Shyne.
Andy Warhol continues to be right about those fifteen minutes. The latest
case happens to be one Moses Michael Levi, better known to the world as Shyne. For
someone who has converted to Judaism for the purpose of finding peace in the midst of
chaos, Shyne seems to seek trouble out for no other reason than to make sure he stays
relevant. And let’s face it, that’s all it really is. So why should we care? There are a couple
of reasons.
First off, let’s look at this past few weeks for Shyne, shall we? He releases a mixtape online
which garnered the same amount of attention as a Vanilla Ice Greatest Hits collection. None.
You also have him taking shots at Rick Ross for the ‘Black Bar Mitzvah’ mixtape. Understood.
He then proceeds to ‘endorse’ Mitt Romney for President of the United States, claming that
Barack Obama is corny but in the SAME INTERVIEW half-asks for a pardon, claiming that
the President knew of his situation and that his pardon could put him in standing with the
Jewish voters this election. News flash dude, the GOP doesn’t care about you any more than
a couple of Orthodox communities on one side of Eastern Parkway would. Then we see him
flat out trash Kendrick Lamar’s new album on Twitter. He gets thoroughly clowned, and still
doesn’t waver, claiming his debut was better. Then he gets into it with The Game, and throws
a shot at him before backtracking like the best of politicians. All in all, a porridge of pitiful
behavior.
There’s going to be one or two folks who will say, ‘oh, it’s his opinion’. Which is very true.
But my question is this: why would you choose to berate an artist who is arguably the
hottest MC out right now? And instead of clarifying it, why would you choose to throw
shots instead? I’ll tell you why…because Shyne is trying to reclaim glory he briefly had.
He lost a few years in the box and decides that he still has a place in the contemporary
hip-hop scene not based on talent alone. It’s because he held to a code of silence about
the situation that landed him in jail instead of Sean ‘P.Diddy’ Combs and didn’t get the
rewards and riches he thought were owed to him. It’s because he thinks he MATTERS.
The conversion to Judaism, his comments about President Obama, the shots at Kendrick
Lamar, his claim that he’ll perform in the U.S. ‘with or without Obama’…these are the
sputterings of a failed rapper who doesn’t see that he is. His one outstanding facet was
that he sounded like Biggie and he lost that after getting out of prison. Now he wants to
be a Black version of Matisyahu. All this is, is a movement for publicity. Why else would
you pose for a pic with Sean Combs and rip into him after? He knows how the game works.
He just chooses to be played out by it. For someone who named himself after a feature of
what light brings, this dude continues to be in the dark about a lot of things. Maybe he’ll get
that straightened out by the time Cash Money needs another hook on a record.