Shyne – Interview XXL Magazine May 2006

You haven’t done an interview since 2004s Godfather Buried Alive press campaign. What are your feelings today, looking back at that project and all the craziness that surrounded it?

GF was just something for the die-hard Shyne fans, something to hold on to until it’s really time for me to touch the streets. I read some things where they say you prepare yourself for luck when you prepare yourself for fortune. I don’t watch TV. I wasn’t listenin’ to the radio. I was just in here, you dig? That was my dream. That was my vision—that after the whole Sean Combs thing, I would never have to work for anybody again. I had my dream. My dream was Gangland, my dream was autonomy. I didn’t do no press for three years. Nothin’. Didn’t talk to nobody, no visits, ain’t see my moms. Nothin’! I was just in here, goin’through it.

Then suddenly you were everywhere. Why do you think the attention was so massive?

I can’t put my finger on it. It’s certain things that happen on this earth where you just can’t explain it. Right now, it’s been five years—and that was two years ago. Who’s to say that after three years people even care? Especially when you’re not there, you not physical, they can’t touch you, they can’t feel you. So all of that right there? That’s outta my hands. No marketing genius, no type of power broker put that together. That’s somethin’ that’s got nothin’ to do with human form.

There was a lot of drama around the time of the album’s release, right?

Yeah, we didn’t go through the proper channels. You don’t get money on somebody’s block without talkin’ to them first. I just went ahead and did everything—interviews and all that without [permission]. I was on 60 Minutes, I was everywhere, I was middle America. So when you middle-America peo ple up here, the commissioner, the superintendent, they’re gonna hear about you on MTV. And they’re like, Who’s this guy Shyne in your jail? I think it’s the way that I did it. Like, right now, I got permission for you to come in here. I’m not doin’ anything wrong. But before, a lot of the things that I did, I didn’t get permission. So they was like, Hold on, how is he gonna do these things in jail? I’m still aninmate. But just to be clear, because I had violated some rules, I went to the box, they shut my phone down. So I wasn’t able to do nothin’. I was supposed to call 106 & Park, I was supposed to call TRL. So that’s when the project really stopped.

After the first single, “Jimmy Choo,” dropped?

Not even. The first week the album dropped, August 10, everything shut down. I got locked up like a couple days after that—in the hole. Six months. You locked down for 23 hours a day. No commissary, no nothin’. All you get is a few showers a week. When you go in a cage, you got nothin’ but mail, and if you lucky enough to get some reading materials.

That must have been crazy to go from the highs of getting ready to release such a highly anticipated album, and then suddenly everything is put to a halt.

You gotta pay the price, and that’s life, you dig? I never seen nobody on this earth that don’t go through it. Bill Gates is gettin’ washed up by Apple and Google and all those dudes right now, and he’s doin’ nothing. Gotta go through it, you understand what I’m talkin’about.

Did you see it coming? Did you think you were gonna be punished for your actions?

I mean, like I said, I was naive. I didn’t come out like, Yo, I was gon’ be the most talked-about, highest-profiled rapper in Middle America. I didn’t think that, you dig? I thought I was just gonna put a little record out, and nobody would know. And when it happened, you know, it be what it be.

Things actually went from bad to worse. You were later found in violation of New York’s Son of Sam law. And they froze your assets, correct?

Well, the way that went down, that’s stuff that they got twisted. There’s a law that says you can’t profit from your crime. But I’m not profiting from my crime. The record that I made don’t have nothin’ to do with what happened in the club that night—that’s number one. Number two, the law says if you have earned income, they can’t touch that. I’m a musician, that’s my job. That’s what I been doin’ for the last 10 years. It takes ability and craftsmanship to do that. You just don’t pick up a mic and start jumpin’ around and make a record. We’re talkin’ about cultural differentiation right there. Caucasian dudes, they can’t really see. They thinking rap. You know, it’s been 30 years — they still think it’s a fad. It’s the most powerful music in the country, in the world, and they think, Oh yeah, those rappers. So when they see what I’m doin’, it’s like, Oh, him putting out a record correlates with him bein’ in jail. That’s not the case. Because if that was the case, and if it was so easy to catch a charge and go gold, then everybody would do that. I know a bunch of gangstas that wanna rap that can’t sell one record, can’t pay somebody to buy a record. So that’s where my Son of Sam thing comes in. The judge is lookin’ at my thing like, Oh well, the only reason he did a multimillion-dollar record deal is because he’s a gangsta rapper and he’s an inmate. He’s in jail, he’s profiting from his crime. That’s not the case. So it’s a lot to do with culture and misperceptions. But the Lord is just workin’ on that right now.

On the music career front, you were released from Def Jam, right?

Yeah, 2005. Like, March.

When Jay-Z took over as president, there were rumors that he came to meet with you.

