Toward the end of “The Honorable Shyne,” the flawed yet redeeming Andscape documentary that premiered on Hulu Monday, Moses Barrow — the current leader of the opposition in Belize’s House of Representatives and one-time Diddy protege known as Shyne — ruminates on the life of…sea turtles. By this point in the film, the director Marcus A. Clarke (“Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali,” “THE WZRD”) has highlighted the Belizean ocean coast as a transformative place for the protagonist.
Water as a symbol of rebirth is a well-worn trope yet it works because of the poignancy Barrow imbues into the scene. He posits that the reptiles can only grow into the swimmers they’re intended to become if they’re left to their own devices while on land. The turtles’ struggle to reach the water ultimately strengthens their muscles. “The design of life is evolution,” Barrow remarks. “To mold you, shape you.”
In other words, it’s the journey not the destination. And few rappers have lived a life quite like Moses “Shyne” Barrow. He was born in Belize (to an estranged father who would later be elected the country’s first Black prime minister) and emigrated with his mother to Brooklyn at 10 years old. He lived rough on the streets of Flatbush during his teenage years, and that authenticity made him a hot commodity as record labels got wind of his rapping talents. After a bidding war, he signed with Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records to begin work on his self-titled debut album. Then in December 1999, while partying with Combs and his then girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, he was involved in a high-profile shooting at Club New York that left Natania Reuben with bullet fragments in her face and several others injured. Diddy was acquitted while Barrow spent nearly nine years in prison, until his release in 2009.
“You know, there’s so many things that I said so long ago about Diddy,” Barrow told CNN recently. “Nobody would listen, nobody would believe. And it makes the wounds that I’ve, by the grace of God, been able to heal and the accomplishments that I’ve been able to achieve even much more significant.”
I was a reporter at MTV News when Barrow was released and I broke the story of his deportation. The after-effects of 9/11 were still prevalent in America at the time, so as a result of his violent conviction and his being a Belizean citizen, ICE immediately detained Barrow after his release and sent him home with no warning. His lawyer at the time actually called me looking for his client, because he was confused as to his whereabouts. Barrow was often shrouded in mystery throughout his career as a result of confusion, whether it was over his vocal tenor resembling Biggie’s baritone, the yearly rumor that he was going to be released early, or his complicated relationship with Diddy.
With the multiple sexual-misconduct allegations against Combs, Barrow’s name has been in the news again. Here are five things Variety learned after watching “The Honorable Shyne” documentary.
His name: Moses “Shyne” Barrow
Barrow was born Jamal Barrow in Belize to Frances Myvette and Dean Barrow. The elder Barrow was a prominent lawyer who was engaged to another woman at the time and he would choose his younger children with his wife over Barrow, a regret he details in the film when he speaks on their reconciliation. As a result of the rejection, Myvette moved to America in 1983 and Barrow would fall in love with hip-hop after he arrived five years later and heard Big Daddy Kane. While in prison, Barrow converted to Orthodox Judaism, which he explained in the documentary was a means to get as close to God as possible; he took on the name Moses Levi and he moved to Jerusalem for two years after his release. In the present, it’s clear Barrow represents the culmination of all his travels and that’s why he’s morphed his name into a configuration of all his identities.
Barrow’s Presence at Bad Boy
There’s a scene in the documentary that unearths an ad for Combs’ Sean John clothing line featuring a late 1990s shot of Diddy and rapper Ma$e in black velour suits, with the former’s arm around the latter’s neck in a chummy pose. Barrow was there, too. And the film uses the image that includes Barrow to dig into how disruptive Barrow was on Bad Boy’s operations. Instead of being the label’s one-two punch post Biggie’s death, the duo were at odds akin to Shaq and a young Kobe Bryant. Making matters worse, as confirmed by the late DJ Clark Kent in the film, Barrow got involved with the R&B singer Brandy, who Ma$e had collaborated with and was dating at the time. “I wanted to go from zero to 1 in one day,” Barrow explains. His selfishness ran counterintuitive to the label’s ethos, which Faith Evans described as being familial. But as NORE explains, Barrow was the source of a huge bidding war, one of the first of its kind in hip-hop: “And I never even heard a record.” He was sitting on top of the world.
