Jamal Michael Barrow, a rapper from Belize who performed using the name Shyne, served 8 years at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York for attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment. His time there overlapped that of escaped killers Richard Matt and David Sweat. Unlike them, however, Shyne turned his life around in prison. How does he describe this life change?
A. While in prison, Shyne became friends with a Chassidic Jew, Dovid Litvak, who was serving time for mail fraud. Litvak told Shyne about his beliefs, and how even though he personally had failed to uphold the commandments, that the God of the Jews was a forgiving God, and that Litvak had a community waiting to welcome him back when he returned. Said Shyne in a Vibe magazine article, “I saw the light and embraced that message. I was no longer just Shyne. I was Sunshyne. At that moment I changed my name to Shemesh, Hebrew for Sun, and committed myself to turning around my life.”
B. In prison, Shyne shared a cell with Solomon ben David, a member of the Commandment Keepers, which is a group of Black Hebrews who were inspired by Marcus Garvey as well as the Beta Israel, black Ethiopian Jews. Ben David convinced Shyne that blacks were the true descendants of the tribes of Israel, and he told Shyne that after jail, he could find a positive place for himself with the Commandment Keepers. Shyne moved to Harlem upon his release and is now studying to be a rabbi at the organization’s Israelite Rabbinical Academy.
C. According to an interview Shyne gave to the Joy of Kosher magazine, “I didn’t know nothing about Jews, but the food in that jail was awful. I noticed this white guy with a long beard who got different food. It came wrapped in plastic on a tray, and he used to close his eyes, sing a song and start swaying every day before he ate. Then he just looked so happy. I got to know him, and found out he was Jewish. I asked how I could get some of that food, and he said they had to give it to him because of his religion. So I became a Jew and everything changed. I mean, man, those matzah balls are sooo chill.”
D. In an interview in Rolling Stone in 2013, Shyne said, “They have concerts at the prison, and this weird reggae dude named Matisyahu came and performed. I ain’t never seen nothing like that. I mean, this white guy had a long beard and crazy sideburns, but he sounded like he could’a been Marley. I talked to him and I said, hey man, when I get out of here, I’m gonna do what you do. Sure enough, I did, and in 2012 I performed Buffalo Soldier with him on his Spark Seeker album.”
E. Shyne, who changed his name while in prison to Moses Michael Levi to honor his Jewish grandmother, told the Jerusalem Post, “It was all through the grace of the kadosh baruch hu [the holy one, blessed is He]. I’m not a guy to wax religiosity, but when I was in jail, I got on my knees, I cried, I prayed. I said to Hashem, ‘Listen, I gotta get my album out. You can’t do this to me, You can’t send me back to the ghetto. You can’t do this to all the kids who are going to have their lives changed by my music. What do I gotta do?’ God replied, ‘Be a shomer brit [guardian of the covenant]’.”