Yeah, he came to see me on [Rikers] Island. But I didn’t do my deal with him. I did my deal with LA [Reid] and Kevin [Liles]. He’s runnin’ Roc-A-Fella, he runnin’ Def Jam. This all new to him. Then you got me. I’m not tryin’ to work for nobody! I’m not tryin’ to sign to Roc-A-Fella. I’m nottryna be Jigga’s son. My conversations [with him] wasn’t really on the strength of, Yo, what we gonna do? It was just more of a respect thing. LA is the dude that’s distributin’ my records. I just don’t like walkin’ on them crutches. It’s gonna go down on my behalf—crystal clear, my vision, or not at all.

So you’re officially a free agent. I’m sure labels are still reaching out?

mine, he’s about to take over Atlantic from what I hear. Sony, they tryna do hip-hop now, they just signed DMX. Jimmy lovine, we have an open line. I did that favor for him with Keyshia Cole. He had asked me personally to do that record for him. But at the end of the day, I’m in no rush. My whole thing is, I’ma get the best situation possible. I’m not thirsty.

There were rumors you were signing to The Game’s Black Wall Street?

Yeah, well, Jimmy H [Game's manager Jimmy Henchmen], he’s runnin’ Gangland for me right now. He’s acting president. I know he’s had his recent situation, but if he has to do time, Gangland will still run. But Black Wall Street is family. Game will probably executive produce the joint when I touch the town. You know, it’s funny. Before he went in on that dude 50, I had spoke to him, ’cause he wanted me to be on The Documentary. We just wasn’t able to work it out. For a young G, I like what he doin’. And like I said, Jimmy H—that’s a Brooklyn thing.

When did it become official, your business relationship with Henchmen?

With Jimmy, I knew him. He had always reached out like, “Everything all right? You good?” But then, it just came to a point where it’s like, I put the little record out for the people to feel. But now it’s time to give ‘em what they want, which is me bein’ on the streets. So now all my concentration is dealin’ with Alan Dershowitz and dealin’ with Professor [Charles] Ogletree [on my appeal] and makin’ sure that I’m outta here for ’06. Or when I go to work release next year, ’07, I’m outta here. I go to the board in summer 2007. That’s worst-case scenario.

You’ve been incarcerated for five years. How do you keep it all together mentally?

A lot of my sanity has to do with why I’m here and how I’m here. I’m not here for tryin’ to prove no points, or I’m not here because I was tryin’ to boost my record sales. I’m here ’cause I was defendin’ myself. Somebody was tryin’ to pop my top that night. And, more importantly, I’m here because I had a choice if I was gonna tell. Even though they was teliin’ on me, paintin’ me as the bad guy, I chose to hold it. I chose to carry the cross. So I think that in and of itself gives me sanity. I can live with myself. I got peace because I’m here on integrity. I’m here on loyalty and all things that are good. And that comes back to you.

Speaking of keeping your mouth closed, what do you make of the Lil’ Kim situation? And hip-hop’s obsession with the “no snitching” code?

That’s interesting. Historically, with African-Americans there has never been a relationship with police. That’s just history. We always been oppressed. So how do you go to your oppressor? So even though within our com- munities you had people that was doin’ things illegal, we couldn’t go to the oppressor to tell on another oppressor. I think that’s where that comes from—where African-Americans at large are very suspicious when it comes to police authority. I guess for [Lil' Kim], without puttin’ the street element into it, it could have been she didn’t wanna tell on her friends. That’s another element of the whole snitching thing, you don’t tell on your friends. You don’t tell on somebody so you can get off, and you don’t tell on your friends. If me and you did somethin’ together, either we both gonna do time or none of us gonna do time. So where she was comin’ from, I don’t think that was a street, oh-I’m-gangsta, l’m-mobbed-up thing. That was, you don’t tell on your friends, even if you’re not talkin’ and they are. You don’t tell on your friend. You bite the bullet, you take the fall.

So are you still not feeling that 50 Cent fella?

He’s an entertainer. And the last couple of years, he’s done a great job at entertaining But that’s all he is. He’s not a G, he has no street credentials. Being on a block that was tough, holding somebody’s crack, that don’t make you Supreme. So my thing with him is, / really did that. I was really living the street life. Official tissue. You makin’ millions off of my lifestyle, off the things that I do. You rapped about, “I’ma shoot up the club like Shyne…” Your entire lifestyle is based on me and based on old-timers like Supreme. And then you wanna turn around and attack me? Nah, you can’t do that.

So no more diss records from jail?

Nah, I’m not doin’ a record ’til I touch the town. Ain’t nothing happening here. Even if you go platinum, there’s nothing happening in here as to what could happen out there.

You seem real content and calm today. But I’m sure when you finally do get out, you’re gonna hit the studio and unleash the beast?

Oh yeah, I just gotta go get some beats. I was talkin’ to the fool Scott Storch. Swizz—that’s my buzzard right there. So I just gotta go get the beats, you understand what I’m talkin’ ’bout. My street life, all them things, that’s behind me. I make music. That’s my racket. That’s what I do now. *