addition to a series of performances in bars in the United States and Asia, including China, Kim has also released three mixed albums (mostly semi-underground), including many of his finished products, namely Freestyle (songs recorded by singing his own words with other artists' music, also known as Freestyle, but completely different from improvisational Freestyle). At this time, Jin, especially in the eyes of many hip-hop fans, has basically returned to the original underground state. Some fans even speculated that Ruff Ryders had remorse after two setbacks and had no intention of continuing the promotion and distribution of gold. The situation is critical. Kim, forgotten by the mainstream, no longer bears the ardent expectations of hip-hop fans, especially Asians. He is not even a so-called "singer" and has never released an album. This man who came to make history has unfortunately become history.
At the end of the summer of 2004, a rap named Senorita began to spread on the Internet-this song was never released on Kim's Mixtape album or any other channel, nor was it publicly sung by Kim on any occasion, which caused a lot of discussion. Shortly thereafter, Ruff Ryders released the official news: Jin released a new single "Senorita" and confirmed that Jin's first album "The rest is history" will be officially released on June 65438+1October 65438+September 2004.
After a long silence, with the official release of the new single, Kim finally became a topic in people's mouths again, and MTV TV also took the initiative to invite him to participate in a large-scale battle held in Puerto Rico Fight Club. In front of a number of important figures in the circle, such as Game, Alchemist, Swizz Beats, Cuban Link, etc., Kim won the shipwreck and shells without mercy and won the championship. Kim's performance in the first round was so eye-catching that even his opponent, Scrooge, drew boos from the audience many times when he responded. With the increasing attention and the approaching release date, various versions of "album track list" began to appear, and several songs rumored as "leaking new albums" such as Get Your Handz Off, So fear and C'Mon were also widely spread. Aol took him as a front-page figure and invited him to perform solo. Major music and entertainment magazines began to interview him again; "XXL" magazine just listened to it first, published a music review before the album went on the market, and gave considerable praise. A week before the release of the album, some fans even wrote music reviews based on the leaked version of the album on the Internet.
June 2004 65438+1October 65438+September. Kim. The rest is history.
Just like Ruff Ryders' slogan "Ryde Or Die", whether gold makes history or becomes history is indeed a question. He is a different kind of rap. He is from China. However, the fiasco of Learning Chinese obviously did not weaken Kim's pride in China. The unique design of the album cover with China's traditional characteristics and the big Chinese character "Jing" have shown his attitude. In the album, he did not hesitate to express his pride. Now here, Kim said frankly, "I am only five feet six inches tall, but I stand tall." I was born to fight, just like the Great Wall in China. Listen to my solid steps, just like Yao Ming is behind you. " . In a good way, in a bad way. At the beginning of Ugliness, Guangdong-born Ruff Ryder once again casually blows Cantonese, just like the straight line "Yeah, I'm from China, and then what?" Yes, I'm from China. How's it going? ) so proud and domineering.
Kim really needs such overbearing and self-confidence. In fact, even in his own record company, Ruff Ryders, this strange role in rap is still an anomaly. This rap label holding high the banner of "Ryde Or Die" has produced a super gang rap tough guy like DMX and a flagship gang rap group like "The Lox" on the East Coast, and the subsequent "D-Block" has not changed. As for Drag-On-on, who released his album before Kim, it is also difficult to talk about his new works. "This is a hardcore album. I grew up on the street. Of course, I only said on the street. " Even the female general Eve was full of "Gangsta Luvin" (her hit single "Love for Bandits").
It is under the rap label of such an East Coast bandit that Jin admitted in his album that he "doesn't touch guns or drugs", which is almost unimaginable today when everyone wants to prove that he is really helping bandits. "Kim, you are Ralph Ryder, show your gun and shoot!" -"I can't sing these things." Jin vividly reproduced such a life scene in the song "It's Cold Outside". In fact, Kim experienced a shooting when his friend LS, another Asian rapper, took a bullet for him and went to the hospital. Afterwards, Jin did not brag about the so-called gang background, but discussed the nature of life and his consistent attitude in Good, Bad and Ugly.
