Shyne speaks in absolutes. He says things with bravado and swagger. Based on some of the stories he’s told on the press run for his documentary, The Honorable: Shyne (Andscape/Hulu), I imagine this confidence isn't universally well received. On The Breakfast Club, he talked about coming into the Bad Boy camp with gumption that, in hindsight, wasn’t earned. While Mason “Ma$e” Betha was the alpha and the label's marquee artist after Notorious B.I.G.’s murder, Moses Michael Levi Barrow believed he was 2006 Kobe — and Mamba was no second fiddle.
It was Brandy Norwood who told Shyne that he had no stats on the board. Zero records sold, she sharply explained to the then-rookie rapper. That sobering statement made him immediately stop playing the role of successful rapper and get in the studio to do the work needed to become a dangerous MC. He created “Bad Boyz” with Barrington Levy during that time.
What followed, unfortunately, was a shooting at Club New York in Midtown Manhattan in which someone fired a gun in the crowded nightclub. Shyne, Sean “Puffy” Combs, Jennifer Lopez, and bodyguard Wolf were there to celebrate the completion of Shyne’s debut album. Combs, holding a bottle of champagne while heading to the club's exit, knocked into Brooklyn heavyweight Matthew “Scar” Allen. Scar shoved Combs, money was thrown in Combs’ face, and gunshots followed. Three people were injured, including a woman from Brooklyn who was shot in the nose. The woman, Natania Reuben, has long maintained that Sean Combs fired the weapon.
The shooting resulted in one of New York City’s most publicized cases that ended in Shyne being sentenced to 10 years on charges of assault, gun possession, and reckless endangerment. He was not convicted on the most damaging charge, attempted murder.
Combs, whose verdict was read last, walked away unscathed.
Shyne hasn’t been shy about this experience, claiming that Combs unnecessarily called witnesses that were damaging to his case. In the aforementioned Breakfast Club interview, Shyne claimed he tried to spit in the face of the Bad Boy CEO when he came to visit him in prison. When the two tried to repair their relationship after Shyne’s release, Po says the Bad Boy CEO only offered him $50,000 for his troubles.
The Honorable: Shyne, directed by Marcus A. Clarke, spends ample time exploring the dramatics of Shyne’s time at Bad Boy. Although this will receive a majority of the headlines, it’s the secondary and tertiary storylines that provide depth to the man who now serves as Belize’s Leader of the Opposition. Shyne delved into some of those threads in a conversation with LEVEL, covering his political end goal, parenting, and converting to Judaism.
LEVEL: Shyne, you’re a father to a nine-year-old daughter. What’s your parenting philosophy?
SHYNE: Well, my daughter's the greatest thing that I've ever received from the universe, and it is the greatest responsibility and the greatest gift. There's nothing that I would not do for my daughter; no one that I would love more than my daughter. But her mom is really the administrator of the parenting corporation because of my political responsibilities. There's so much that I can't participate in because I'm always traveling around the country and out of the country. I'm always working. But I always make sure to tell my daughter how much I love her every day and hug and kiss her every day. And to be present even when I'm away, even when I'm in a different part of the country or I'm out of the country, I'm always there present with her. But I definitely have to give her mom a lot of credit because she does the actual parenting.
There's a moment in the doc when your father takes accountability for not claiming you. Have you two ever revisited that conversation?
That was a very devastating time in my life and the things that he said, I don't think we really rehashed it. We didn't get into the specificities of what he said because he also didn't want to open those wounds.
When I signed [to Bad Boy Records] and I did interviews, I told the truth. I told people what I experienced, the pain and hurt. He called me and he said, "Listen, I'm proud of you. I'm so happy for what you've accomplished. And the media has reached out to me, but I don't have anything to say. Nothing I can say. I just want you to know I don't want or need anything from you. And I'm just so happy for you. You've done well despite me not being there for you."
This is so long ago that the wounds have healed and there's no need to live in that past. Interestingly enough, a lot of people accused me of being a product of political nepotism, but it's very telling in this documentary that my father admits to not being there.
I can see why some people would assume you benefited from nepotism given the immense political power in your family.
My life has been anything but nepotistic. The same way I accomplished the things I accomplished in the United States, I had to do that in Belize in politics. I didn't get any special contracts from my father. He was a prime minister. I didn't benefit in any way. I was appointed ambassador of culture, but that's because I sold [millions of] records. So who better to be a music and culture ambassador than me? I don't think that's something that he did. It's not like I was a plumber and he decided to make me the ambassador of culture just because I'm his son. So for me, it really is great to have the full story told. I know it might've been a little painful for him, but it is great. Even in the documentary, I say that my father was exactly the father that I needed because that's what God meant for me.
Can you say more about that?
It's hard to say, "Oh, you needed that pain." But whatever it was, I wasn't meant to grow up in a household with a mom and dad and them holding my hands — that's not what was meant for me. Now I feel how I feel about my daughter, and I'm not going to try to make my daughter's life any harder than it has to be. And my thing to my daughter is that she should be even kinder and gentler and generous to people because she's so blessed and she's so fortunate. So she can lead from a different vantage point. She can impact lives and exist in society different than I do, based on her circumstances. Doesn't make her contributions any less. But for me, yeah, like I said, we heal, we moved on, and we have a great relationship now. And even today, we have different policy ideas and we agree to disagree. And that's the beauty of our relationship. He's always there to give advice and I don't always take his advice and sometimes he gets offended, but we move on. So it's a great relationship. As I said [in the documentary], it's like the turtle making its trek to the sea. You got to find your legs.
You’ve had some stand up Brooklyn men in your corner: Manny Halley, Don Pooh, and Clark Kent. The culture recently lost Clark. What’s your memory of God’s Favorite DJ?
Clark is exactly what you see, this burst of energy and excitement, lover of music, true music connoisseur. I'm very privileged to have known him, to have interacted with him, to have been discovered. I'll never forget him walking me into Motown Universal, walking me into Clarence Avant's office, who was, I think, the head of Motown Universal at the time. [He was] telling Clarence, “Listen, you got to sign this guy. This guy's incredible.” He really believed in me. I'm happy that we got him on camera in his last days. I know he's in heaven DJing at a party for God.
You discovered Judaism when you were 13. How did you reconnect with the religion when you were incarcerated?
I was a very prayerful person and really followed Moses and people like Abraham. Those are actual people. They're not gods and not saints. They're actually people like you and I and deal with morality and right and wrong. So you read about these people, alright, well what do these people do?
I took the time to unpack. What did Moses actually do? There's an actual manual and blueprint as to what do you do to to be like these people. And so that's how I became observant, because these are the things that work for some of the most powerful human beings that have ever existed. And so I needed all of that power, all of that protection, all of that grace. I needed to go to that highest level in order to make it through what was to date my most difficult challenge in life.