Shyne | Main

Four years after the release of his one and only album and four years into his incarceration Shyne, aka Jamaal Barrow, is still making strides in the hip hop world. He has been able to secure a multimillion-dollar deal for his gangland records corporation through the Island/Def Jam Music Group. His face can still be found gracing national magazine covers and the smallest whisper of his return to the rap game quickly becomes a storm of rumor- anticipation and reverence in the streets, on the radio, and throughout the internet. Jamaal Barrow was born in 1978. At seven years old, he moved to Flatbush, Brooklyn with his mother, whose demanding work schedule led to Jamaal spending an inordinate amount of time on the street. On his own, he absorbed in the variegated culture of Brooklyn's Caribbean melting pot and, unfortunately, the code of criminal conduct in the urban jungle. Though he was an intelligent child, school failed to hold his attention. He fell into a life of petty robbery, eventually spending a year at Riker's Island while still in his teens. When he was 15, a neighborhood dispute resulted in a shotgun blast that nearly tore off his arm. After the shooting, Jamaal relocated his family and decided to turn his life around. He put crime behind him and focused on his love of music. He had always been "toasting"– the Jamaican equivalent of rapping – and his rhythmic lyrical prowess and affinity for gold teeth had earned him the nickname Shyne (which also paid homage to Shoeshine, a notorious Jamaican drug kingpin). He placed his destiny in hip-hop, which had come to be his preferred sound, and was soon fielding offers from the nation's major music powerhouses without cutting a record. Shyne eventually signed as an artist with Arista Records and began living the life of a star. But just as his life was transforming for the better, drama came shooting his way. In 1999, while exiting a recording session, Shyne found himself dodging a barrage of bullets. He took to carrying a handgun for protection. Months later, he found himself in a nightclub were guns were drawn. He fired his weapon and was arrested. During the ensuing media circus surrounding his trial, Shyne became a vegetarian and gravitated towards his work, completing over three albums' worth of material. Though he was convicted for assault, reckless endangerment and weapons possession and sentenced to 10 years in jail, he managed to release his one album, which is considered a classic work of art in the world of hip-hop. Containing gripping instances of aural theater and mediations on morality, Shyne shed light on criminal desperation and ghetto madness beyond the cartoonish characterizations of mainstream hip-hop. His rhymes detailed a world where violence was commonplace, revenge was respected and retribution was expected. Songs like "That's Gangsta" transformed the word "gangsta" into an adjective, introducing new terminology to the hip-hop lexicon. His slang–words like "gully"–were quickly assimilated as colloquialism. He was able to impact the game with one album in ways that career artist have only dreamed of. Since his incarceration, dynasties have been built and rap heroes have come and gone, but Shyne's influence still resonates throughout hip-hop like none other. With his new label prepared to release the music he created during the months leading up to his trial, Shyne's legacy will continue to impact the rap game.