Rapper is redeemed
Now a leader in Belize after 10 yrs. in jail
As redemption stories go, this one should be set to music, though maybe not rap or hip hop. Shyne Barrow has moved on from that. He’s a diplomat now.
When we last saw Barrow in the U.S. in 2009, he was a convicted felon, just released after a 10-year prison sentence for his role in a Manhattan nightclub shooting involving megastars Jennifer Lopez and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Barrow, once a rising star on Combs’ “Bad Boy” music label, was deported to his native Belize, a Caribbean country on the Central American coast, never to be heard from again. Or so it seemed.
But Barrow, who grew up in Brooklyn, is back. It turned out that despite Barrow’s blossoming American rap career, Belize was where Shyne was destined to shine.
Following in the political footsteps of his parents, Barrow became an elected member of Belize’s parliament, and leader of the opposition, for which he headlined a mission to the U.S. this month to improve relations between the two countries.
“I’m on official duty,” Barrow, 42, told the Daily News. “I’m very focused on making connections that will benefit Belize in the immediate and long term.”
Barrow said he is focused on boosting tourism, and on improving the lives of “marginalized and disenfranchised youth who have been condemned.”
Barrow knows all about condemnation. Shyne was on the verge of superstardom when he was arrested in 1999 for a shooting at Club New York in Midtown. An argument between Combs and a partygoer led to a shooting that injured three people.
Combs, partying with then-gal pal Lopez, was also charged, but was acquitted at trial. His young star got 10 years on assault and weapons charges. Barrow said at the time that he was defending himself, a position he still maintains.
Barrow, while still in prison, was dropped from Combs’ Bad Boy Records in 2003. A year later, the inmate blasted his former patron, claiming Combs had betrayed him.
Before his prison term ended, the rapper, born Jamal Barrow, began practicing Orthodox Judaism, and officially changed his name to Moses Michael Levi Barrow. But he didn’t rub off the Shyne.
Barrow said he could not have made it where he is without everything he has been through.
“I don’t think any of us can be where we are without going through the process,” Barrow said. “Some of our processes are different. Some of our pains are different. I thought I’d be a billionaire rap superstar entertainer and that was going to be the way I helped Belize. But the architect of the universe had a different design.”
Among those impressed by Barrow’s transformation is the Rev. Conrad Tillard, once known as “The Hip-Hop Minister” for his work as an activist. Tillard counseled Barrow in prison, and is ecstatic over the results.
“The ground is no place for a champion,” said Tillard, senior minister of Flatbush Tompkins Congregational Church in Brooklyn.
“He has always been so brilliant, the kind of brother that could do anything that he wanted to do. He got caught up in Brooklyn and hip hop, into a lifestyle that was destructive. Even as a successful rapper, businessman, the negative influences were strong.”
But Barrow was stronger. That strength was on display as Barrow walked the hallowed halls of Congress meeting with elected leaders including with Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens, Nassau) and Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan, Bronx).
He says the experience is right up there with his first album going platinum.
“I’ve always been a leader and I’ve always been concerned about people, even if you go back to my first album,” said Barrow, who was rapping about constructing schools instead of building prisons.
“I was always very conscious of dilemmas facing inner city youth and families. I was using my platform to call attention to that. People would focus on the obscene language and the violence. But I was always aware and conscious to use my platform to be a voice for the voiceless. I’m not going to be the 19-year-old child I was. I’m going to be a better version of myself. I’ve become who I always wanted to be.”