Moses Michael Levi Barrow (born Jamal Michael Barrow; November 8, 1978), best known by his stage name Shyne, is a Belizean politician and former rapper. He served as Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives, and the leader of the Belize United Democratic Party.
Barrow was born in Belize City but moved to New York City as a child and began to rap as an adolescent. His most commercially recognized 2000 singles include, "Bad Boyz" and "Bonnie & Shyne" (both featuring Barrington Levy). He contributed to albums by artists including the Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous Born Again, Mase's Double Up, Sean Combs's Forever, Usher's Confessions, and Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV.
Shyne and his mother lived in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Flatbush, where after being discovered freestyling in a barbershop, he became a rapper. On the verge of releasing his debut album under Combs' Bad Boy Records, on the evening of December 27, 1999, he went to a New York City nightclub with Combs and Jennifer Lopez. An argument broke out in the club between Combs and another man; gunshots followed with three bystanders injured. In June 2001, he was convicted of assault and unlawful possession of a weapon, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. His eponymous debut album was released in September 2000, going gold the following month. He continued to record music while incarcerated, eventually releasing his sophomore studio album, Godfather Buried Alive, under Def Jam Recordings in 2004.
While serving his prison sentence, Shyne became interested in Judaism, becoming observant – practicing Orthodox Judaism, and officially changed his name to Moses Michael Levi Barrow in 2006. After he was released from prison in late 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, where he was appointed Belize Music and Goodwill Ambassador with a mandate to support the national music industry.
Shyne was elected to the Belizean House of Representatives in the 2020 general election, as a member of the center-right United Democratic Party. He served as Leader of the Opposition and leader of the United Democratic Party between June and September 2021, and again from February 2022.
A documentary about his life, The Honorable Shyne, was released by Hulu/Andscape in November 2024.
Shyne was born Jamal Michael Barrow, in Belize City, to mother Frances Imeon Myvette and father Dean Barrow, who were not married. Shyne's mother is the sister of Michael Myvett, going by the surname Finnegan, one of Dean Barrow's long-time political colleagues in Belize. Barrow's middle name comes from his uncle. After his conversion to Judaism, Barrow claimed that his maternal grandmother, Esme Diaz, was Beta Israel and had emigrated from Ethiopia to Belize. However, in other interviews Barrow has stated that Diaz was a Garifuna woman from Honduras.
As a child, Barrow lived with his mother in Brooklyn, New York City, and at times with his father in Belize. Dean Barrow, a lawyer and politician, later became the first Black Prime Minister of Belize of Belize in 2008. Barrow's mother moved to the United States when he was three years old, leaving her son between the care of her brother, Michael, and his 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."
At age seven, Barrow moved to Brooklyn to live with his mother, residing in Crown Heights and later East Flatbush. His mother supported the family through domestic work, and Barrow spent summers with his father in Belize. 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, Barrow was shot in the shoulder during a fight in Flatbush, an injury that left a lasting 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 1997, he began his rap career after being courted by music manager Don Pooh. 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. After freestyling in front of several friends and music promoters, his manager submitted him to executives and labels including Chris Lighty of Violator, Sylvia Rhone of East West/Elektra Records, Jimmy Iovine of Interscope Records, Lyor Cohen of Def Jam Recordings and Bryan Turner of Priority Records, but hip hop entrepreneur Sean Combs (also known as Puff Daddy or P. Diddy) offered Shyne a five-album contract with Bad Boy Records. Media reports at the time described his contract with Bad Boy Records as highly lucrative. He later appeared on Mase's second album, Double Up (1999), and on remixes of Total's "Sittin' at Home" and 112's "Anywhere", and on Combs' album, Forever (1999).
On September 26, 2000, his self-titled debut studio album was released. It debuted at number five on the Billboard 200. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) later certified the album gold. The album produced three singles: "Bad Boyz", "Bonnie & Shyne", and "That's Gangsta." The first two featured Jamaican singer Barrington Levy. Additional contributions included vocals by Slim of 112 and production from Bad Boy's in-house producers, The Hitmen. The album was recorded before his arrest following the December 1999 nightclub shooting.
The album received mixed reviews from critics, due to comparisons between Shyne and the deceased Notorious B.I.G., which would also start a rift between the former and the latter's affiliate group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. In 1999, after a studio session at Daddy's House, Shyne was reportedly shot at by associates of Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease. Following the incident, he began carrying a firearm for protection. Cease's former cohort, Lil' Kim, also dissed Shyne on her second album's title track, "The Notorious K.I.M." (2000), ridiculing his comparisons to Biggie.
2002–04: Godfather Buried Alive
In 2002, after beginning his incarceration, Shyne parted ways with Bad Boy and ended all contact with Combs soon after. While incarcerated at Clinton Correctional Facility, Shyne reportedly received offers from labels including Irv Gotti's Murder Inc. Records and James Prince's Rap-A-Lot Records, but declined them. The rapper ultimately signed with Def Jam for a $3 million contract. The deal was completed on April 20, 2004.
On August 10, 2004, Shyne released his second studio album, Godfather Buried Alive, while imprisoned. The album, partially recorded prior to imprisonment and partially during his imprisonment over a jail phone, sold 434,000 copies. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and number one on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop album chart. His incarceration limited the album's promotion, as he was unable to tour or make media appearances. His former bodyguard and longtime friend, Anthony "Wolf" Jones, was listed as the album's executive producer; Jones was shot and killed on November 11, 2003, during an altercation with Black Mafia Family leader Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory.
2010–12: Continued music, feuds and indefinite hiatus
On February 16, 2010, four months after his release from prison and deportation to Belize, Shyne signed a new deal with Def Jam Records.