Honorable Shyne, The (2024)

[bunniefuu]

[brooding music playing]

-[seagulls cawing]

-[helicopter whirring]

Dear America,

I was only what you made me,

young, Black, impoverished, crazy,

but then I saved me.

I was dying inside.

Then I opened my eyes,

liberated myself,

opened my mind,

awoke the divine.

You see, if y'all would

build more schools

instead of prisons...

[doors slamming]

...never been livin' the way I was livin'.



But I learned a lot, despite you.



Cover the truth, transform the plot.

No longer your tool, serving rocks,

poisoning my people, burning blocks.

Prisoner, the Prime Minister,

Shyne, Barack.

Time to rescue the rest.

Give my people a chance.

Financial literacy, empowerment.

No sh**t-outs or food stamps.

It's entrepreneurship,

home ownership, policy makings to play.

We taught ourselves to make billions.

Now it's trillions to make.

America, we solved our own problems.

Outta nothin', we created a way.

Hip Hop 50 run the planet.

Reparatory justice was due,

and we took all the pay.

[dramatic music plays]



-[TV clicks]

-[static crackling]

["Whatcha Gonna Do" by Shyne playing]



[tape whirring]

Ja-ja-ja, uh

[g*n clicks]

[tape whirring]

Once upon a time, not long ago

Where gangstas rocked waves,

sold dope, and sniffed blow

There was a young G

by the name of Shyne Po

Puttin' it down,

cuttin' it up and cookin' it now

It's been a lotta d*ck ridin',

for lack of a better word

Speculations on the g*ns

I hold underneath my furs

Similarities in my voice,

n*gga, check the words

I'm livin', went to the doors

that pitch birds from the curb

Dodgin' and dippin' the narcs

It's the young Frank Matthews,

the rap version

Touch my trap on my smack

The gats burstin', that's certain

Leave ya face and ya chest

and ya back jerkin'...

[song fades out]

[fire crackling]

When I recorded Bad Boyz,

you knew that that was it.

That second verse was your verse.

"Minks draggin' on the floor,

bangin' on your--

"Suckin' the croissant

just examine it for flaws,

Pour the Cristal on the way to trial,"

that was his verse.

[speaker] Wow.

You know what I mean? He had the video

and-and we gon' do the video.

We want this, we want that.

And, you know,

things didn't really work out like that,

but, yeah, but he knew.

He knew from the time

he gave me the beat, he was like,

"If you could deliver this,

you gone, you outta here."

And-And thank God I did it.

You know what I'm saying?

I'd have been just like

one of them other dudes,

gone and forgotten.

You know what I mean?

But here I am, 23 years later,

they still know the records.

They still love me.

["Bad Boyz" by Shyne

ft. Barrington Levy playing]

So move from on here

'cause we are dangerous

Man a Bad Boy on the corner

So move from on here

'cause we are dangerous

Whoa

Whoa

[Barrington scatting]

-[group shouting]

-[fire roaring]

Whoa, scene

Ohh

[song fades out]

[boat engine humming]

[reporter] Shyne Jamal Barrow

is back in Belize.

He arrived at 2:40 this afternoon

at the Philip Goldson

International Airport

where he was met

by family, fans, and the media.

The famous rapper began his journey

after 6:00 this morning

when he left the detention center

in Buffalo, New York,

in the company of a U.S. Marshal.

He is in good spirit, he is

in good health, but he's a bit frail.

He has rented a complete floor

at the Radisson Fort George Hotel.

[insects chirring]

He said that after going through

the eight-and-a-half years

he has gone through,

he needs some privacy.

He need just to sit down in isolation

and contemplate his whole life.

And I think that we need to respect that.

-[insects chirring]

-[animals chittering]

[birds chirping]

[Moses Shyne Barrow]

I was born in 1978,

on November 8th,

in Belize City on Currasow Street.

That street is still

a very prominent part of my life.

And I remember everything

about growing up on that street.

I remember when I fell off the veranda,

everyone thought I had passed away

and I was resuscitated.

I remember using

the bathroom in a bucket

'cause we didn't have

a toilet system in the house,

and having to carry

the bucket to the canal

to disperse of it.

I lived with my mom, my grandmother,

and aunts and uncles.

My mom is, is a woman

who has great character,

very kind person, very good heart

that has been through a traumatic life,

really been scarred by life.

Not getting married when she had me,

my father's wife, or fiance,

forbid my father

to sign my birth certificate.

So, that's what my mom had to deal with,

which is why she left Belize.



I moved to the United States

in October 1983.

One day I just need to get out of Belize

and go and find a way for me,

and then Jamal can come.

And I left and I came to America.

When his mother departed

to the United States

to seek better fortune,

he lived with us, me and my wife.

And it was a pleasure for me

to do that for my sister.

Shyne lived with us because

his mom was living in the U.S.

Like every family

who migrates to the U.S.,

it's not as easy that you can work,

and look after your kids.

[Frances Myvette]

I did everything in the books:

babysitting, nanny,

and then doing cleaning.

[Michael Finnegan]

Here, we take extremely good care of him.

We gave him the best education

one could ever ask for

with the support of his father.

His father was here in Belize,

lived here in Belize.

And so, his dad would come

mostly on the weekends

to visit with him

or take him, um, with them.

He was right in Belize,

but he was not--

He was there, but... not there.

Politics was really, uh,

central in my life,

and there's no way to, to soft-soap it.

I had, in fact, um,

uh...

started my family,

and was not a complete relationship

because he wasn't living with me.

You know, sometime,

he would come pick him up,

take him for a drive,

you know, sometime he'd

bring money and thing,

but that was it.

-[brooding music playing]

-[traffic humming]

[Shyne]

I never had a...

a proper relationship

with my dad growing up.

And even when living in Belize,

initially, my father's fiance,

and then wife,

she didn't want my dad

to have anything to do with me.

There were hurtful things said

that I know my father regrets,

but I was able to move on.

What I didn't have is

what I personally

didn't need in my design.

I was meant to be,

I was meant to withstand the elements.

[water babbling]

[birds chirping]

I grew up in the country,

which is Dangriga.

I spent a lot of time going back,

so I would take him with me.

He knew nothing about

that side of the country,

so it was a new experience for him.

One of the things that he really,

really liked was the water.

[water splashing]

You know, he would say to my sister

that he wanted to go into the "big pool."

That was a fun thing,

just watching him being wild,

take off his shoe,

run around in his short pants,

and jump in the water

whenever he wanted to

because it was right there.

[interviewer]

Alright, so you got an amazing story.

I want to, I want to hit 'em with this

if they haven't heard it.

You grew up in Belize,

-your pops is the deputy prime minister.

-[Shyne] Yeah.

And he, like,

basically disowned you, just--

Yeah, you know, it was, you know,

I was a b*stard child, you understand?

He basically put it like

he hit my moms up and

[claps hands] that was it.

You understand?

So, just left her there with me

and just told her to find her way.

-You understand?

-[interviewer] Really?

She found a way though, you know,

'cause I'm here today.

-[people clapping]

-[interviewer] Alright, you made it.

-[hopeful music playing]

-[traffic noise]

[Shyne] I think the first time

I came to the States was in '84

and I would go every summer.

And then, in '88,

she never sent me back.

I kept him and his dad

wasn't too happy about it.

I wanted him to be close to me

'cause he, he wasn't happy.

So, I kept him.

My name is Derrick "DQ" Castillo.

I met Shyne in, in junior high school,

Montauk Junior High School.

Now, let me make this clear.

Shyne wasn't so much

of a, a likable guy as a youth.

He was that guy who you didn't want

a physical altercation with, period.

The guy was a hoodlum.

He was a hoodlum.

This is where Shyne used to live,

Tennis Court and East 19th.

So, this is where you would go

if you were gettin' to a dollar,

this is where you would come.

There would be large

dice games out here.

Uh, to be honest with you, um,

I-I don't know where I'm at anymore

because this is not

what it used to be, you know?

I'm very comfortable right now.

This was a rough neighborhood.

-[car horns honking]

-[distant siren wailing]

[ominous music playing]

[Shyne] Think someone had broken

into my neighbor's house

and I chased after them and beat them up.

And then, those same guys saw me

somewhere where I knew I had problems

and I ran into the guys

that I had problems with.

[fist thuds]

-[muffled yelling]

-[fist thuds]

And then, we just started

going at it again.

-[muffled groaning]

-[fist thudding]

And I was beating him up again.

And then that's when...

[g*n c*ck, shot fires]

...you know, I got shot

and almost passed away.

-[muffled groaning]

-Had the g*n not been so powerful

that it shifted,

that would've been it for me.



He showed me that he got shot.

And he said, "Some kid around the block,"

so I said, "Well, we gotta move."

And that's when I moved

and he started over his life.

He was still... a little...

you know, doing what Jamal wants to do

'cause that's how he used to be.

Sometime, he just goes off the rail.

And I think too, as I said,

he didn't have that father figure,

and I think he wanted that so bad.

That happened because of him

taking on the positive route now.

Him trying to defend the neighborhood,

and, you know, stop people

from gettin' their car broken into,

and stuff like that.

The same guys you run with as children,

now you come up,

and now you wanna speak,

uh, positivity,

nobody wants to hear that.

I was in the streets

and I got shot, you understand?

And it was like-- that was

the last straw for my mom, you know?

She couldn't take it no more.

She was like, "That's it,"

you understand?

She just broke down,

you know what I mean?

About to go in depression.

And I was like, "Yo, that shook me up."

You understand?

I was like, "Can't lose my mother."

You understand?

So, I was like, "Don't go outside,

just come straight from school."

I even started going to school.

That's when I started

writing these little raps.

-["raps" echoing]

-[water lapping]

When I graduated from high school,

the first thing I did was

I got a, a bicycle

to go and deliver messages.

I just had to adjust

so I could keep my mom

mentally and physically.

[distant sirens wailing]

This was the proudest bike messenger

I've ever seen in my life.

With him doing that,

he had everything that he needed,

Iceberg, Avirex leather jackets.

This guy was doing the right thing.

He wasn't robbing nobody.

[Shyne]

I got strong legs,

I got stamina riding

around New York City all day

delivering messages.

People running me over,

girls looking at me like I was nothin'.

