According to MTV News:
The Belize-born MC spoke to MTV News on Friday (April 9) and announced that the launch of his movement begins next week as he drops his new song "Messiah." MTV News had an early preview of an EZ Elpee-produced track that drops Monday.
Shyne held a press conference in Belize last November, shortly after completing a prison sentence of eight years for two counts of assault as well as reckless endangerment and gun possession in a 1999 shooting (Shyne has maintained his innocence in the incident). He said he hasn't gotten soft over the years; he's gotten wiser.
"I make music about life," he said during the press conference. "One of the greatest musicians was Bob Marley. There was nothing misogynistic about him. But his music, he talked about some harsh realities sometimes. He was tough. I would like to make that type of contribution, that kind of Marvin Gaye contribution, you dig? But at the same time, we curse. At the same time, life is violent. Life is troublesome sometimes. So don't expect my music to be sanitized. I am just going to talk about what's going on in the world."
As you'll hear on "Messiah," Shyne is still firm in his words but insists he's not reckless. Think about the difference between Sonny Corleone and his brother Michael.
"I got the city on my back, pretty women in the sack," the song begins. "Rollin' in the Rolls/ Sit, sittin' in my lap/ This is not a rap, fool, this is not an act/ Welcome to New York, blood, this is where it's at/ Snitches take a nap with the fishes and the rats/ Buried in the dirt where the witnesses is at."
In the chorus, he declares: "This one is a go, but r-r-really though/ If you know the code, then y-y-you could roll/ But if you was a foe, then you get peter-rolled/ But keep that on the low, r-r-really though."
EZ Elpee keeps the track simple but with a threatening synth and bass thump. "You got the crown/ I had to repo that/ Where the East Coast at?/ Mobster music ... Nino's back.
"Tell him to go to school, he don't wanna go/ Shorty wanna roll, how I'mma tell him no?" he continues. "He just like Po/ God knows it better for him to be like Barack O/ My life ain't gold/ One foot is in the grave, the other in the hole/ I wish that I could show, he gonna follow me straight to death row/ Nah, I'mma make sure, he ain't like me/ R-r-really though."
Shyne's new LP doesn't have a release date yet, but he did ink a record deal with Def Jam earlier this year. "Messiah" will drop Monday. No word yet whether it's the official first single or a warm-up record.
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Life after jail is looking real good for Shyne who just signed a 7 -figure deal with Def Jam. LA Reid recently flew via private jet to Belize to finalize contract details and put pen to paper! Remember Shyne is not allowed into the US, so I guess Belize was a good a location as any.
Well, it seems being banned from the US is stop stopping American label DefJam from singing a reportedly 7-figure deal with Belizean rapper Shyne who recently was released from prison. He will supposedly be working from the UK. Seems he also signed a management deal with HipHopSince1978, the same team that manages Lil Wayne, Jeezy and Drake.
Not that you need to be reminded but Shyne went to prison for the whole fracas involving JLo and Diddy in a 199 shooting incident at a nightclub.
Photo source
He recently released a song with DJ Kahled, Mavado and Akon and called "All My Life" on the Bug Riddim. I really don't know what to make of it - he just doesn't sound the same.
Compare to his breakout hit "Bad Boys" with Barrington Levy off his 200 album Shyne. Wicked Chuuuneeee.....bap, bap, bap!!!!!
This is the on air report from 7 News in Belize about Moses Levivy's (the artist more popularly known as Shyne) visit at a local prison. I am glad to see that he is trying to make a positive impact in the community. He is not bitter, just trying to live his life and be an example.
Moses Leviy, or Shyne as you may know him, was deported to Belize on October 28th and made his first public comments at Wesley College on Monday November 2nd. But since then Belize’s most famous deportee has kept a low profile, shuttling quietly between his penthouse at the Renaissance Tower and a San Pedro resort. But today Shyne was back in the spotlight. He traded in his Harvard University gear for a crisp white guayabera. The occasion was an event for youth week at the Hattieville Prison and 7News was there from start to finish. Keith Swift has the story.Keith Swift Reporting,In the escort of four prison guards and two of his own security – at 10 am Shyne strode into the compound of the Hattieville Prison not as an inmate but as an inspiration for an audience of 400 prisoners.
