Trina
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Album Review - Jin
April 12th 2007 04:28
Okay, so Trina hooked me up with a copy of Jin’s album and asked me to review it. I thought, sweet, I’ve been pretty hyped to listen to Jin’s ABC (American Born Chinese) album for a little while now, so I popped it into my cd player and tried to have a listen.
I have to admit at first I was confused as hell.
Turns out that 95% of the songs are in Cantonese, with one song containing a freestyle in English, and other songs containing random English words. I was a little disappointed.
BUT. It’s incredibly addictive. The beats are catchy as hell and deserve an award for managing to grab you wether or not you can understand what Jin is saying.
I probably should’ve Learned Chinese like he said to.
Lyrically, I don’t know what he’s saying most of the time but catch words like “gwai lo” and “hip hop DJ” and hope I get the gist of it. And I feel a little hypocritical because I personally can’t stand when people listen to music that they don’t really understand.
So what do I do?
I make time to sit down with one of my Chinese friends and have a run through of the album. Because I’d like to at least have an IDEA of what Jin’s subject matter is.
I left it with him for a night, and caught up with him the next day and, I quote
“This is the best chinese hip hop recording I’ve ever heard. Others don’t come close”.
Fair enough. I’ll trust him on that because I don’t listen to much Chinese hip hop, so we pull up a chair and listen to the album.
Jin’s subject matter ranges from a number of chinese/American themes, such as his first song, “ABC”, which was about growing up as an American Born Chinese in the US. “It’s Hip Hop” is basically an overview of some classic moments in hip hop history, such as DJ Kool Herc, the originator and first hip hop DJ, to LL Cool J’s “Momma said knock you out”. “HK Superstar” features Daniel Wu and is just a song about being, well, superstars in Hong Kong. Go figure. “Speak Can’t Read” is about Jin being able to speak and understand Chinese, but not write in Chinese, apart from his name and simple words. “Ape shall never” seems to be a mess around song about BAPE, along with “Yum Dom Cha”, a fun little song about, wait for it…
Yum Cha. Jin’s a funny dude. I’ll leave the rest for you to listen, but there are 10 songs in total on it.
Apparently the album isn’t doing so well in China itself, where the concept of American Born Chinese doesn’t strike as much of a chord as it does in say, the US or Australia. I mean, someone in HK who can speak but not read or write would be a just a little strange. Seems to be a foreign born Chinese thing. That’s another discussion though.
So grab up this album and sing along… if you can. If not, do what I do and figure out where the English words are and hum the tune between them. I promise you’ll enjoy yourself either way.
Chux.
I have to admit at first I was confused as hell.
Turns out that 95% of the songs are in Cantonese, with one song containing a freestyle in English, and other songs containing random English words. I was a little disappointed.
BUT. It’s incredibly addictive. The beats are catchy as hell and deserve an award for managing to grab you wether or not you can understand what Jin is saying.
Lyrically, I don’t know what he’s saying most of the time but catch words like “gwai lo” and “hip hop DJ” and hope I get the gist of it. And I feel a little hypocritical because I personally can’t stand when people listen to music that they don’t really understand.
So what do I do?
I make time to sit down with one of my Chinese friends and have a run through of the album. Because I’d like to at least have an IDEA of what Jin’s subject matter is.
I left it with him for a night, and caught up with him the next day and, I quote
“This is the best chinese hip hop recording I’ve ever heard. Others don’t come close”.
Fair enough. I’ll trust him on that because I don’t listen to much Chinese hip hop, so we pull up a chair and listen to the album.
Jin’s subject matter ranges from a number of chinese/American themes, such as his first song, “ABC”, which was about growing up as an American Born Chinese in the US. “It’s Hip Hop” is basically an overview of some classic moments in hip hop history, such as DJ Kool Herc, the originator and first hip hop DJ, to LL Cool J’s “Momma said knock you out”. “HK Superstar” features Daniel Wu and is just a song about being, well, superstars in Hong Kong. Go figure. “Speak Can’t Read” is about Jin being able to speak and understand Chinese, but not write in Chinese, apart from his name and simple words. “Ape shall never” seems to be a mess around song about BAPE, along with “Yum Dom Cha”, a fun little song about, wait for it…
Apparently the album isn’t doing so well in China itself, where the concept of American Born Chinese doesn’t strike as much of a chord as it does in say, the US or Australia. I mean, someone in HK who can speak but not read or write would be a just a little strange. Seems to be a foreign born Chinese thing. That’s another discussion though.
So grab up this album and sing along… if you can. If not, do what I do and figure out where the English words are and hum the tune between them. I promise you’ll enjoy yourself either way.
Chux.
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