The Rapper That Went To Jail And Later Became A Politician

On December 27, 1999, on the verge of releasing his debut album, he was involved in a nightclub shooting with Jennifer Lopez and Sean “Diddy” Combs. To Jail Shyne, a Bad Boy Entertainment artist at the time, was found guilty of  attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment, in June 2001. He was sentenced to ten years in prison from 2001 to 2009 for his role in the shooting incident. His debut album, released in 2000, was a commercial success, and he continued to record music while incarcerated.

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Shyne was previously involved in a number of musical projects from P. Diddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment company. During his time with Bad Boy Records and Def Jam Recordings, he wrote and performed on many multi-platinum albums, including Usher’s “Confessions,” Lil Wayne’s “Carter IV,” Notorious B.I.G.’s “Born Again,” Mase’s “Double Up,” and Puff Daddy’s “Forever,” among others. Shyne, who was born Jamal Michael Barrow, converted to Judaism in prison and changed his name to Moses Michael Levi Barrow in 2006. He was deported to his home nation of Belize after being freed from prison in 2009.

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After being deported, he left the music industry to pursue a career in politics in Belize, following in the footsteps of his father, Dean Barrow, who became Belize’s first Black prime minister in 2008. Shyne was appointed Belize’s musical goodwill ambassador in April 2010, and was tasked with assisting in the organizing of artist concerts as well as promoting sustainable development to the country’s music sector. He has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the sector’s development.

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Shyne is now a member of Belize’s House of Representatives. In the 2020 Belizean general election, he was nominated by the United Democratic Party to run for the Belize House of Representatives in the Belize City-based Mesopotamia constituency. Barrow was elected to the House of Representatives for Mesopotamia on November 11, 2020. Rapper That Went To Jail In the 2020 general election, Shyne was elected to the Belizean House of Representatives. Locals who doubted Barrow’s ability to run for government were proven wrong, and he went on to redeem himself. Rapper That Went To Jail After being in the House for less than a year, Barrow was chosen Opposition Leader of the House of Representatives in June 2021.

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