This summer the Rap of China, a Chinese rap reality show, has brought rap music to the Chinese masses.
Jin Au-Yeung, known professionally as MC Jin, has won love and respect from the public in the popular show. Apart from his professional skill and excellent performance, the audiences were touched by the Chinese-American rapper humbling himself to learn Chinese and his hope for the emergence of more talented younger generation artists. This also changed the prejudice many people had against hip-hop.
However, it was rarely known in China that Jin's calmness, humility, and warmth is related to his faith.
The Christian rapper shared his transformation after accepting Christ in a 2013 interview with Christian Post. At the age of 20, Jin became the first Chinese solo rapper to sign with a major record label. Later he gained seven consecutive wins in "Freestyle Friday" on BET's "106 & Park." Then "he was everywhere - in magazines and movies, on other artists' albums.", said the Christian Post article.
"I [had] just signed a record deal [with Ruff Ryders], pretty much had all the things I had dreamed and desired for ever since the age of 16," Jin told The Christian Post in a recent interview. "At the age of like 16, 17 during my high school years, I had the most conscious and dedicated and committed mindset in terms of these are the things that I'm pursuing: a rap career, stardom, fame, money, finances, girls, houses, cars."
In 2003, he co-starred with Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, and Eva Mendes in "2 Fast 2 Furious". However, he found that these were like fleeting clouds after just a few years. "Then simultaneously as quick as that happened is as quick as I kind of vanished into obscurity," he told Christian Post.
It was at that point Jin decided to leave the recording industry. 2005-2007 was the lowest time of his life and his career and he hit rock bottom physically, mentally, and spiritually.
However, a phone call changed his fate. His parents in Hong Kong asked him to stay there for a while. Over the next three and a half years, he found faith, restarted his career, and got married. He also became a father.
"It was really in the last 24 months, toward the end of 2010, that I really started to see something really amazing happening ... More than ever, I started to see what gratitude means, what grace is, the love of God. One word I love using in describing all of this is how patient the Lord has been with me. The moment I started seeing all of that ... the critical point was when I started responding to that. Responding in the sense that I started embracing it," Jin shared.
At the end of 2010, he followed Jesus whole-heartedly and joined in a church named The Vine Church. The time with a Bible study group was crucial to him.
"I started really devoting a lot of my time, energy, heart, focus and everything into wanting to please God, wanting to serve God, wanting to grow in God, wanting to learn about God, be it through studying the Word, fellowshipping, developing a healthy church life, which prior to Hong Kong was pretty nonexistent."
"So between the Bible study group as well as the church community that I was trying to pour myself into, as well as was pouring into me, these were I believe critical components in the overall walk and growth that occurred in the several years in Hong Kong."
"For me, the 30-year-old Jin is a husband, the 30-year-old Jin is a father. More important than that, the 30-year-old Jin is an absolute lover of God and Jesus and what Christ is doing in me, and what he's done for me."
He also witnessed his faith and God in many video interviews. He said, "Jesus is alive but religions are dead. It's good for you to go to church and read the Bible all day and I praise you for that. However, what matters the most is your relationship with God."
In 2014, the 32-year-old rapper was interviewed by Christian Post again.
He shared that the content of his music was totally different from "earlier in his career when he rapped about the usual fare of 'sex, money, and cars.'"
He mentioned the priorities in his life and said that faith played a large part in that.
"I think what I rap about and what I write and perform on stage, is not the priority," Jin told CP. "The priority is what type of life am I living? That's the section of my walk that I'm in right now, which is just putting more emphasis on non-music related stuff - how am I serving at home as far as my family, wife and child? How am I serving the group of individuals that God has placed in my circle, just daily life, work life? Then music and what I write and rap about...that almost kind of falls way, way below. What God has placed on my heart is, I could be rapping the most profound, uplifting, encouraging lyrics and doing crazy, crazy things, but if behind the scenes my life doesn't reflect that..."
Regarding whether he would return to the secular music industry, he responded, "I started in the dark. And when I say the dark I'm not saying that those people are dark. I really need to be clear about that.The enemy is not these rappers, to me. The enemy is not these so-called secular rappers. It's a spiritual thing going on. So when I say dark, it's from a spiritual standpoint. [I] started out in the dark, and by the grace of God He pulled me out of it. ... Now with this new foundation of faith, if He chooses to thrust me back into that darkness, let's do it baby. I'm ready!"
Some called him a "Gospel rapper" doing new hip-hop music as a new type of "Gospel music".
- Translated by Karen Luo
