Forbez DVD recently caught up with incarcerated rapper Shyheim in a newly-released, over the phone interview. While speaking with Forbez DVD during the nearly 20-minute long interview, the former Wu-Tang Clan affiliate provided an update on his status and offered a few words of advice to the youth.
Despite beginning a 14 year prison sentence, Shyheim revealed that he’s “blessed to be alive” and feels “good overall.” He added that he’s building up to be a better person and sees his sentence as a means of becoming who he’s meant to be in life.
“Honestly, man, I’m great,” Shyheim said. “I feel good, man. I feel blessed to be alive. Thank Allah. And that’s it. I’m around a lot of good brothers. We building. And I been here before though, but it’s like it’s different now. It’s different from when you do the [skid] bid…I feel good overall. I talk to a lot of good brothers, man, that do not have a chance of ever seeing the street again. So, it’s just building me up to be better. I gotta be better for myself and for them. As well as my kid…I believed that life was already written for me. The good and the bad. You know what I mean? So, I just think that the trials and tribulations we go through makes us who we are. So, this is part of the process that I have to go through to become who I am meant to be. So, I just embrace it.”
The rapper, who released his debut album AKA the Rugged Child in 1994, shared that prior to his prison sentence he began to get caught up with the things he rapped about as an observer.
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“With the money and the fame and the street stuff that comes involved in that you start to get involved in the stuff that I once rapped about seeing,” he said. “I started becoming it. So, I just feel like I wasn’t using my voice right and I want to speak to the young brothers, man. To save some people this trip. This is real. And what people don’t realize, even though you’re doing time, your family and your loved ones—During that time you could lose ‘em. It’s not guaranteed that I’m gonna come home to everybody alive.”
Lastly, Shyheim offered advice to the younger generation as he informed them of the struggles of prison life. He then detailed how being a second-time felon offender led to his 14 year sentence.
“It’s not fun,” the rapper said. “It’s not what it seems. It’s not fun someone telling you ‘Yo, lights out. Be quiet’…The problem with it is we don’t realize that—One time, it only takes one time. Get caught with this weapon or you get caught with these drugs…In my situation, I caught my felony in 2000. 14 years later. I catch another felony 14 years later I’m considered a second-time felon offender, which means in New York state law as a second-time felon offender holding a firearm—In your presence, period. Fuck having it on my waist. Cause the gun was never found on my waist. My minimum is seven years. So, I’m paying double the price for something that was done 14 years ago when I caught a felony.”
In July of this year, Shyheim plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter after he was involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident on New Year’s Day. The rapper also plead guilty to a weapon-possession charge that stemmed from a separate incident.
RELATED:Shyheim Arrested Following Police Raid In Staten Island
