Stereo Playah

A rival in a hip-hop battle show on BET told JIN to “leave rap alone and keep making fortune cookies.” But last week the Miami-born son of Chinese immigrants became the first Asian-American rapper to release an album on a major label. On The Rest Is History, Jin plays off his roots in a way that has sparked controversy among Asian Americans. He calls himself “the original Chinky-eye M.C.” and raps about labor abuses (“The sneakers on your feet cost 100 a pop/ My people get 15¢ a day in sweatshops”) and interracial dating. “I’m not a gimmick,” says Jin, 23. “I’m not the Chinese version of nobody.” Well, maybe Jackie Robinson.