I would ride my 18-speed bicycle

up the Brooklyn Bridge

and by the time I got down

on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge,

raps would just come to my head,

I swear to you.

I'll tell you, it was like a miracle.



I met Shyne when he was quite young,

um, because I was

good friends with his uncle.

So, you know, obviously I used

to hang out with him back then

and, you know, I see him grow.

And yeah, I remember one time

he started doing like a mail service,

delivery service.

And then, he got interested in rap.

Then I started cutting his hair.

He used to say,

"I got somethin' new for you."

You know, Shyne always has

some new rhymes for me.

But I'd say, "Okay," you know,

I'd entertain him to hear what he got.

[Derrick Castillo, Jr.] If you had any

connection to the music industry

or he thought you had

a connection to the music industry,

he would run down on you.

You know how you had

the street team back in the days?

If he saw a Def Jam truck

going down the block,

he's stoppin' 'em.

"Listen to this, da, da, da."

You know, somebody gonna listen.

So, the street team in marketing,

guerrilla marketing tactic,

was very important

because it was the only way

to touch people, right?

It was a way to directly

contact your fan base, right?

We got a van, we wrapped it.

They would give T-shirts away.

People would be like,

"Where'd you get that T-shirt?"

You're like, "I don't know, I--

Somebody gave it to me."

You see that big Bad Boy

logo riding around,

or the big Def Jam logo,

you know that somebody

in that van has a relationship

with somebody in that office.

So, like, you gotta figure out

how to get involved

and how to get in touch with that person

because that might be your only shot.

[inaudible dialogue]

[echoing footsteps]

[Jackie Rowe]

Shynes is just a unique seed

that you just have

to nurture him correctly

and he will grow.

Shynes was a very enthusiastic

type of young man.

He was very, very excited

about knowing things,

being around people that were important,

being around people that he could learned.

And I think that was

a fascination with me.

You know, at that time,

I was very popular

and very known with the whole

rigamus Mike Tyson era.

And he was just so attracted to that.

I was living that life.

I was that chick.

So, I used to always drive

this black Range Rover,

it'd be parked in front of my building.

And out of nowhere,

I'd be coming downstairs

and he'd be right in front

of my Range Rover

and be like, "Nah, you gotta

listen to me, man.

I know how to rap,

da, da, da, da, da, da, da."

And I'm like, "What?"

And I was like,

"Alright, you got five minutes."

First time he was rapping, I was like,

"Mm, mm, nah.

You're not telling a story.

I need a story."

And he was like,

"Alright, bet, bet, bet."

So, like another

two months or something,

I'm coming outta my building

again, here he comes.

He's like, "Nah, you gotta listen

to me now, I'm nice, now I'm nice.

You gotta listen to me, man.

I'm flowin', ah, ah, ah."

I said, "You got two minutes."

Yo, he got in the car and I'm no--

No bullshit, he ripped it.

He told a great story.

I think he was talking about his life

and everything, da, da, da, da.

And I said, "You got it."

He jumped out of the car and he was like,

"Yo, she said I was a nine!

She said I was a nine!"

[laughs]

-[light music playing]

-[traffic humming]

My name is Austin

from Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Lived here all my life,

30 years, still going.

I'm standing right in front

of the barbershop

and waiting for a haircut as usual.

He was coming down the block, young kid.

He was probably about 17, 18 years old.

[voice echoing]

He was right there.

[normal] And for some reason,

like, our eyes just connect.

Uh, he noticed me and I noticed him.

He just approached me outta nowhere,

asked me if I worked for the industry.

And I told him, "Nah,

I don't work for the industry,

"but I know people that's

in the industry that could,

you know, that I could get around to."

He's like, "I wanna leave the streets.

You know what I'm saying?

"I wanna get away from, you know,

the hard knocks of the streets.

I wanna get it right."

"Well, listen, man,

I don't know who you know,

but I'm the hottest thing out here."

Austin was like, "Yeah."

Then Austin kinda looked

at me for my approval.

And I was like, "Yeah, Shyne,

you know, he got something here."

It was raw talent

and it was from the heart.

You could feel it.

He spoke about things

that he went through

and what he wants to have in life,

and, you know,

the finer things in life.

You could feel the energy.

After the haircut,

I went straight to Manny Halley.

He had a barbershop right there

on, um, Lincoln and Flatbush.

Told Manny, "Look, I got somebody

that you need to hear.

"His name is Shyne.

Kid is nice."

One day Austin called me,

and said, "Yo, there's this kid

that be at the barber shop."

And he always be like,

"Yo, I want you to meet this kid.

He can rap, he can rap."

'Cause he know I was kinda like,

you know, connected

in the entertainment business.

Instantly, I was like,

"Oh, this kid is official.

This kid could rap.

He's the next."

So, I wanted to go ahead and sign him.

I said, "You know,

let me make some calls."

So, I made about five calls

right there in front of Shyne.

I got a call from my boy, Manny,

who was with Austin.

They was like, "Yo, you gotta

hear this, this kid, um, Shyne."

He's like, "I know you

doing your thing with Foxy.

"I think if you hear this kid,

you could really do something with him."

I learned about Shyne

through Manny Halley

and he called me frantically one day.

He was like, "Yo, you gotta

come hear this guy.

You gotta come hear this guy."

He put Shyne in front of me

and Shyne just starts to rap.

And I'm just like,

"Oh, nah, he's crazy."

If I had to describe him,

I would have to say he was

extremely confident,

extremely eager.

That's what made it even e-easier

for me to pay attention to him

because when he rapped in front of me,

he rapped like,

"You're gonna think I'm the sh*t."

And he didn't have a demo

at that precise moment.

But then, like,

two or three days later,

he had a demo of him rhyming

to a bunch of Jay-Z beats.

And I was like, "Oh, he wants

to prove something to me."

[Shyne]

When I used to listen to Raekwon,

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx,

and Nas, It Was Written,

and B.I.G. and Jay-Z,

I used to always say, you know,

if my music doesn't make me

feel the way Nas makes me feel,

the way Jay-Z makes me feel

when I listen to their bars,

then I'm not doing it right.

It was always about the feeling.

You had--

I knew, I knew the feeling.

He's got this tape and he's rhyming

to a whole bunch of Jay-Z beats.

And Jay's my man, so I'm just like,

"Yo, I want you to hear him."

And he comes to a party.

Inside of the party, Shyne is like,

"Yeah, I'm the illest outta Brooklyn."

He asked Jay-Z,

"Yo, you got your g*n on you?"

He's like, "Boss--"

"Somebody, you got your g*n?"

Jay like, "Whoa, whoa, what-what's up?"

"You got your g*n on you?"

Like, like, what the hell?

And so, he started coming around Shyne

like, "What is he talking about?"

He said, "Yo, I'ma give you a tape

"and if I'm not the hottest rapper,

you can sh**t me."

Jay turns and he's like,

"This your man?"

And I'm... [claps hands]

And then, Jay took the tape,

"Alright, cool."

You know, we stepped away.

I'm lookin' at Shyne like,

"You g*dd*mn crazy.

"Said you wanna go see Jay,

but I ain't know you gonna ask him,

man, he got a g*n on him."

Yeah, yeah, he, uh,

he tossed the demo out of his car.

It's kind of wild, but...

I actually went to 560 State Street,

and waited for Jay-Z to come outside.

And so, he came out,

Iceberg hat low,

and I was like, "Yeah,

you know, what you think?"

And he was like, "It was a'ight."

And he drove off.

"It's a'ight"?

Okay, I'm gonna show you what's a'ight.

And I certainly did.

Then, one morning he got up,

we were living in Brooklyn

and he said,

"Mom, I got a thing from God

"telling me that I can rap

and I can be somebody,

you know, get big in the industry."

I said, "Boy, go to college."

But I said it with a obscene language.

"The, the two biggest rapper

had got k*lled,

"Tupac and Biggie.

"And then now you come telling me

that you wanna be another big rapper?"

And I didn't tell him,

but I saw death and jail, so.

[solemn piano music playing]

[siren wailing]

The '90s definitely made

a mark in history.

Oh man, hip-hop in the '90s

was the golden era.

It was the, it was the "gold rush"

is what I call it.

The amount of money that could

be made at that time was ridiculous.

Like, you had the '80s

where you figured out,

"Oh, you can make some money."

But then, the '90s come and it's like,

"No, you can make this much money."

We learned about ownership,

we learned about publishing,

and then the doors opened even wider.

So, the landscape was

we can take care of our families

and change our neighborhoods.

They were feelin' us and listening to us.

They wanted to be like us, act like us,

talk like us around the world.

But what was happening

in hip-hop at that time,

in order to have the authenticity

and keep it real,

they were signing these young people

coming out of the Bronx,

coming out of New Orleans,

coming outta all of these

different communities.

And they would essentially

encourage these young people

to get involved in street tiffs,

in crimes, sh**ting g*ns,

because that gave their record label

more street credibility.

And the fate of these

young people be damned.

[birds chirping]

Everybody that heard me

wanted to sign me, immediately.

And so, Pooh gave me

my first check, my first 10 grand.

So, I signed Shyne to this

production deal in 1997.

A good friend of mine

who became Shyne's attorney,

Matt Middleton,

he was assistant DA.

So, this was actually Matt's first client.

And we actually signed the deal

in my car in front of the courthouse.

You know, Shyne was signed to-to Pooh

and he was signed to me as--

for management.

[Shyne]

I started getting frustrated

because I thought signed to Don Pooh,

in a few weeks, you know,

I'd have a deal with Bad Boy,

I'd have a deal with whoever.

Then I got a call that

Chris Lighty wants to meet me.

So, I met Chris Lighty.

He's like, "Man, I've been

hearing a lot about you.

"You know, um, I'ma put

on some beats, you know, I,

I got this new producer, Swizz Beatz."

[echoing]

My man, Swizz Beatz, holding it down.

[Shyne]

So, he put on the, the Swizz tape,

and I went in.

And so, he took me to Lyor's office.

And so, I-I rapped for Lyor,

and Lyor was like, you know,

with the Israeli accent,

"You're not leaving

until we sign the deal.

"This is amazing.

This is incredible.

"You're going to be

the superstar of all superstars.

I'm going to make you an icon."