The Club New York Incident
Although it’s not the centerpiece of the film, the retelling of the Club New York shooting incident gets plenty of screentime, with Barrow adding context in a number of different ways. During his press run leading up to the film, Barrow has talked about an earlier shooting that occurred at Daddy’s House, Bad Boy’s recording studio, which was the result of an convoluted feud between himself and Biggie’s Junior Mafia crew that peaked one-month prior to the Club New York incident. Barrow had previously toured with Junior Mafia, but their relationship had soured. As a result, he began carrying a firearm for protection. In the documentary, Barrow also recalls that the antagonists that night in Club New York were familiar faces. “Not enemies,” he says. “Friends — with an ego.” So when Diddy and J.Lo’s enrouage was exiting the venue (“A small-ass room,” as NORE comically details, “with one VIP room, and you’d see gangsters groupie’ing out”) a dust-up ensued: bystanders were brushed aside. As legend has it, someone took umbrage and tossed cash at Diddy, taunting that “he wasn’t the only one with money.” Barrow revealed that he and one of the other men in the opposing entourage had a quick exchange. Matthew “Scar” Allen asked the rapper, “Are you gonna ride with him or us” asking Barrow to pick between Diddy and his Brooklyn roots. Barrow chose himself. He said, “it takes one second for your head to be blown off.” And he couldn’t wait for security to see what he saw, which was another patron drawing a gun. Barrow has long maintained that he fired in self-defense and that he didn’t see what Diddy did during the confrontation. His lawyer, Murray Richman, appearing in the documentary, said Barrow would have gotten less prison time if he’d discarded his weapon, making a reference to Clemenza’s character “The Godfather” film: “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.”
Forgiving Diddy, and the Aftermath
The film opens 2021, with Barrow at Diddy’s Los Angeles home, recounting how he had written the second verse of his hit “Bad Boyz” for the Bad Boy titan, a nugget that wasn’t widely known. The next year the pair would perform the song together on stage at the BET Awards when Diddy was honored with a lifetime achievement award.
The duo reconnected in 2011 and 2012 while Barrow was living overseas and Diddy invited him to Paris for a fashion show, but the reunion was short-lived. Communication between the two men wouldn’t restart until 2017 when another documentary was in production, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story.” Although Barrow ended up not being interview for the film, he did record a message for Combs that was played during the Bad Boy reunion concert in Brooklyn. For Barrow, the forgiveness was more for himself than Diddy. “Part of fixing it” he says in the film. “Was fixing me. It wasn’t about Puff. In order for me to elevate, I had to cut those chains. It was a form of self-imprisonment.” Later, we learn the limits of his forgiveness when a lawsuit by music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, filed this year, alleged that Diddy bragged about firing a gun at Club New York and shared his disdain for Barrow. The root of Barrow’s frustration has always been that Diddy’s legal team called one particular witness that proved to be damning to him, yet Diddy’s team did called that witness, even though his chances of acquittal were high due to there never being a gun discovered beyond Barrow’s own weapon. Now Barrow contends Diddy ruined his life — and his mother calls it an act of betrayal.
Prime Minister Hopeful
Politics is a family business for the Barrows. Barrow’s father served as Belize’s prime minister for 12 years. Upon his retirement in 2020 (the same year Barrow was elected to the House of Representatives for the Mesopotamia district, with help from his uncle), the film touches on how he jockeyed for his son in 2021 to be named Leader of the Opposition, the top position for the party out of power and unofficially the prime minister in waiting should the group rise again in subsequent elections. Barrow’s foray into politics coincided with his reemergence stateside. As a government official, Barrow was free to travel to the U.S. to promote Belizean interests despite his deportation over a decade ago. Always an effective communicator, as evidenced by his music career, Barrow is now a walking advert for his home country in every interview as he touts the beauty of the island and encourages all to invest in the country.
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