Chinese American rapper Jin, coming off of his recent all-Cantonese language album ABC, is now stepping out as a political activist. Sort of. He's been directing a lot of energy towards mobilizing folks, particularly young people, to vote... and come Election Day 2008, he plans to cast his vote for Barack Obama. And he's making his support known to all, loud and clear.
Case in point, this track, available on Jin's MySpace page: "Open Letter 2 Obama." Obama's campaign got wind of it pretty quickly, apparently digging the song enough to bestow Jin with the most sacred of honors: the number one "top friends" spot on Barack's MySpace page.
Here's a MTV article on Jin and his newfound political consciousness: Make Room, Moms For Obama: Jin Is Barack's New MySpace Friend. And here's video footage of Jin speaking last week at an Obama organizing event in NYC: jin_june 5th NYC Obama organizing speech. Very cool to see Jin using his craft and celebrity to mobilize people towards something substantial, outside the usual fare. Take it to the polls! Because Jin said so.
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