After that meeting,

I think what he did--

I think what they do,

they're all friends.

So, even though, though they're

competitors, they're friends.

I think Chris called Diddy.

Somebody called Diddy

and started talking crazy,

like, "I got this kid, Shyne.

Oh, my goodness."

[crowd shouting]

[shouting and cheering]

Puff ran Bad Boy like, I mean,

like he was the dad,

and he was here

to take care of everybody.

Bad Boy was very much like a family

for a very long time.

I know that Puff

definitely had a great ear

and vision for talent.

A ear first and then a vision

for what to do with it.

I think Puff was bringing

the rest of the package.

You know, rap talent is one thing.

Being able to see a record

to the end is another thing.

And wrapping it up and saying,

"Okay, this is what you'll look like.

This is what the video will look like."

He was very good at sealing it up

and putting a bow on it

and making it beautiful to buy.

One day, me and Shyne had a meeting.

We sat down,

I remember like yesterday.

I was like, "What do you wanna do?"

With the Def Jam deal,

it was about two million, minimum,

um, outside of the advances

aren't recouped.

And then it started going

to three million, four million.

This was back in '97.

I've heard of other bidding wars.

Um, I believe that was the first

bidding w*r, like, I ever really,

like, like, witnessed in real-time.

He's starting out getting millions.

And I remember my first

record deal was $5,000.

So, I'm like, "Wait a minute,

this is not adding up."

And none of us heard a record.

He started getting offers from everybody.

I think the first real offer

was from Sylvia Rhone.

And then she made a offer

and it was a good offer.

And then, I think Puff heard about

the fact that there was this

offer on this rapper

and then it was like,

"Yo, who's this guy?"

They having a bidding w*r

for, for this dude now.

Everybody wants him.

A bidding w*r without a record!

Who the f*ck gets that?!

The rumor was he had

a million-dollar deal for his record

and then he had

a million-dollar publishing deal.

So, this man came out starting

two million in the green,

that is amazing.

I think he asked me,

"What you think?"

I said, "Yo, go with Def Jam."

The exact words was, "I do know

we can go to Def Jam, Manny,

"and we'll get four million,

five million right now,

but Puff Daddy is Michael Jackson."

I'm like, "What do you mean?"

He said, "He's the biggest sh*t.

He's the hottest sh*t right now.

Yeah, I might get less money,

but that's where I want to be."

Shyne's early days when

Puff was shopping, the whole thing,

Shyne wasn't goin' nowhere,

but to Puff. [laughs]

They were made for each other.

Everybody wanted him.

But I knew... [laughs]

that at the end of the day,

the best person for him was Puff.

What's going on? This is Chris.

Setting up the interview.

Diddy, here he come on the side.

Definitely see what's going down.

Hey, what's going on now?

[indistinct chatter]

This is Artist's Corner.

I'm Chris Higg,

your host here at Artist's Corner.

Standing right here with the man.

No other, like I told you earlier,

P. Diddy.

What's going on?

Having a good time, no doubt.

[dramatic music playing]

["That's Gangsta" by Shyne playing]

[ambient street noise]

Hustler, bad m*therf*cker

Brooklyn to the rucker, Cali and back

When I heard Shyne,

my first impression was,

"Okay, he sounds a little bit like Big."

I'm what n*gg*s wanna be, a straight G

wh*re b*tches wanna suck...

Man who is this guy that's, you know,

trying to sound like the late,

great Christopher Wallace.

And by the way, when you talk to Shyne,

you realize he was not

trying to sound like Big.

That's just the way he actually sounded,

which is probably one of the reasons

that Puffy gravitated

towards him to begin with.

Their tone came from the same place.

And so... [chuckles]

you thought they sounded alike.

You thought they were alike.

A hundred carats...

They were two different people.

They had two different voices.

It was somethin' about how he talked

that reminded me of Big's,

and I-I'ma tell you what it is

and here's what's crazy about it.

It's not the deep voice,

it's not even the delivery,

it's the West Indian accent!

It was a compliment.

Some people, if they

tried to sound like B.I.G.,

it wouldn't be a compliment,

but Shyne, it was a compliment

because it wasn't really sounding like it,

but it was like a, a feeling,

which is incredible.

He's from Brooklyn,

you see what I'm saying?

So, it made it feel like

this guy gon' be a problem.

-A hundred carats in the watch

-That's gangsta

-Gettin' skull off in the parkin' lot

-That's gangsta

[Shyne]

You know, signing to Bad Boy,

obviously I got a big check,

I became a millionaire.

Again, you don't have anybody

telling you what to do

when you get a million dollars,

how to spend a million dollars.

It's a drug dealer's mentality.

Hip-hop is founded on the drug culture.

They all dressed like drug dealers.

Like, that's where that comes from.

First person I went to Jacob,

I bought an Audemars Piguet,

and a platinum Rolex,

and I got a Mercedes Benz,

and a Range Rover.

[dramatic music playing]

[Don Pooh] Instantly, he goes

from Brooklyn to Hollywood,

like, instantly.

So, it was, like, one day,

he's, you know, in Flatbush,

the next day he's

at the Trump Hotel. [chuckles]

[Manny Halley] Eating expensive meals

in five-star, diamond hotels,

presidential suite, private jets.

Bam, zero to one hundred in one day.

[Frances]

I didn't care about no deal, no money,

anything.

I wanted him to go to college.

So, I wasn't excited or anything.

That's me.

[car engine roaring, tires squealing]

So, when I came to the label,

it's like Kobe coming to the Lakers,

and, you know, Shaq is already there.

And then Kobe comes and he thinks,

you know, outta high school,

it's all him.

With Mase, you know,

he was seeing a girl,

I was s-seeing the same girl.

Everybody knew he was--

he dated Brandy at some point.

Hey, that, that's not--

That's not...

And so, that caused, like,

a whole thing at Bad Boy.

You know Puff is like,

"Yo, what are you doing?

"Like, yo, you're Kobe, he Shaq,

"like, you just got to the team.

"This is the MVP.

"Like, how you gonna be

going after his girl?

"Like, what's wrong with you?

"Like, you're screwing up

my-my dynasty here.

Like, come on,

you're messing up the franchise."

Rather than delivering

on the great opportunity

and the great talent that I had,

I spent too much time living this fantasy

that I had willed from this nightmare.

I was just hearing

a lot of stuff about Shyne.

I never tried to be friends

with any of Puff's artists.

And this was because

if he told me to do something,

I would have to do it.

Signing Shyne caused a lot of drama

around Bad Boy and Daddy's House.

If Shyne was in any place

and the crew from Junior Mafia

was around there,

they was causing beef with him

and-and trouble for him.

Yeah, it was a, it was a light,

it was a light situation,

altercation we had.

And, you know, some things,

some things happened

that shouldn't have happened,

you know what I mean?

Like, it shouldn't have went that far.

We were just young and, you know,

everybody just had that,

you know, that mentality

of just being aggressive.

And, you know, we was already

on that aggressive time

'cause we lost Big.

So, some of the people

from my camp felt a way about

the "sounding like the Big thing"

and all that.

And, um, one thing led to another

and some things had happened.

Little altercation,

some shots had rained out.

He was shot at, um...

by some people around that...

was in the Junior Mafia crew...

in front of Daddy's House.

So, it made Shyne

somewhat vulnerable

to come to the studio.

And that if he didn't

keep security with him,

he had to secure himself

the best way he knew how.

You know, there was that

incident that happened,

which, you know, resulted in sh**ting, um,

in front of Daddy's House.

And so, after that happened,

you know, that's when

I started carrying a weapon

because I had come too far.

Nobody was gonna stop me

from recording and making my music.

Whatever's gonna happen

is gonna happen,

but I'm gonna go to the studio

and I'm gonna keep

pursuing what I'm pursuing

because I, I came too far.

I always say I'd rather be

tried by 12 than carried by six.

-[g*nsh*t sound bangs]

-[crowd cheering]

I think in the summertime

is when we did Bad Boyz.

What type of n*gga slang

and bang in the streets?

Bad boyz

What type of n*gga stay

in the Trump for weeks?

-Bad boyz

-What type of n*gga fly Bentley Coupes

Bad boyz

Aim for the sky,

cop the sh*t then sh**t

Puff played the Ez Elpee beat.

[slow tempo drum music playing]

And he like, "Yo, this is it right here.

"If you can k*ll this,

"if you can body this,

you're gone."



"This is the single right here,"

he said it, he said it.

I-I take nothing away from him.

And he's the one that said,

"We gotta put that guy on it.

"You know the guy that goes, um,

"you know...

[vocalizes] Ooh

Who's that guy?"

And I'm like, Barrington Levy?

[vocalizes]

[Barrington scatting]

Whoa, scene

I'm a bad boy on the corner

So move from on here

'cause I'm dangerous

Dangerous!

[scatting]

Whoa, scene

There you go.

["Bad Boyz" playing]

First, when I was gonna do the song

when they called my manager and asked

him to do a song with Puff Daddy.

That's what they told him.

But when I went to the studio

they said it's not Puff Daddy,

it's one of his artists.



I was a bit disappointed,

but when I hear the rhythm...



...oh, um, creativity just

chipped in, right on, bam.

So yeah, this is a bad beat, you know?

I mean, and-and Shyne was

doing his thing, so we did it.

["Bad Boyz" continues playing]

[distant sirens and traffic noise]

Ah, ah

Ah, ah

[Barrington scatting]

Now tell me who want to f*ck with us?

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

I bang and let your f*ck'

brains hang, snitches

f*ck Marla Maple b*tches with riches

Who carry 22's, up in they hosiery

A Black teller when my father...

Boom, boom, boom,

when you hear that bass,

you know what song that was.

I mean, when he says, "Oh!"

Like, I, I don't know what.

Hate Nicky Barnes

for hittin' my moms

Letting the condom pop,

n*gga I was born in the drop

Bad Boyz, when that came out,

everybody knew about him.

Just seeing the backdrop

of him in Jamaica,

the crispy white tee with the big jeans

and the crazy bracelet.

He just had, like, "star"

written all over him.

...hollow point sh*t, four-point-six

The way his hair was cut

and the-the gold teeth,

and he representin' the yardman

and he representin' Brooklyn.

He from Belize.

Everybody was like,

"Oh, sh*t, now he's dead serious."