Moses Leviy,“Who would have ever thought that a young dude from Curassow Street who used to dump faeces outside the back would make it to the highest level in America culture. I made $30 million…I did records with Usher, Justin Timberlake. I shot a video when I was in jail, not saying you guys should do that but anything is possible. We talking about no, we ain’t going to sit here and cry, you got to come up with a plan. That’s what I did.”
But Shyne or Moses Leviy says he didn’t come behind these prison walls to preach. He said he came to talk to inmates, to impart the knowledge that he knows firsthand of what’s it’s like to live behind prison walls.
Moses Leviy
"As I look into the audience I see myself. I see Shyne in everyone of you. From
the start of my life, the odds have been against me just like you.
I am not
special. I didn’t have no family. I never saw my mother, my mother was cleaning
somebody else’s house and taking care of somebody else’s kid. I didn’t have
nobody but I didn’t let that stop me. And even after selling millions of records
and being Shyne they would have been lined up for me. My last album was called
Godfather Buried Alive. You why? Because when you go to jail it is like you are
dead. But still no excuses. I didn’t make no excuses.
I sat down, I said okay
yeah, this is what I am going to do. I understood I made mistakes, I accepted
responsibility for my mistakes. I didn’t blame nobody else for my mistakes. It
wasn’t my co-defendant’s fault that I shot somebody in the club. I did
that.
Over the last ten years instead of worrying abut what this one is doing
or what that one is doing, who is responsible for me being there, I took
responsibility and I spent the ten years planning what my future was going to be
and you have the same power to do that. I know you do because like I said I look
into your eyes and I see myself.
I could do it, if I could spend ten years
which is like death row, I am telling you because in the music business I can’t
even remember who was rapping ten years ago. So for me to be out here and for me
to still be calling A-Rod after he won the World Series, for me to still be
moving and shaking, calling Rihanna and finding out what she’s going to wear
when she’s coming to see me in Belize, that shows that you could do
anything.”
After the speech he was then whisked off to the prison’s conference room for a private meeting with prison management. They were later joined by accused killers Arthur Young and Errol Haynes. That was closed to the press but after, Shyne did return to the ceremony for a question and answer segment – though as you can tell from his facial expression we weren’t welcome. Shyne left after answering a few questions but his impression lingered.
Elwin Vacaro, Inmate – Wagner’s Youth Facility
“He gave me a good word of encouragement because he’s been through a lot and he came to try help we because we are in a situation like which he was in already. So he said to be your own boss and thing, you can’t put the blame on nobody.”
Henry Cornejo, Inmate – Wagner’s Youth Facility
“He also said that people are the ones who change their own lives because no one can change it for you and I really think that is a good message and I could try to change my life as he did.”
Hiliare Sears, Inmate – Kolbe
“Me personally speaking, me of my understanding, I could relate to what the man said and I could see myself in the man in the sense that I won’t lean on self-pity, I won’t take that self-pity style and say I done deh that jail and I done mess up, I don’t dh yah for a crime I done commit and whatever and wallow in that pity. I will utilize that as a turning, like in layman’s term, turning a stumbling block into a stepping stone.”
And if for only that realization – today’s visit may have been a success.
About 400 inmates were present. 47 of those inmates were from the Wagner’s Youth Facility at Kolbe.
Shyne's father, the Prime Minister of Belize Dean Barrow has released his first official statement in support of his estranged son Shyne (Jamal Barrow) since Shyne has returned to Belize after deportation on Tuesday.
After a few days of Shyne being home Prime Minister Barrow expressed his hope that his son will recover from the physical and emotional stress of a decade in prison.
