Sizing up the souped-up, high-powered vehicles that RIDES has assembled for him, the rapper Jin relives his role as Jimmy the mechanic from last year's blockbuster film, 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Some of you might remember the Miami-raised New York resident from his long run as Freestyle Friday champion on BET's 106 & Park , which got him signed to Ruff Ryders. Prior to that, Jin ripped apart countless other MCs on the underground battle circuit. But today he reminisces on the tuner scene of old and getting schooled on upgrades by a woman.

On the presence of foreign rides in hip-hop...

The import scene is hot, man, and is just exploding on the scene. Hip-hop is catching up with it, and especially with the Fast and the Furious or 2 Fast 2 Furious movies adding to the craze and me being in that movie, it all really made sense. Plus I've been performing at a lot of nationwide car shows and tours with all them crazy imports.

On the car scene he saw prior to his newfound fame...

All my buddies in high school were sportin' in their imports and Honda Civics and compact cars. They were hookin' them up and all, way back before this movie craze and car craze is what it is today. But get this, I was dating this lady back then who was all up in that mess, sporting a fixed-up ride, so I had to keep myself up in the car game so I knew what was going on.

Revealing both his current and future rides...

Well I'm chillin' right now, got a Lexo at home. It ain't doing much really. It probably gets driven by the folks a lot 'cause I'm out traveling so much I really don't drive or do anything to it. But when that next check comes in, I might look into pickin' up another Lexo-that SC430 with the hardtop convertible action. That's some clean stuff. Can't really fit anything in the two back seats but all I really need is the seat next to me for my lady.

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