-...fly Bentley Coupes?

-Bad Boyz

Aim for the sky,

cop the sh*t then sh**t

Man a Bad Boy on the corner

So move from on here

'cause we are dangerous

Man a Bad Boy on the corner

So move from on here

'cause we are danger, danger

Dangerous!

All my n*gg*s that bust

their f*ck' gats, make some noise!

Now sing along.

[Barrington scatting]

[crowd cheering]

Whoa, scene

[voice echoing]

Oh!



[brooding music playing]

[Shyne] I was on Nirvana,

I was like the Dalai Lama.

I was so focused

and so centered about music.

Everything was about music.

At this point, I'm with Puff all the time.

Puff and J.Lo were

in the Hamptons for Christmas.

-[traffic noise]

-And so, they hit us up.

"Yo, we want to go,

go out tonight.

We're coming back from the Hamptons."

We were off.

We was happy 'cause Puff and Jennifer

was taking this Mediterranean cruise,

I think, somewhere.

I get a phone call,

"Yo, Gene, Puff is coming back

from the Hamptons."

You-- Man, listen here, click.

[laughs]

I'm hanging up the phone.

I ain't-- Nah, we off, man. I'm off.

-Club New York.

-[producer] Club New York.

I was gonna go that night, I believe.

[Gene Deal] It's a go-to spot,

fashion on a hundred.

You know, a lot of bottles poppin',

everything parked outside.

It's a small-a*s room.

It looks big,

but it's really a small-a*s room.

And what happens is

-there's only one VIP section.

-[crowd cheering, shouting]

It's like, you see tough guys,

you see gangsters

just start groupie-ing out.

If you don't need to be there,

don't go there.

But, um, you know,

he's in that position now

with the entertainment and all that.

You gotta be there, you gotta show up,

you gotta show your face.

[Shyne]

I go to Club New York.

You know, I go in there,

-nobody searches me.

-[door bangs shut]

I think I actually had two weapons

on me that night.

I had one in my boots

and one in my waist.

December 27th, 1999,

I was in, um, Club New York.

Me and my brother,

my cousin, we went in there,

was hanging out, checked our coats.

And then,

through the course of the night,

Puff and Jennifer Lopez,

-and somebody, a guy "Wolf" came in.

-[crowd cheering]

[tense music playing]

-[cheering continues]

-[Shyne] Puff and J.Lo come

and, you know, we hanging out.

That's where I see Scar, Nino,

and that whole crew.

You know, Scar was

my friend from Brooklyn.

They were guys that if

anybody was messing with me,

or, you know, was there--

were any problem,

they'd be like,

"Who, what, where, when?"

Scar was known.

His name definitely

rang bells, streetwise.

And these guys weren't enemies,

these are friends.

Friends with an ego.

[eyewitness] The music was pumping.

It was a good night.

I do remember at one point

Puff and Jennifer Lopez come

down in the middle of the floor

and start dance, and then

they went back up top there.

Go upstairs, come back downstairs,

and I think we're getting ready to leave.

By this time, it's like the height

of congestion and crowd.

And we're moving through the crowd.

It got real crowded.

Puff and Jennifer Lopez and all them

started to file out the VIP.

The club bouncer was, you know,

pushing people outta the way.

And when they got up to the bar,

they pushed this one guy

and he turned around and said,

"Damn, you ain't the only

person with money in here."

And then took some change

that the bartender gave him

and threw it up in the air.

Well, I don't know how they got into it,

but I just know Scar's like,

"I'ma effing k*ll you."

And they throw money into him,

and then, Scar looks

over to me and is like,

"Shyne, you sure you

wanna be a part of this?

You-You holding him down?

You gon' go against us for him?"

And then, the guy that I shot,

uh, Julius Jones,

you know, reached for his weapon.

And that's when I, I reached

for my weapon and, um...

and yeah.

[muffled house music playing]

[muffled screaming]

-And then you hear, pop, pop, pop.

-[muffled g*nsh*t sounds]

-Sounded like firecrackers.

-[tires screeching]

[muffled screaming continues]

The police, they were, like,

right there... waiting.

My lawyer always says

I should have tossed the g*n.

[reporter 1] New York City police

are questioning entertainers,

Sean "Puffy" Combs and Jennifer Lopez

following a sh**ting at a nightclub.

[reporter 2]

Around 2:20 a.m.,

shots rang out in a packed dance club.

Three people hit the floor with injuries.

[reporter 3] After the sh**ting,

Combs, his bodyguard,

and girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez,

fled the club in an SUV,

speeding and running red lights...

-[sirens wailing, engines revving]

-...until they were stopped by police.

Officers discovered a g*n in the vehicle.

[reporter 4] Prosecutors say Combs

got into an argument with someone.

That person reportedly then threw

a stack of money in Combs's face.

One of Combs's associates,

19-year-old, Jamal Barrow,

also known as the rapper, Shyne,

opened fire while Combs reportedly

pulled out a p*stol of his own.

-[camera shutters snapping]

-[reporters clamoring]

[Frances]

My world had crushed.

My mom came tapping

on my door and said,

"Jamal is in some problems."

And I said, "What?"

And that was like, oh,

that was the end of my world.

I didn't get any phone call from anyone.

Nobody called me.

[Gene]

Sean made a big mistake.

Let security take care of that.

Me as an officer,

somebody pull a g*n on you,

I can sh**t that individual.

Shyne can't do that.

It only takes one second

for someone to blow your head off.

So, waiting one second

for security to see what I saw

was not an option for me at the time.

[ambient street noise]

That was a sad moment, though,

'cause you could tell that it--

His mom...

[scoffs] I don't even

want to know. I don't--

That-- I don't know.

It, it was a tough moment.

It was a tough, tough moment.

I got the news about

the Club New York sh**ting hours,

-maybe an hour or two after it happened.

-[siren wailing]

I knew somebody who got shot.

I knew who was sh**ting.

So, it was like, "Oh, my God,

like, this can't be

what is really happening."

[Manny]

I think Shyne got his phone call

and he called me, say,

"Hey, um, I'm in jail."

Um, told me, you know, he don't know

what happened, yada, yada, yada.

So, he said,

"So, I wanna get a lawyer,"

and he wanted to get up outta there.

[Shyne] You know, Puff got bailed out,

Wolf got bailed out.

But instinctively, I think Puff's--

his lawyers advised him

that, "Yo, you know, you gotta

stay away from this guy.

"You gotta act like you

don't even know this guy.

Like, you just gotta distance

yourself from this guy."

You know, I spent a week in The Tombs

'cause I couldn't make bail,

Puff wouldn't pay my bail.

And Manny paid my bail.

Manny put his house up and paid my bail.

I went to a bail's bondsman,

put up my house.

I had, um, had a house s--

well, since I was 18.

So, I put up my, my first house

to bail him out.

Went there, got him outta jail,

and then, um,

that's when things started

goin' left field with him and, like,

the Bad Boy label.

And so, like, that whole week,

I'm calling Daddy's House,

I'm calling, you know, Park Avenue,

and we couldn't hear

anything from, from anybody.

[Murray Richman]

My name is Murray Richman,

and together with Ian Niles,

we represented Jamal Barrow,

also known as Shyne.

The only one who was charged

with the possession of that weapon

in the sh**ting was Shyne.

And here is a perfect example of where

the line from The Godfather comes in,

"Drop the g*n and take the cannolis."

Had Shyne dropped the g*n,

he never would've been arrested.

Puffy was charged with possession

of a weapon, as was Wolf.

It was they were thrown out of the car.

As I recall, there was

evidence that supported

that there could have been

other weapons fired that night.

-[camera shutters snapping]

-[people chattering]

[Shyne] You know,

Puff wasn't responding to anyone,

couldn't go to the studio,

didn't have contact with anyone.

Only person I-I had contact with was Wolf.

I kept, you know, telling Wolf,

"No matter what happens,

"at least let my dream

finish its completion,

"that I put out my album

and let the world appreciate

the Shyne music."

Anthony "Wolf" Jones

was a street entrepreneur

that got into the business,

helping finance Bad Boys

in its earlier days.

He became Puff's security

and head of security,

but he was more than that.

I think BMG was gonna drop me.

And I think Wolf is the one--

I know Wolf is the one that told him,

you know, "You can't do that.

"You can't do that to him.

Like, just can't do it.

You gotta, gotta give him

an opportunity to make his music."

One of the first songs

they played for me was The Life.

And when I recorded that song,

everybody was like,

"Yeah, we gotta finish this album."

[dramatic music playing]



I do recall the back-and-forth

about should the album go out

based on the incident.

And I feel like that's what

Shyne's most concern was.

Puff and I would kinda go at it

because I would tell Shyne everything.

Puff was like,

"You can't tell him all that.

"You can't tell the artist that.

The artist isn't supposed

to know all that."

And I'm like, "Why wouldn't he know that?

It's his project," you know?

So, he wanted to always

have the upper hand.

[camera shutters snapping]

[Sean "Diddy" Combs]

I want to make this 100% clear,

I had nothing to do

with a sh**ting in this club.

He made everybody believe

that it was Shyne's fault.

Man, this dude looked me in my face,

and he said,

"I hate this m*therf*cker.

"Don't let nobody take pictures

of me and this m*therf*cker.

I hate him."

And I was like, "Yo, what?"

[Murray] There seemed to be some, uh,

difficulty between him and Puffy.

Whether it was over money,

whether it was taking the fall,

whether it was a lot of other things.

We were not privy to what

was going on between them.

And I'll be quite candid with you,

they approached us

on more than one occasion

to see if we could, uh,

get our client to turn,

and Shyne said to the DA,

"I'm not a rat, I'm not gonna be

cooperating with you.

"If you wanna give me a plea,

I'll take a plea...

"that's reasonable.

"But I'm not gonna be

informing on anybody.

"Whether I agree with Puffy or not,

I will not inform on anybody."

[reporter 1]

Surrounded by photographers,

Sean "Puffy" Combs walked

into the State Supreme Court Building

to face yet another charge.

A charge he offered his driver

$50,000 plus a ring

if he would say the stolen g*n

Combs is charged with possessing

belonged to him.

[reporter 2] Puffy, this bribery charge,

this bribery charge, what's the deal?

