Shyne

Moses Michael Levi Barrow (born Jamal Michael Barrow, best known by his stage name Shyne; November 8, 1978) is a Belizean rapper, politician and convicted criminal.

He is the Leader of the Opposition in the Belize House of Representatives, and the leader of the Belize United Democratic Party.

Barrow was born in Belize but moved to Brooklyn in New York City as a child and began to rap as a teenager.

After he moved to Brooklyn, he began to develop a strong interest in the hip-hop culture of the 1980s and 1990s.

At age 15, while in a fight he was shot in his right shoulder by another kid in Flatbush, Brooklyn, leaving him with a six-inch scar.

After graduating high school three years later, part of the time of which he spent attending high school in Belize at Wesley College in 1993, he enrolled in a New York City College of Technology computer program.

He paid for his tuition by working as a bike messenger, buying an 18-speed bicycle and riding it from Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, where he made deliveries around the borough.

He left NYC College of Technology to pursue a career in music.

In 1998, while Barrow was freestyling in a barbershop on Church Avenue in Brooklyn, he was discovered by hip hop producer DJ Clark Kent, who was working on the Notorious B.I.G.'s first posthumous album, Born Again.

He quickly took Barrow to Bad Boy Studios, where Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs signed him on the spot to his label.

It was reported that Shyne received millions of dollars, 3 cars of his choice and 2 homes just for signing.

The contract also included a 5 studio album deal.

This caused a small media shockwave.

He abruptly had his life shift from sleeping on his mother's couch, to jetting to Beverly Hills first class to record with top rappers in hip-hop.

Not long after, Shyne began making appearances on recordings made by his Bad Boy Entertainment label-mates.

He was notably featured on Mase's second album, Double Up (1999), and on a remix of Total's "Sittin At Home" single.

In the same year he featured on chief executive Combs' second studio album Forever.

In the early hours of December 27, 1999, Shyne and his mentor/label boss, Sean Combs, and Combs' then-girlfriend singer/actress Jennifer Lopez, were involved in a shooting incident.

He is perhaps best known for his 2000 singles "Bad Boyz" and "Bonnie & Shyne".

He also wrote and performed on a number of multi-platinum albums, such as Usher's Confessions, Lil Wayne's Carter IV, Notorious B.I.G's Born Again, Mase's Double Up, and Puff Daddy's Forever among other top-selling albums during his tenures with his former labels, Bad Boy Records and Def Jam Recordings.

Shyne and his mother lived in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Flatbush, where after he was discovered as he was singing in a barbershop, he became a musician and rapper.

On the verge of releasing his debut album, on the evening of, he went to a nightclub with his mentor/label boss Sean Combs, and Combs' then-girlfriend singer/actress Jennifer Lopez.

An argument broke out in the club between Combs and another man, guns were drawn, shots fired, and three bystanders were injured.

His 2000 debut album was nevertheless a success, and he continued to record music while incarcerated.

In June 2001 he was convicted of assault, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

While serving his prison sentence, Shyne became interested in Judaism, became observant – practicing Orthodox Judaism, and officially changed his name to Moses Michael Levi Barrow in 2006.

As a child, Barrow's time was divided between his mother in Brooklyn, New York City, and his lawyer/politician father, who initially failed to acknowledge his son, and was years later elected in 2008 as the first black Prime Minister of Belize.

Barrow's mother moved to the United States when he was three years old, leaving her son with his father who was busy with politics, and left Shyne between the care of his mother's brother Michael and father's sister Denise in Belize City.

His father was in a relationship with another woman, and Barrow recalls: "The nigga said his two other kids were made out of love. It was devastating. That shit really fucked me up."

When he was seven years old, Barrow moved to Brooklyn to live with his mother in Crown Heights and then East Flatbush, in near poverty, while spending summers in Belize with his father.

After he was released from prison in 2009, he was deported to Belize.

In 2010, he moved to Jerusalem, where he spent his time studying the Torah up to 12 hours a day.

He returned to Belize in 2013, and was appointed the Belize Music and Goodwill Ambassador, charged with the sustainable development of the music industry in Belize, and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop it.

His mother supported them by cleaning homes and taking care of children, and he slept on the sofa in their small apartment on Church Avenue and East 18th Street.

Shyne was elected to the Belizean House of Representatives in the 2020 general election, as a member of the center-right Belize United Democratic Party.

He became the Belize Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives and the leader of the Belize United Democratic Party, in both June 2021 (until September 2021) and February 2022.

Shyne was born Jamal Michael Barrow, in Belize City in Belize in Central America, to Frances Imeon Myvette and Dean Barrow, who were not married.

Shyne's mother is the sister of Michael Myvett, now going by the surname Finnegan, one of Dean Barrow's long-time political colleagues in Belize.

Barrow's middle name comes from his uncle.

Shyne's Jewish maternal grandmother had emigrated from Ethiopia to Belize.