Shyne has proven himself willing to take on other rappers in a battle of words, if his fairly recent beef with 50 Cent is any indication. After his release from prison in 2009, he’s made clear that he refuses to associate with rappers who he believes are dishonest.
“I try to stay away from certain people. I’m really about truth,” he told Superstar Radio. “So if you’re lying and if you’re not who you say you are, I really can’t have anything to do with you. So most of the people I interact with are honest people.” Shyne went on to cite Kanye West, Drake, Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco, and himself as just a few artists not afraid to be themselves. He then hinted at his disillusionment with a certain Florida-based Teflon Don, who he feels is, for lack of a better word, fake.
“I was talking to Fat Joe the other day and he was like, ‘Yo, [Rap music] is entertainment.’ And I was like ‘That’s the difference between me and a former Corrections Officer or any of these other dudes. It’s not entertainment to me.’ Whatever I give you, is me.”
After being prodded about his statement regarding a “former Corrections Officer,” Shyne became quite forthcoming about his ill feelings toward Rick Ross, many of them related to the fact that Shyne spent a decade dealing with C.O.s while in prison.
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“[Rick Ross] is the only officer I know that’s a rapper. I don’t know anybody else that used to be a cop that raps…Hip Hop comes from the gutter. Hip Hop comes from the struggles, from the dudes that was in prison. So for a dude that used to lock dudes in, the dude that used to [call out to inmates], ‘Yo wake up! You got a visit!’ For that dude to turn into the biggest gangster rapper is like shocking to me. I don’t even understand that.”
Shyne finished the interview by saying he’d personally sit down with his peers who’d recorded records with Ross. “Weezy did records with him? I gotta talk to Weezy about that. I gotta talk to Wayne about that. I gotta make my feelings felt and have a sit down with him.”