It's outrageous.

The bribery charge is outrageous.

The way they're acting in court,

trying to try this court

in the media is just outrageous.

If convicted, Sean Combs faces

up to 15 years in prison.

Puff was stressed out like crazy.

He thought he was going to jail.

I've never been in

so many different churches,

never seen so many people

rub oil on an individual.

Uh, we spent more time

in the house of God

than we did in Daddy's House.

["Bonnie & Shyne" by Shyne

ft. Barrington Levy playing]

Whoa

Oh I, eh-ay, eh-ay

Whoa

[N.O.R.E.] The trajectory of Shyne

after that changed.

It wasn't, "Oh, this kid from Brooklyn

who got a-a-amazing record deal."

It was, "Yo, this guy's a sh**ter."

[DJ Khaled]

He was living his raps.

So, musically,

you felt that sh*t different.

It felt like he was still in the streets.

[Shyne]

Your greatness comes from the mud.

Your greatness comes

from sacrificing everything.

You know, one of the

catalysts to that greatness

was all that was on the line.

On the telephone,

she heard my voice

Tell me to pick her up

in my Rolls-Royce

If my Rolls-Royce is not for ladies

Then girl, I'm gonna

take you in my Mercedes

-September 26th.

-[interviewer] September 26th.

-Shyne, self-titled.

-[interviewer] Self-titled.

Bad Boyz on the radio right now.

-[interviewer] Yeah, it's hot, it's hot.

-Thanks a lot, man.

["Bonnie & Shyne" fades out]

[reporter] Sean "Puffy" Combs

has hired an all-star team

to defend him against

g*n possession charges.

A team that includes OJ Simpson's

former attorney, Johnnie Cochran.

Again, I think that there'll

be a number of witnesses

who will indicate Sean "Puffy" Combs

did not own or possess a weapon at all

on the night involved.

[Murray]

Ben Brafman was lead counsel

and Johnnie Cochran was brought in.

And, uh, and Johnnie and I were,

were, uh, good friends.

That was the first case

he handled in New York, you know?

He didn't really know New York,

but he was Johnnie Cochran.

Members of the jury said,

as they were being selected--

Do you remember that, Ian?

"It's an honor to be

in your presence, Mr. Cochran,"

the jurors said that.

"If the glove don't fit, you must acquit."

[laughs] You know?

This is the Johnnie Cochran.

-[camera shutters snapping]

-[indistinct chatter]

[reporter 1]

How did it go?

-How did it go?

-[reporter 2] How'd it go in there?

It went fine.

It w-went as expected.

[indistinct chatter]

-[reporter 1] How did he plead?

-Plead not guilty.

[reporter 1]

How are you feeling?

-How are you feeling?

-Fine, thank you. God is good.

-[reporter 2] What's that again?

-God is good.

[Conrad Tillard] There was a perception,

at least on the part of some,

that he was being left out to dry.

I first heard about Shyne Barrow

from Jamie Brown.

She knew everybody, all the rappers.

And she called me one day,

and said, "You know,

you gotta get down there

and support, uh, Shyne.

He's really in trouble."

Shyne was an interesting, uh, person.

He introduced himself to me as "Po."

I saw a young man that was at w*r with,

uh, like many of our young people,

the image of the streets at w*r

with how they, uh, project themselves,

and how the world sees them.

But it was very evident

that he was a very decent,

uh, intelligent young man.

On one hand, everything is--

you know, had happened,

we're on this path to success.

And it just felt like this is going

in a different direction now.

Sitting in a courtroom, like,

feeling like, "Wow, is this really real?"

[reporter]

In another development today,

Natania Reuben, who was hit by

a flying b*llet during the sh**ting,

criticized the media for focusing

on Combs and Lopez

rather than the victims.

[Natania Reuben]

I'm not famous.

[emotional] Does that make me

any less valuable?

Well, I would say the most

significant point in the trial,

the turning point, so to speak,

with respect to the case against Shyne,

would have to have been the woman

who had been shot in the face.

She turned the tide against us.

She was an innocent party

who was severely injured

and her face was deformed

as a result of being shot in the face.

[Frances] Every day, me and my mom

went to trial, and was not good.

Shyne's lawyer and Puffy,

they were working together.

My client is innocent.

He has taken this position

of his, of his innocence,

and he stands by it without question.

[Shyne] It was clear that, you know,

Murray was throwing the case.

All the witnesses came in there

to acquit and vindicate Puff.

And people are talking about me

in a way that's like,

I was not defending myself.

Like, all it had to be was,

"Yeah, listen, Puff didn't have a g*n.

"Wolf didn't have a g*n.

"Shyne pulled out his g*n

"after we saw a guy pull out their g*n.

And, um, you know, Shyne was just

trying to defend himself."

And my lawyers did nothing

to try to make that point.

We called no witnesses to try

to make that point that I could recollect.

It was just, like, it was--

I was mortified. I couldn't believe.

And I said, I said--

It's on record,

I went to the judge a few times

asking to change my lawyers,

asking to, you know, call a mistrial

so that I can get a new lawyer

because he was deliberately

throwing the case.

He was betrayed.

He wasn't worried about Jamal,

was just an upcoming rap artist.

I said, "What are you guys doing?"

[Murray] This particular trial

was of such a magnitude,

at least it was viewed such,

it made the front page of

The New York Times for God's sake.

How important was it?

It wasn't important.

But it's certainly important to people

who were watching at the time.

And the world was watching us.

It was very important to Shyne.

Wolf being who he was,

had somebody that he knew

that was on the witness stand,

and they was gonna make sure

that if each one of 'em

gave 'em $20,000,

then none of 'em would've went to jail.

And Shyne didn't want no part of that.

I would say that if somebody had

to go from the Bad Boy camp,

it's better him than them.

Wolf would've had to do 25 to life.

He was already a double or triple felon.

-[camera shutters snapping]

-Puff couldn't handle going to jail.

Everything would've crumbled

with Bad Boy at the time.

So, had he went to jail,

it would've been over with.

Every man for hisself.

[melancholic music playing]

The day of the trial,

the, uh, the sentencing,

we were supposed to be going downtown.

And I was like, [mutters].

So, we started going uptown.

-We pulled over in Central Park.

-[engine idling]

-Puff jumped out the car, "Come on, Gene."

-[car door opens, shuts]

"Where is he going?"

So, I'm walking behind him, you know,

we walking through the park.

-[footsteps]

-As I look ahead of us,

it's like a individual

just standing in the park.

When Puff got close to the guy,

he just dropped down to his knees.

[gravel crunching]

And next thing I see, this smoke just

going back and forth around Puff,

I guess it was sage

or something like that.

And then he had what appeared

to be a Bible in his hand

and he started praying on Puff.

You know, you start praying--

laying hands on him.

-[indistinct praying]

-After he said what he said,

he told Puff, "Go in this cage,"

it looked like a dog cage

or something like that.

And Puff went in the,

went in the cage, right?

-[cage rattling]

-And grabbed this white bird.

Yo, Puff took this white bird

-and threw it up in air. [whooshes]

-[wings fluttering]

And the bird just fell to the ground.

Boom! Like it was a brick.

I was like, "Oh, sh*t, there go Damien!"

[laughing] Yo!

And the bird died, man!

The bird didn't even--

I'm looking back at the thing,

the bird didn't even move.

He just walked away from him real quick.

-[music fades out]

-[birds chirping]

[crowd] [chanting]

Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty.

Not guilty, not guilty.

Not guilty, not guilty.

Not guilty, not guilty.

Uh, there were a lot of people

in the courtroom that day

and, uh, it was a, a very,

uh, tense moment.

It now looked like Puffy

may be going to jail as well.

So, the day the verdict was read,

it was really heavy,

and super heavy, and it just got heavier.

So, there were more people

in the courtroom that day.

It was pretty much standing-room

in the courtroom.

Mom Dukes was always there, grandma.

Yo, when I saw his pops...

I was like, "Yeah,"

he looked just like him.

[Dean Barrow]

I certainly had been hoping against hope

that he would not have been convicted,

and the rest is history.

[Cheryl Fox]

Well, when the verdict was read,

I'm sure everyone cheered for Puff

because his verdict was positive

and we were all happy.

Puffy was acquitted.

And I remember

the throng of supporters...

-[people cheering]

-...that were there with Puffy.

They just exited the courtroom

in-in-in joy and jubilee.

And when Shyne's verdict was read,

we were hoping that it would be

similar to the verdict that Puff had.

[Ian Niles]

I remember it like it was yesterday.

The verdict's being read,

"Attempted m*rder: not guilty."

Okay, so we're like, "Yeah, okay."

"as*ault in the first degree: not guilty."

When they got to that,

"as*ault in the first degree,"

the reckless theory of that crime,

it was like all the air

went outta the room.

And they said, "Guilty."

And it's physically painful to hear that.

His mother, uh,

whether she gasped,

or whether she, she...

cried out in-in shock and-and-and dismay.

When I heard the verdict,

I-I'll be honest, I just--

I walked right out the courtroom

and went in the bathroom and, and,

and started banging on the, um,

on the wall.

It was f*cked up.

If you really want to be clear,

it was f*cked up.

It was f*cked up that Puffy got acquitted

and he got 10 years.

-[camera shutters snapping]

-[reporters clamoring]

Thank you for your prayers,

you giving me support.

The people in New York,

just when I'm walking in the streets,

just telling me to keep my head up,

and I'm just so grateful today,

and my whole family.

[reporter]

What about Shyne, Mr. Combs?

I'm just grateful. Thank you.

-[overlapping chatter]

-[camera shutters snapping]

[Conrad]

They took him in custody immediately.

He was actually, um, chained.

One arm was, uh,

handcuffed to the wall

and he asked me to take

his jewelry, uh, to his mother.

The deal was now done.

He was convicted,

um, he was going to jail,

and he was all alone.

He ended up in Rikers Island

and, uh, I would go see him every week.

As we say in the movement,

he was in the "belly of the beast."

It's like having, you know,

having the world at your feet

and then I see him go

from that to-to-to be a villain.

And in the media that way,

that was definitely--

I was disheartened to see that.

I know his family was hurt.

You know, a-a young man

trying to live his dream.

I was sitting exactly in this chair

that I am now,

looking on the television...

