ENTER THE JIN

Jeff Chang's been churning out a mass of words on rapper Jin, whose debut The Rest is History has just (about to?) drop. His most recent piece was a review in the SF Bay Guardian but before that, he wrote an even longer post on his Can't Stop, Won't Stop blog dealing with the same topic. Some of you might remember, I also wrote someting on Jin's "Learn Chinese" video back in December and I should be writing something on his album for the Seattle Weekly. Stay tuned for the longer version but here's the short one:

Not a bad album but like most of Ruff Ryder's debuts (Jada, Eve, Styles P), The Rest Is History isn't a magnum opus. Jin's song-writing skills are an improvement compared to other freestyle kings like Supernatural but he still has a ways to go on the lyrical scale. The main problem with his album isn't Jin but the production. This is a strikingly dull album, musically speaking - there's nothing on here that I can imagine remembering down the road. The Kanye West track ("I Got A Love") is possibly the most ineffectual beat I've heard from Kanye, ever. This all said, it's not a bad start for Jin and if dude has a stage show that can impress, he's got a decent future ahead of him. Well, as much as any rapper these days.

When I first heard Nas' "Bridging the Gap," I thought its concept was better than its execution. When watching the video, I decided:no, the execution is pretty damn hot too.
(credit: Funkdigi)

Another reason I'm bummed I don't live in NYC.

Music writer Kris Ex gets his blog on: AKA GunYoga (I'm kind of feeling "Warscribe" better but that's just me).

Stop the presses. Let the staff go. Refund the advertisers. It is now official: The Source is over. At least, they will be if they truly intend to put Michael Jackson on their cover.
(credit: J.C.)

The Boston Globe recently ran a feature story on Asian American cinema. It talks about the recent Silkscreens Film Festival, held last month at MIT, where they screened a variety of features including Shih-Ching Tsuo's excellent Take-Out, Pop Life favorite Charlotte Sometimes by Eric Byler and 30 some other features and shorts. (One of the highlighted films though was Jimmy Lee's Close Call which surprised me: when I screened that film several years ago, I didn't find it very good - instead, I thought it was overly melodramatic, exploitative and unforgivably patriarchal. Maybe there's a new cut of it). I have a longer post on the topic of independent and Asian American film upcoming. Get ready for the hate.
(credit: Angry Asian Man)