Shyne
| Shyne | |
|---|---|
Shyne in 2010
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jamal Michael Barrow |
| Also known as | Moses Michael Levi |
| Born |
November 8, 1979 Belize City, Belize |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupation(s) | Rapper |
| Years active | 1996 – present |
| Labels | Gangland (current) Bad Boy/Arista, Def Jam (former) |
| Associated acts | Puff Daddy, Ma$e, Swizz Beats |
Moses Michael Levi (born Jamal Michael Barrow, 8 November 1979), better known by his stage name Shyne, is a Belizean rapper. He moved to New York as a child to join his mother and started his career there. His father is attorney and politician Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize since 2008.
The boy and his mother lived in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Flatbush, where Shyne became a musician and rapper. He is perhaps best known for his work with Bad Boy Records. On the verge of his debut album, he was involved in a 1999 shooting incident; he was convicted of assault and served nine years in prison. His album in 2000 was still a success, and he continued to record in prison.
During this period Shyne studied Judaism with rabbis, and later converted to Orthodox Judaism, officially changing his name to Moses Michael Levi. After being released from prison in 2009, Barrow was deported to Belize as a non-citizen felon. He has since performed in Jerusalem and Ukraine, and released more albums. He also has started a clothing line.
He was born Jamal Michael Barrow in 1979 in Belize City, Belize to Frances Imeon Myvette and Dean Barrow, who were not married. (His father was married to another woman.) His middle name is after his mother's brother. The boy grew up estranged from his father, who was elected in 2008 as Prime Minister of Belize; he was the first black leader of the country. Jamal's mother, Frances Imeon Myvette, is the sister of Michael Myvett, now going by the surname Finnegan, one of Dean Barrow's long-time political colleagues in Belize.
Shyne's mother moved to the United States when the boy was three, leaving her son temporarily in the care of her brother Michael Myvett (now Michael Finnegan) in Belize City. When he was 8 years old, Jamal Barrow moved to Brooklyn to live with his mother in East Flatbush. There he began to absorbe the hip-hop culture in the 1980s and 1990s.
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