-[camera shutters snapping]

-...and I break down,

and it was one

of the saddest moment

of my life.

Emotionally,

it just struck me as being

one hell of a... [stammers]

of a sentence.

Um, I think it was, basically, 10 years.

And then, when it was broken down,

I believe I discovered that

well, he would have to serve

at least eight-and-a-half years.

But certainly,

what I heard was, "10 years."

And for this to happen,

I certainly thought,

"Christ Almighty, this is, in effect,

the destruction of his young life."

[Shyne]

When I was incarcerated,

I was as successful, musically,

as I was when I was out.

I think I became bigger.

I became like Elvis.

Like, it was crazy.

People that were visiting me,

the biggest record labels,

the biggest artists from Dr. Dre to Jay-Z.

Like, Jay-Z, when

the Maybach first came up,

drove a Maybach

to Rikers Island to come sit down,

and sit in the prison with me.

The incident went around the world.

So, not to say that he needed that

incident to become even more famous,

but the whole world

now knows who Shyne is.

His whole album was incredible.

He got bigger.

I wound up getting locked up

and I had to go,

I had to go to Rikers Island,

and they put me

in the same building as Shyne.

And they wasn't gonna

send me there at first

'cause they thought we still had issues.

The officer was like,

"You know what?

"I don't care if y'all k*ll each other,

I'm gonna let you go up there.

Y'all say y'all cool, y'all cool."

You know, that was my brother

after that, like, you know?

I used to--

When I had a visitor in there,

I'd bring him down on the visits with me.

He used to let me use his call.

If I had to make calls and sh*t like that,

I could use his minutes.

He gave me outfits

to go to my court hearings.

And I went back home,

when I got out,

I went back to my whole team

and was like, "Yo,

"whoever feel a way about Shyne,

that sh*t is, like...

we letting that sh*t go."

I never used to like to go visit him.

I get sick, I go to the bathroom,

I throw up,

and it was not good thing.

Every minute I have to get up and go away.

I didn't recognize him

'cause he got so little.

And when I see the person coming out,

I didn't know it was him.

I couldn't deal with it.

You know, I think one

of the most difficult parts of it

was watching my family leave.

But I think the most difficult

was watching everybody succeed.

Watching, you know, Jay-Z

continue to become Jay-Z.

Watching 50, watching The Game,

you know, watching, you know,

the newer artists...

[cheering and applause]

...and knowing that if I was out there,

that's what I'd be doing on that level.

And again, I did another deal,

put out another album while I was there.

Number one, sold almost a million copies.

You know, I died. That's why I called it

godfather buried alive.

I was dead.

["More or Less" by Shyne playing]

It's like New York's been soft

Ever since my n*gga, Shyne,

been sittin' in prison

On, no, this thing is for real.

Like, you know, this,

this thing is serious.

You know, this is life or death,

you could die in here.

You know, they probably won't

find your body for a couple days.

Now, I don't want to be a bad guy.

I don't want to be a tough guy.

But I had to do the things

that I had to do.

You know, in that club that night,

I had to pull my g*n out.

I didn't pull it out and wave it around

and say, you know,

"Somebody want a piece of me?"

Somebody was trying to pop my head off.

Overall, like I said,

I-I put that into a box,

a box of destiny.

All of that stuff was meant to happen.

[Derrick] I've never seen him

broken down ever in my life.

You're not gonna catch him

with his head down

and, "Oh, man, damn."

I-- N-Never, from a kid.

He adapted, you know,

to his, um, surroundings.

I was always a fan.

And... no man's left behind.

So, if somebody's beefing

with one of us, inside one of us,

but there's an opportunity for one of us,

we make sure that opportunity's

in the family.

Shyne was in the family.

Puff knew what the issue was,

and we all felt that

that was the best thing.

I think everybody was cool

with the decision that we-we made

and, uh, for me to sign him to Def Jam.

The music industry

really wanted to, you know,

sign artists who had those

real gangsta stories.

They wanted to sign artists

who really had a real street past.

And I remember Def Jam

did that deal with Shyne.

They signed him and gave him a deal

just because of the situation he's in.

Just because of the-the-the

"gangsta sh*t" that he did.

Shyne's going, when they let--

He let me down, too--

He let me down big time.

Man is supposed to be

on the road promoting the song,

I woulda sell more albums.

Somebody told Shyne,

in the hip-hop world,

if he does not go to jail,

he's not a real steal.

And that's a lie.

They lied to the kid.

Go to jail is waste of time.

A lot of people go to jail

and turn Muslim,

turn Five-Percent, turn Christian.

He's the first person I learned

that went to jail and turned Jewish.

I didn't even know they was in the jail.

He didn't become a Muslim

like the "typical stereotype"

guys that go to jail,

they become "Muslim."

He "became a Orthodox Jew."

I always prefer to deal

with the source, the connect,

you know, I don't want to talk to the plug

that knows the plug that knows the plug.

And that's how I felt about Judaism.

I felt I want to learn what Moses did.

I want to learn what Abraham did.

And that-that's how

I want to connect directly.

That's what led to me

being in there unscathed.

And that's what led to me surviving.

Not, not getting any new charges,

and making it out there in, in one piece,

and with as-as much as

my sanity as possible.

-[speaker 1] Yeah!

-[speaker 2] There he is.

-Po, Po! Shyne Po!

-[laughter]

[speaker 3] Yeah!

-[gentle music playing]

-[people cheering]

[Michael]

When he get off the plane,

he didn't look like the person

that left Belize those many years ago.

I was looking to see a more

structural, robust person.

His spirit was not high,

but it was not low neither,

because he's a--

Shyne is a tough guy.

One thing I can say for him,

he's a tough guy.

[Dean] When Shyne came back,

we went to meet him,

Finnegan and I, a number of others.

There was a, a decent delegation

to sort of welcome him back home.

But his appearance was shocking.

He was... frail.

He was weak.

He was... tottering almost.

I think before he was deported he was

held in some immigration facility.

And I think that really,

apart from the,

the long spell in Dannemora,

that helped to,

to put the finishing touches

on what clearly was a nightmare-ish,

Kafkaesque, sort of ordeal.

And after he got out,

having served all those long years,

and he came back to Belize, um,

I tried to make sure that he and I...

would reestablish,

or establish, a proper

father-son relationship.

I don't want to say too much

and reopen old wounds.

But after he went to the States,

naturally, I had started my family.

And in that sort of a context,

he wasn't living with me

and my new family.

And I, in effect, suggested that,

"Well, you know,

"my other children with my wife,

"uh, they are born

in consequence of a marriage,

you weren't,"

that sort of thing.

Uh, th-there's no need to,

to, as it were, rehash it.

The fact is what I said

was absolutely inexcusable.

It-It-It was, perhaps, one

of my-my-my lowest moments.

I-I-I'm not going

to try to run away from it.

No matter what I may have said

in a very low moment,

he is my son.

People may, may not think that,

you know, he's the perfect father,

but for me, he's exactly

the father that I needed

for the purpose that I have in life.

And I use the example of a turtle.

When a turtle is born,

a turtle makes its trek from land to sea,

supposed to do it on its own

because if it doesn't do it on its own,

if someone just throws

the turtle in the water,

then the turtle's gonna drown

'cause the turtle won't have any legs.

And you may want to help that turtle,

but you'd actually be

hurting that turtle fatally

by picking that turtle up.

And that's the story of my life.

My mom couldn't do it,

my dad didn't do it.

Nobody picked me up.

I was left to develop my legs.

[rapping]

Fresh out the can, like, f*ck the man

Got my mind on this paper,

so what's the plan?

Ain't got no alternative but to bang

'Cause I'm down on my luck

tryna up this cash

Ain't nobody giving sh*t to me

These young m*therf*ckers

just quick to bail

But you wanna be my g*ons,

or p*stol Petes

But I'ma put them on they back,

won't skip the beat

An ex-con can't get no job

What I'm 'posed to do

to feed my moms?

You know what I'ma do,

help me God

'Cause survival is the rule,

so f*ck the law

Sing along to the roller song

My name ain't Obama,

and I ain't LeBron

-[speaker] Woo!

-Got a baby on the way

And life is hard

Ain't nobody to blame,

this is all-out w*r

We have a society that really revels

in reducing personalities to

caricatures and spectacles.

And society pounced on Shyne with that.

They wanted him,

we wanted him,

to come out of prison

as a normal, well-adjusted person.

[store patrons chattering]

But, instead, he went and rented

an entire floor of the Radisson

just for himself.

Um, later he was at the penthouse

at the Renaissance Tower,

as far as I could tell, all by himself.

And, perhaps, that entire adoption

of the Hebrew personality

was a way of finding

a danger to feel safe in.

I remember my mother used to come

and see me on the visit floor,

and my mother couldn't even look at me.

She would start to shake...

and she would go off the floor

and go to the bathroom.

Right?

I couldn't process that.

This thing is enough

to drive a man insane.

When I was incarcerated,

every year, when we would pray

during Rosh Hashanah,

you know, we'd say,

"Next year in Jerusalem."

Booked a flight to Jerusalem.

I had no intentions of doing anything

other than go there for Rosh Hashanah.

And I went there and, um,

I never came back for, like, two years.

[dramatic sting]

[birds chirping]

[excited chatter, people cheering]

[Jeffrey Schottenstein] I met Shyne

at the King David Hotel in Israel.

And, um... I knew he looked familiar,

but I, I couldn't put

a name to the face because,

you know, he had the beard,

the-the-the payot,

you know, the black hat,

the-the shtreimel.

I had a feeling that it was Shyne

because I heard, you know,

many different stories

that... he was in Israel.

But, you know, I was kind of

shy to go up to him.

So, the rabbi that I was with went up

and asked him if he was, uh, Shyne.

And, you know, it ended up, uh,

it ended up being him.

You know, uh, you kind of

correlate times in your life,

periods of-- with music.

So, uh, my junior year of high school,

it was all I listened to.

He was my favorite rapper, uh, growing up.

When Shyne came here,

it was like this, like... unbelieva--

I dunno, like, a--

I mean, say a rock star,

you know what I mean?

Like, this gentleman came

with an aura around him,

and everybody was drawn to him.

