Shyne Goes Def

Def Jam CEO, L.A. Reid traveled to Belize yesterday (Feb. 22) to sign perhaps the most heavily recruited rapper since rookie sensation Drake decided to make Motown Universal his home: veteran New York rhymer, Shyne.

Severing ties with his former Bad Boy record label while serving nine of a 10-year prison sentence, Jamal “Shyne” Barrow was released from New York’s Woodbourne Correctional Facility last October and was immediately deported to his homeland of Belize City, Belize. Since then, every major label was rumored to be negotiating with the rapper whose flow, at one time, recalled the legendary Notorious B.I.G.’s. Yesterday L.A. Reid brought over the paperwork and Shyne signed on the dotted line.   

"It is an honor and a pleasure,” said Shyne to Belize press Monday of the partnership between his Gangland Records and Def Jam. “Not just for me but for Belize. Chairman Reid is on the level of Berry Gordy, Clive Davis, the biggest music men in the history of music, and so to have a partnership with Gangland Records and Island/Def Jam is incredible for me."

“I am here because great people are worthy of traveling many, many miles for,” Reid said of his Belize trip to the press. “I come here to say that your country is great and I hope you guys know that this is a great man from your country who deserves this kind of respect and who deserves this kind of support.”

Shyne’s last album, Godfather Buried Alive, was released through Def Jam in 2004. Most of the project featured songs recorded prior to his incarceration, one track was recorded over the phone while in prison.

No official release date for Shyne’s next album has been revealed, but it’s speculated that it likely will drop this fall. —Brad Wete