Like the scene in 8 Mile where Eminem fights his personal demons along with his real-life rapper foe, Chinese-American MC Jin Au-yeung aka Jin has been proving himself by battling it out on stage.
The 21-year-old MC, who recently released his debut album The Rest Is History under leading hip-hop label Ruff Ryders, showed his impressive rhyming talent in front of his Hong Kong fans last week.
As a rapper, Jin says the battles, which involve one or more MCs competing against each other in front of an audience, are of greatest importance to him.
'[The battles] are number one ... even more important than a record deal,' says the avid hip-hopper who hails from Miami in the United States.
'Even with a record deal, without the battles you'll never get respect.'
In the hip-hop community, battles including emceeing and deejaying are the only way for budding musicians to gain credibility. Rappers vie for the championship by coming up with impromptu and fast-paced rhyming.