Well, we are on Misgav Ladach Road

in the Jewish quarter in the old city

where I used to live.

I used to live upstairs,

uh, on the top floor.

I was very fortunate,

uh, to find this place

that overlooks what you call

the "Wailing Wall,"

where the temple once stood,

the Dome of the Rock, and Temple Mount.

And that's where I spent

the years that I lived in Israel.

Right here.

[shofar horn blowing]

[dramatic music playing]

[Lewis Gordon]

Some of the biggest misconceptions

around the history of Black Jews

is that somehow Black Jews

are a recent development.

Implicit in it, is the notion that

"real Jews" were not Black.

And that's connected

to a very mistaken view

that Black people entered

the modern world through Christianity.

So, the moment many people

meet a Black Jew,

they presume that's a Christian

who converted to Judaism.

It's interesting when people

meet Blacks who are Muslims,

they don't presume that,

although Islam didn't begin in Africa,

Islam began in, what today

we call the Middle East.

[Frances]

I think he had to find his way.

And if that was the way,

then I supported him.

I didn't like him changing his name.

So, as again, I supported it

'cause I have "Moses" here on my hand.

Where is it?

Um, I remember, uh... [chuckles]

Shyne calling me,

saying he's changing his name.

It wasn't about Moses.

It was a redefining of who he was.

Had nothing to do with the name.

It had everything to do with

him rediscovering himself,

him reimagining himself,

and finding a way to reinvent himself,

to actually get to the point

where he felt comfortable,

that he could be everything

that God needed him to be.

-[traffic humming]

-[birds chirping]

[Shyne] You know, I went

to a yeshiva called Ohr Somayach.

And that's where they send

all of what they call the baal teshuva,

the people repenting,

the people turning their lives around.

Interesting enough, they rejected me.

So, I had just gotten my,

what they call a brit milah,

which is a circumcision,

very painful experience to do as a,

as a 30-something-year-old.

And some rabbi made up

a controversy around me

that I'm not Jewish

and I'm not this and I'm not that, and...

And so, I-I--

You know, again, I'm down here

spending my own money.

I don't need anybody for anything.

It was just, like, so ridiculous to me.

Like, the only reason I was here

was to get closer to God.

For me, the experience,

the studying, the mentorship had its limit

as to what I felt I was here

to accomplish on Earth,

which was not gaining acceptance.

You know, yeah, I could donate to you,

I can come to your Shabbat table,

but I can't marry your daughter.

Didn't make any sense to me.

[rapping] Against the wall while

the hellfire burns are chasin'

Between a rock and hard place

So I sold raps to the fiends

When they see me they see God fixed

For God's sake...

[Shawn "Pecas" Costner]

The hardest thing for an artist to do

is not be able to find another hit record.

You lose your popularity,

your phone doesn't f*ck' ring anymore.

Nobody cares.

Shyne, you gotta chill all the way out, B.

You've been home for six months

and you haven't dropped

one hot record yet.

The material you're droppin'

isn't even a'ight. It's terrible.

He's released a new track

called King David.

Let-Let's hear a little bit

of this garbage.

-[plays "King David"]

-Get your Louie 13 and ro'se too sip

Presidential...

It's a bruise on your ego,

you know what I mean?

And it's not like Shyne wasn't talented,

but just his life changed.

[Shyne] You know what I'm saying?

When I came out, the records was trash.

I admit that. You dig?

'Cause I lost my voice.

I got five XXL covers.

These dudes is new.

They new Jacks, they new on the scene.

I don't got nothin' to prove.

Like I-- You know, I'm good.

The Game ain't no gangster rapper.

He's a dude with a butterfly on his face

and a tongue ring there.

That's what they said he had

when he used to be a stripper.

Like, these dudes is frontin', man.

When Shyne was selling a million records,

where was Rick Ross?

Where was Robert?

Robert was guarding

somebody's jail cell in Miami.

[interviewer] So, what's

the situation with you and Diddy?

I thought you guys made up,

you flew to Paris,

you guys were watching

a fashion show together.

[Shyne]

He pretends to be sorry.

Maybe he even wants to be sorry,

but he's so much of a creep.

He just can't find that, that,

that part of himself, you k--

Like, like when he say, "God is great,"

I think he talkin' about himself.

[voice echoing]

When he started lashing out

[laughs]

on certain people,

I was like, "Boy,

the f*ck is wrong with you?

"You f*ck' crazy?

Like, what are you doin'?"

["Bury Judas (Game Diss Record)"

by Shyne playing]

This little buster name Game

wanna rhyme like Po

Cuz I rhyme like gold

I rhyme like, I be

climbin' out that Rolls

-[song stops playing]

-[laughter]

[The Game]

Yeah, I can't, I can't do it, man.

I mean, you-you can't,

you just can't beat that guy, man.

-You know?

-[Big Boy] Oh, man.

That's the Floyd Mayweather,

the rap game right there.

Yeah, man. Can you hit that for me?

[mimics Shyne]

I rhyme like Po

I rhyme like

I'm hoppin' out the lambo

-[laughter]

-So...

Play that for me one more time.

[Jeffrey]

He was stuck, um,

because he didn't know

what to do with himself.

You know, all he knew

was the music industry.

It took, you know,

I don't wanna say a courage in me,

but finally I said,

"Shyne, that part of your life is gone.

"You know, you have so many

other attributes to you.

"You're not Shyne, 'Bad Boyz Shyne',

"You're not 'Shyne the musician',

"you're Shyne with so many other

different dimensions to you

that you haven't even tapped into."

[indistinct chatter]

[light sitar music playing]

[indistinct praying]

[speaker] [echoing]

Drive the nail aright, boy.

[dramatic music playing]

Hit it on the head.

Strike with all your might, boy.

While the iron red.

When you've work to do, boy,

do it with a will.

They who reach the top, boy,

first must climb the hill.

Standing at the foot, boy,

gazing at the sky,

how can you get up if you never try?

Though you stumble oft, boy,

never be downcast.

Try and try again, boy.

You succeed at last.

[voice echoing]

[dramatic music continues]

[music fades out]

[insects chirping]

[ambient animal noises in background]

[Shyne] There's a time to pivot,

there's a time to transition.

And so, not only was it not working,

I was serving no purpose in Israel.

As much as I love Israel,

I think I got all that I needed.

You know, an extreme of anything

is not really good.

And I felt that being ultra-religious

created more division

and barriers for me.

And I packed my stuff

and, and I came back to Belize.

And I said if I-- At first, I thought

I was gonna go to law school

and I was trying to figure it out.

Uh, you know, politics wasn't a guarantee.

The politics just came naturally

because I was just always helping people.

Like, when people talk about how I became

the Area Representative for Mesopotamia,

they don't tell you it's not my fault.

It's the people's fault

that came before me.

They took the people

in Mesopotamia for granted,

and me, I was just always there.

So, y-you need to pay education bill,

Grandma's in the hospital,

you need some food.

We'd s-start giving out school bags,

thousands of school bags,

back to school.

We start giving out turkey,

we start doing sporting events.

So then, the community's like, "Yo,

"we want you.

"Like, when it's gon' change,

it's gon' be you.

We don't even wanna hear

about these other people."

Um, and that's how I got

into politics, you know,

and that nothing felt better.

That made me have a purpose,

that made me feel driven that,

you know, what could I do?

How could I make life better for them?

[birds chirping]

[indistinct chatter]

[gate rattles]

[car door bangs]

Officer, all is well?

Yes.

Good evening.

[dogs barking]

-Yo, brother, you alright?

-Fine.

[speaking native language]

You ready for Sunday?

Gonna have a big thing Sunday, right?

Can't let me down.

[both speaking in native language]

[barking continues]

-Good evening, ma'am.

-[neighbor] Good evening.

So, we're straight for Sunday, right?

Yes, man. I started to tell the man

I got my clothes clean.

-[Shyne] Alright.

-[speaking in native language]

-Respect.

-[laughter]

[indistinct greetings]

[car horn honking]

[plane engine whirring]

Need to start developing all this land

and this whole beach.

We don't want Belize to be

the best kept secret anymore.

There's just so much to do to bring Belize

to a first-world nation.

And I have no doubt that it

can be done and it will be done.

But I don't necessarily feel accomplished

until I get to the Prime Minister's office

and I start implementing policies,

start taking definitive steps

towards dismantling

the systems that have

oppressed Belizeans for so long,

and start seeing the development.

[plane engines humming]

[Tony Herrera] The real truth of Belize

is in the streets.

It's a lot of k*lling.

These youths are not doing

anything with their life.

They're on this--

They're on the corners.

But Shyne has been there.

And seeing Shyne succeed,

that's a successful story.

A story that has a lot of meat

for the young people.

That if he can do it, anybody can do it.

Even though his father played a role

in him being elected as party leader,

the reality is that Shyne

did the groundwork himself.

Shyne went to his uncle's constituency

and he worked his butt off.

Shyne worked for where he is.

I want to serve for two terms

as Prime Minister,

implement all of my policies,

transform this country, uh,

like never before,

and then retire.

[Jules Vasquez]

I think Shyne has benefited from nepotism

because they made a way

for him in Mesopotamia.

They put him in the--

Statistically,

the UDP's strongest seat in the country.

And that was done through

the orchestration of his father

and the acquiescence of his uncle.

Basically, his father

telling his best friend

and closest political ally,

"Make a way for my son

and your nephew."

Shyne will always say,

and perhaps rightly,

that you know, he never--

um, his uncle never helped him.

That's fine.

But... I don't have to help you to sleep

if I have made a perfect bed

for your rest.

-[soft guitar music playing]

-Shyne became leader of the party

because he worked and earned it.

The UDP's a mass party.

I thought he was going

to lose in the convention,

but you never doubt him.

He made it.

And he made it by three votes.

[Dean] I think his most

outstanding characteristic is resilience.

He's focused,

he knows where he wants to go,

and he will not allow

the efforts of those who

would bring him down to prevail.

This guy is absolutely laser-focused.

When he puts his mind to something,

he is going to follow through.

And he's put his mind to this job

of being a politician,

this job of being

a leader of the opposition,

and, hopefully, the prime minister.

And anybody who counts him out is--

doesn't know the real Shyne,

and is being completely

and utterly premature.

