As Brooklyn-raised emcee Shyne – real name Jamaal Michael Barrow – continues to pursue his rap career from the Holy city of Jerusalem, the former Bad Boy Records artist wants to branch out by collaborating with local talent.
This latest offering comes from the rappers’ ongoing development of cultural altruism since converting to Orthodox Judaism last year. “I am not ashamed of the mistakes I have made. I’m not ashamed of where I was in order to get to where I am,” said Shyne, who now formally goes by the name Moshe Levi Ben-David. “Moshe Levi has a great impact on the music that Shyne makes.”
According to The Associated Press, music videos for “Roller Song” and “The Original,” both described as ‘short films,’ were screened recently by Shyne. The former record was released last summer as the rapper’s first single since being released from prison.
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Prior to the New Year, Shyne had told 7 News Belize that he plans on touring in the near future. “My next bench mark is to go on the ‘Exile Israel-Belize Goodwill World Tour’ so I will be travelling throughout Europe, throughout Africa, throughout Asia, Latin America and finally end up back in North America within the next 3 months.”
Hoping to revitalize communal acceptance among different cultures and religions, he added, “We are going to be talking to everybody – the Jewish people, the non-Jewish people – all the people that I can help, that I can inspire, shake their hands and kiss their babies. That’s what we are going to do and again show people, introduce most people to Belize for the first time and show people a different face of Israel that doesn’t have to do with conflict and terrorism”
Shyne still maintains that he will indeed release five albums this year, two of which are Messiah and Gangland. At press time, none of these projects have expected release dates.