If Kim's album is not as full of gorgeous word games as people expected, then the truth is the biggest highlight and the rest is history. This is an album that is really sung from the heart, and this is a real HipHop CD. The whole album can't find mainstream rappers boasting about women, money and drugs, but there is a song like "I'm so scared" that criticizes the current impetuous environment: "Bring your beautiful car and diamonds, you all sound the same. Don't you know that all this will change? What are you afraid of? " In the second paragraph of the song, Jin became more straightforward: "Although I want to make money, I would rather be loyal to myself than blindly pursue royalties." In Club Song produced by Just Blaze, Kim's frankness is almost surprising and shocking. Dang Ge is indispensable if you want to be popular, which has almost become the hidden rule of hip-hop circle. In the climax of Dang Ge, King simply said, "This is my Dang Ge. If you want to be red, you must sing Dang Ge; This is my Dang Ge. Everyone has one, so I also got a Dang Ge. " A few words are really incredible. On the other hand, Jin is by no means a purist divorced from reality. The innocent love affair between a boy and a black girl in China finally broke down because of the stubbornness and conservatism of the boy's parents. Although Jin feels sad and sorry in his love novels, he does not deny that all this happened to him.
Other songs in the album, such as "Let Go of Your Hand" and "Come on", have more exciting rhythms and show another side of Kim's personality. In the face of this kind of ridicule and insult, in the face of the difficult pressure of life, Kim showed his sharpness mercilessly. In "Karanite" supported by Style P, this talented rapper confidently wants to turn "karaoke night into a rap show", and his love for hip-hop itself can be clearly seen between the lines. At the end of the album, Kim did not forget to thank all his friends who supported and helped him. A simple and sincere "thank you", a "even if someone hates me, I still thank you, because you make me work harder", and sincere gratitude is fully revealed.
Kim brought a good album, a real album. As many fans expected, Jin can do better. His amazing ability of freestyle improvisation may one day become a clever word game in lyrics; His grasp of rhythm may also become as skillful and changeable as Lakim; His name may become a legend one day ...
Ryder is still dead, a China-born Ruff Ryder who works hard in the rap circle. Can he make history?
But now, the rapper who really loves hip-hop and the representative of China on the rap map, Kim can only continue to make history.
MC Jin (aka McKinley) is very famous in HIPHOP and has won numerous wars of words in Miami and New York. Ironically, because of the Zen Federation, he was forced to withdraw from a competition held by a radio station for weeks. The ever-victorious general is even better than "106&; "Freestyle Friday" in the "park" singing competition set a record for seven weeks, and MC Jin with the Chinese character "Jing" tattooed on his neck began to emerge, so his agent Ruff Ryders got to know MC Jin and signed a record.
MC King's first single "Learning Chinese" has achieved unprecedented success among Chinese singers in the United States, and its MV is also the first MV premiered by MTV Chinese Channel. The first solo album "The rest is history" ranked 54th on Billboard, and sold 26,000 copies in the first week! Hip-hop culture transcends national boundaries, and Jin has performed on the same stage with many international superstars, including Wang Leehom and Kayne West, an international HIPHOP strongman. Explosive live performances and satirical and humorous freestyle rap have all been revisited by netizens.
In 2005, she collaborated with Wang Leehom on the album Heroes on Earth, the song of heroes on Earth, which was sung in English and Cantonese, and performed the hip-hop style in China. Highly praised by Wang Leehom, she has performed on the same stage for many times.
Album ABC
The first Guangdong Hip-Hop album released in the United States tells the life of Chinese growing up in the United States with ten songs, reflects the Hip-Hop culture from the perspective of China people and orientals, and tells the true meaning of Hip-Hop in Cantonese. This album was produced by Far East Movement and Bionik, and the song "Hong Kong superstar" won Daniel Wu as a special guest.
The cover was redesigned by Sunny Lau, a trend photographer appointed by Wen Hui Ge. Black-and-white photos of Kim as a child, frames with sunglasses, a few drops of water like tears and sweat flowing along the border, and Kim's favorite video recorder. Everything is like Kim's experience of doing ABC for many years! When ABC was released in Hong Kong, Kim felt very special, because he sang Cantonese, and his feelings about Hong Kong were not as relaxed as ours, which was hard-won for this patriotic ABC who loves Hong Kong.
As Jin said, everything comes from the heart, and the content of the song is not as ordinary as Sex and Pistol, Prison and BlingBling in HipHop, and it is all about this ABC life.