[Allen Chastanet]

The story of who Shyne Barrow is,

is a story that's still being told.

Um, it's evolving.

And the more and more

I learn about Shyne,

the more inspired I become.

I genuinely believe that

the perspective that he has

and his ability to get

younger people to listen

is invaluable.

This not about no Hollywood

or entertainment, huh?

Because I come from the mud.

So, when I talk about pain and suffering,

I know what Belizeans

are going through right now.

[people cheering]

I come from the canal side.

Yes, I come from the garrison.

[cheering]

So, I know what you are going through.

Belize first!

The Belizean people first!

Shyne, I don't know,

Shyne's a one of a kind.

This guy-- You know how

people say that about people?

This-- How can he go from

one extreme to the next extreme?

Now he do-- It-It just-- Who lives--

Who does that?

Like, literally, who you know

that-that-that can do the things,

or have accomplished the things

in a-- such a young age?

Who you know can do that?

Or have done that?

It's unbelievable.

His story is unbelievable.

[Derrick] You can see it.

You see it on his face, it's clean.

You know?

You don't see that--

all that poison,

you don't see it, you know?

And Belize has done well.

[N.O.R.E.] It's a win for people

who made mistakes in their life.

It's a win for people who

really turning over their own leaf.

I respect this man.

I'ma stand by him.

I'm trying to move to Belize just to vote.

I don't know if that's ill*gal.

So, I'm, you know, I'm kinda scared.

That's a beautiful thing, man,

when somebody, you know,

finds their true purpose in life.

'Cause all of our true purpose

in life is service to others.

And that's what he's choosing to do

by being a politician in Belize.

So, man, I, I hope and pray

he becomes the prime minister of Belize

'cause that would just be, like,

you know, the crown jewel.

I know he will take care

of the poor people in Belize

and make everybody live well

that is suffering right now.

He's that type of person.

[music fades out]

Just, you know, I'm in my bag right now.

I'm crazy.

I've got my brother here.

Y'all see him.

The leader of opposition in Belize,

my brother, Shyne.

We'll be gettin' to that later, but, um...

You know, it took, took time.

It took a lot of years.

Um, but part of fixing it was fixing me,

wasn't really about Puff.

And so, once I fixed myself,

once I healed,

and once I, you know,

was f-fully immersed in my purpose,

then it's not about anybody else.

That's... that's a distraction.

So, I was able to see that

in order for me to elevate,

I gotta cut... those chains.

You know, that was a s--

form of self-imprisonment.

So, I'm not focused on

what anybody did to me.

I'm not focused on, you know,

anybody's shortcomings

and how that may have devastated me

or that may have impacted me.

I am completely focused

on my responsibility

to transform Belize.

-["Bad Boyz" playing]

-[audience cheering]

Come on, y'all!

- Ah, ah

-Come on! Bad Boy, where you at?!

Ah, ah

-[Barrington scatting]

-Now tell me

Who want to g*ng with us?

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

-And Puff...

-Shyne, Shyne, Shyne, Shyne!

...with some Belizean women

who glisten

b*tches wearin' Jimmy Choos

up in they hosiery

A Black teller...

He k*lled it!

That was the--

That was phenomenal!

[DJ Khaled] The way Shyne

was flowin', reppin' his people,

it don't get more iconic than that.

["Bad Boyz" live continues]

-Shook the feds

-Yeah

Prime minister the next stop

[Charlamagne tha God] For them to be able

to have come to a conclusion,

you know, by where their relationship is,

I thought it was dope.

[Lil' Cease]

That was important to show, like,

when you get past having

a situation with somebody.

If they can get past that,

new generation should be able

to get past the little sh*t that goes on.

-Bad boyz

-What type of

-Come on, come on!

-Comin' straight from Belize

-Bad boyz

-What type of fly made Bent Coupes?

Yeah, bad boyz

Legend after legend

only Diddy produced

[music fades out]

[newscaster 1]

Breaking news,

the Department of Homeland Security

has just confirmed to CNN

that federal law enforcement agents

have raided properties

owned by musician and producer

Sean "Diddy" Combs.

[newscaster 2] A tremendous amount

of law enforcement present there,

all around that home.

Multiple allegations against

Sean "Diddy" Combs over the years,

including human trafficking.

[newscaster 3]

R&B singer, Cassie,

has accused hip-hop mogul,

Sean "Diddy" Combs of r*pe,

and a decade of physical abuse.

[newscaster 4] Music producer

Rodney Jones is suing Combs,

claiming he has evidence of sex,

drugs, and weapons offenses.

[newscaster 5]

Jones claims in the lawsuit,

"Mr. Combs shared that he was responsible

"for the sh**ting

in the nightclub in New York City

with rapper, Shyne."

[Natania] In this lawsuit

with the producer, Lil Rod, Puffy said,

"That's why I shot up the club

in New York back in 1999

and let Shyne take the fall for it."

Let me tell you why that's

of utmost importance to me

because I am the woman

who he shot in the face.

[dark music playing]

That just... like... slashed open,

you know, a-a scar that had healed,

but it, it precisely... just...

ripped it open.

[reporter] Yeah, and you have said

since, really, right after the sh**ting,

that it was P. Diddy who shot you.

Um, I mean, I think you even said it to,

to the doctor that night, right?

I said it immediately.

I literally watched them

pull out the g*ns.

I had a clear point of view.

I mean, for God's sake,

I got shot in my nose.

I was absolutely set up

to be the fall guy.

[newscaster 6]

She was shot in the face.

So, she was facing the sh**ter,

and she has said from day one

that the sh**ter was Sean Combs.

It's not the guy they had

ultimately convicted,

an underling of Sean Combs,

in his entourage that night.

Uh, so this was, um... well, shocking.

But, you know, what was shocking

is not that it's true,

what's shocking is that, you know,

finally, it's all coming...

[chuckles] uh, to light,

and people believe it.

Because when I said it,

everyone was partying

and having a great time with Diddy,

while I was, uh, you know, left to rot,

uh, in prison.

You know, nobody really cared.

I maintained my innocence all this time.

I said I was defending myself.

I didn't get into who did what,

um, but the victim is

telling you who did what.

[music fades out]

So, when that briefing happened,

you know, that spread like wildfire, um,

you know, so, he reached out,

and I said, "Listen, um, it is what it is.

"You know, uh,

those are the facts, right?

"I didn't say--

I, I wasn't being unkind.

"I wasn't being mean.

"I didn't get into your other

allegations and accusations,

"uh, but as far as it comes with me,

you know, you know what the facts are.

"You know, y-you-you-you apologized

back then and we've moved on

"and-and, you know, I've healed,

but I can't re--

"I'm not gonna restate the facts.

"I'm not going to reconfigure the reality.

"I'm sorry.

"You know, uh, I'm a political leader.

My integrity is all I have,

and I have to speak, uh,

based on facts."

Um, and he was like, "Yeah, you know,

I-- you know, I just wanted to,

know, you know, we're on the same page."

I'm like, "Listen,

you know that we weren't good.

"You know, that, you know,

you destroyed my life.

"Like you-- If it weren't for you,

I would've beat the case.

I would've walked just like you."

So, you know, the, the idea, uh,

that he and I are, are, are, like,

best friends and brothers,

and now I'm, I'm maybe changing my t-tune

is just not rooted in, in reality.

And then when the, when the

Cassie video came out with, uh, Diddy,

uh, brutally attacking her,

assaulting her,

um, you know, I had to, I had to

disassociate myself from him

and condemn, uh, those actions.

And, um, and that's been it.

[car engine roaring]

Everybody's journey's different.

Mine was 23 years,

10 years of incarceration,

13 years of deportation.

I didn't betray my friends.

I didn't get on the stand and snitch and,

and get everyone else in trouble.

As devastating as it was,

as excruciating as it was,

I did that.

I sacrificed my entire career,

and life, and family,

to be someone with integrity, with honor,

with character, with humanity.

[crowd chattering]

-[gentle music playing]

-[flag fluttering]

[waves splashing]

[boat motor revving]

You know, there's some people

that say heaven is on earth,

and this is as close as it gets.



[water splashing]

[inhales sharply]

[water bubbling]



[seagulls cawing]

When I go in the water,

I don't go in the water just to, uh,

just to swim.

It's really an immersion.

So, it's so holy to me.

Um, even when I'm in there

and, and it's refreshing, it's relaxing,

I'm still with the mindset

of cleansing myself

and washing away the, the filth.

[fast tempo drum music playing]

[people chattering]

[horns blowing]

[indistinct chatter]

[fast tempo drum music continues]

[group chanting in native language]

-[drum music fades out]

-[chanting fades out]

[upbeat music playing]

[Derrick]

This is reform.

This is the true story of reform.

He was the chosen one, to me,

because, like, what Top say,

"Who does that?"

To get something, have it taken away,

and then have to figure out again how to,

to come from nothing again,

he didn't have to hurt anybody to do it.

He didn't have to do

anything ill*gal to do it.

And he's helping people.

No obstacle is big enough to get past.

We go from, you know,

from the early days on Curassow Street,

the heights of fame, the depths of prison,

the wilderness of ultra orthodoxy,

and then the rebirth.

[crowd chattering]

[Shyne]

I believe that everything in life

is a constant preparation.

Everything that I've been through

has certainly prepared me

or conditioned me

to do what my life's work is.

It all molds you and, and shapes you.

And the design of life is evolution.



[muffled crowd chatter]

[waves crashing]

[seagulls cawing]

["Take Me to the River"

by Vincent Berry II playing]

[water splashing]

Ohh

Take me to the river

Let me wash my feet

Take me to the river

Let it wash over me

Man, I've been troubled

On every side, Lord

Take me to the river

Take me to the river

Take me to the river

Where I find my peace

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Where I find my peace

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Where I find my peace

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Take me to the river

Let it wash over me

Take her to the ocean

Out in the dark

Waves of emotions

Floodin' my heart

But I just can't take it

I'm back down on my knees

So tired of fakin'

I just want to be free

Go back and forth prayin'

'Cause, honestly, I don't believe

Not like I used to

So, take me to the river

Take me to the river

Take me to the river

Where I find my peace

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Where I find my peace

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Where I find my peace

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Take me to the river

Where I can be clean

[song ends]

[gentle music playing]

[music fades out]