“When I saw him yesterday I was stunned. You don’t go to jail for that period of time. It’s obviously exacting a huge toll on you but I really was shocked to see what it had physically done to him. Clearly it will take some time for him to be able to recover from that experience. Not having gone through it myself, I don’t know whether one is ever able to recover. But it was wonderful to see that he is free at last, good to have him in Belize. Although he appeared physically frail, it was obvious that he was mentally strong as ever. He certainly kept talking to me about what his presence here at home could mean for this country, what opportunities he could cause us to be able to—he could create for us and I was certainly very impressed and gratified by that. I was also greatly pleased that the first thing he did was to go to the Youth Hostel. But I understand that in due course, he will speak to you himself and so perhaps I ought to leave it here. Good to have him home.”
Shyne has rented an entire floor at the Radisson Fort George until construction of an extension on the home of his uncle, Michael Finnegan, is complete. One of Shyne’s attorneys including Professor Charles Ogletree is arriving in Belize on Saturday and is expected to speak to the media.
Source
I mentioned in a previous post that Moses Michaeil Leviy AKA Jamal Barrow AKA Shyne was to be released on October 6th 2009. He was--but not to his family; to Immigration.
According to NY Daily News:
Rap star Shyne, convicted of a club shooting while mentor P.
Diddy beat the rap, was released from prison Tuesday and taken into custody
by immigration officials.
The 30-year-old ex-protégé has a green card but is
facing deportation to his native Belize because of his felony rap sheet, his lawyer
said.
Shyne was on the verge of superstardom when he was arrested in 1999 for
a shooting at Club New York.
Diddy, partying with then-gal
pal Jennifer Lopez, was also charged but acquitted at
trial. His young star got 10 years on assault and weapons charges.
Diddy's
publicist had no comment on Shyne's legal woes Tuesday, but the mogul recently
told Hot 97 that he spoke with Shyne in prison.
"He
sounded like he was in good spirits," Diddy said.
"I know he can't wait to
get home. I know he is definitely going to heat the whole scene up. He was
definitely one of the talented young artists that I had the pleasure to work
with."
Shyne was dropped from Diddy's Bad Boy Records in 2003. A year later, the inmate
blasted his former patron, claiming he betrayed him.
In an interview with
Vibe, Shyne said Diddy convinced a friend to lie on the stand and say he pulled
out his gun and opened fire in the Times Square club without provocation.
"As my
homeboy, how you gonna put somebody on the stand whose lie could put me behind
bars for 25 years?" said Shyne, who claimed he shot in self-defense.
Although
he still had years left on his sentence, Def Jam signed him to a $3 million contract in
2004. It released an album, "Godfather...Buried Alive," containing material
recorded before the arrest, but it tanked.
Recently, Jay-Z denied a report that he had visited Shyne at
the Woodbourne Correctional Facility to sign him to a
record deal.
The performer's lawyer, Oscar Michelen, said his client "is anxious to get
released."
"He is looking forward to seeing his family and being able to be
free to do what he wants to do," he said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Mike Gilhooly would only say that Shyne was in
custody for being in violation of U.S. immigration law."
Shyne's real name was Jamal Barrow until he changed it to Moses Leviy in recognition of his Jewish mother.
His father is now the prime minister of Belize.
Source
This happens all the time to men and women a-like. It is just receiving this much focus due to Shyne's high profile. This raises an important issue though. Who is responsible for deported crimminals? The island that gave birth to them or the country like America where they honed their skills and committed their crimes. Now I am not saying that someone who is deported cannot assimilate into what ever Caribbean island they were sent too and become good citizens who contribute to it's development. But how many of you know some guy that left the island when he was 21/2 years old, lived on the streets hustling, gets busted and sent to an island that he has never seen since he left. What does the American government think is gonna happen when he gets there? Hmmm. My bet he will do what he does best and the local system will have to deal with it. But guess what America is still affected. Cause when tourist come and get robbed, or people snorting coke that pass through the region, or he get some fake documents and go back foreign back door style, the problem has not gone away. Something to ponder my people.
All the best to Shyne. I doubt he is gonna want any special treatment from Prime Minister Dean Barrow who publicly stated that Jamal was 'unwanted.' At least he is free. It is totally up to him where he wants his life to go.
