In a special tribute to his former boss, Diddy, who is being honored with the 2022 BET Lifetime Achievement Award, Shyne rocked the BET Awards with a remake of his hit single “Bad Boyz”.
LOS ANGELES, Mon. June 27, 2022
The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Moses Michael Levi Barrow, known more popularly by his stage name “Shyne”, made an appearance at the 2022 BET Awards yesterday. The former Bad Boy rapper took many in the audience by surprise when the signature Barrington Levy vocal introduced his 2000 hit single “Bad Boyz”. It’s been a long ride for the New York rapper-turned-Belizean politician, who in his tribute to Diddy, saluted the music mogul as being a part of his journey.
The story goes that Shyne was signed by Diddy on the spot when world-famous DJ Clark Kent heard him freestyling and immediately took him to see Diddy. At the time Kent was working on The Notorious B.I.G.’s first posthumous album, Born Again. Shyne’s voice and classic New York rap style, reminiscent of Biggie’s voice, captured the American rap faithful.
At the budding of what looked like a promising career, having released tracks that made it to the top of the charts, giving him international renown, the 20-year-old was caught up in a 1999 club shooting that resulted in 3 people being injured. According to Shyne, he was defending his friends from the alleged instigator Matthew “Scar” Allen, and was forced to make the rash decision. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment.
Many thought he would never set foot in the United States, much less appear on one of the biggest music stages in the world, the BET Awards, after being deported in 2009 back to Belize. But in August of this year, he was granted a US visa and returned for the first time in 12 years to the US. He has made a few other trips since then, with the most recent being this jaunt over the weekend to rep his former Bad Boy boss, and in the process Belize.
In his performance, he covered just the first couple bars and hook of the classic track, albeit with cleaner lyrics. As a huge projected Belize flag was flown from the backdrop of the stage, Shyne spitted, “Mandela, Barack, shook the feds, Prime Minista the nexta, what your point is? My point is revolutionary, for your minds pointed, I’m anointed, 4 point 6, or do I say more? Or do you get the point BET! Belize!”
The Leader of the Opposition was accompanied by Stig the Artist at the 2022 BET Awards.