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Almost Infamous

ALMOST INFAMOUS Its part of the ritual: if
you�re a rapper with a new disc hype, you msut pay a
visit to Funk Flex, the popular evening DJ on New
York�s leading urban-music radio station, Hot 97.On this
drizzly September evening, Flex, a gregarious teddy bear
in an orange T-shirt, welcomes the latest hip-hop
hope: a sullen, heavy lidded young man with a thin
poker face, shaved head, and incoming facial hair
around his lips and chin. He was born 21 years ago
as Jamal Barrow, but in the rap community he is
known as shyne. On air, Flex greets his guest, who,
slouched in a chair until this point, sits up, leans into
his mic, and intones, �Album in stores tommorow.�
Flex plays shyne�s single, the reggae-rap club hit
�Bad Boyz,�then mentions attending a party the
previous night where shyne performed. �It was crazy!� Flex
says flashing a grin. Shyne nods. �We got to give
it up,� he replies proudly but quietly, with no hint
of humor or irony. �Nobody got shot.� Rap acts and
promoters generally breathe a sigh of relief when their
concerts and incident- free, but shyne�s words carry even
more significance. In January, his mentor, Sean
�puffy� combs, was indicated for gun possession and
bribery in connection with a Dec.27, 1999, shooting at a
Times Square nightclub that left three people wounded.
(Jennifer Lopez, Combs companion, was not charged with any
crime.) Combs� situation though seems trivial compared
with that of his prot�g�. Prosecutors contend it was
shyne (signed to Combs Bad Boy label) who forced those
shots, from a 9 mm semiautomatic, and the rapper has
been indicated on 11 counts, from attempted murder and
assault in the first and second degrees to criminal use
of firearm, to which he has pleaded not guilty (as
has combs to his charges.) All told, he faces up to
25 years in prison: Even with a different musical
bad boy seems to be arranged every month, the timing
is surreal: a new performer making his entrance
shortly before going to trail for attempted murder. If
that�s not enough, according to the to a $6 million
lawsuit filed last may, shyne allegedly threw a
basketball in the face of a New York concierge in July 1999
during a pickup game at a Reebok gym and was arrested.
Again, shyne pleads not guilty, and the case is set to
go on trail Oct. 23.

Back on flex�s radio show, Shyne announces for
the fourth time that his debut album, a collection of
gangsta story-songs called Shyne will be out in stores
�Tommorow.� It is, and two days later he and combs, in
matching denim jackets, find themselves in a Manhattan
courtroom. They listen as the judge announces that jury
selection for their joint case is scheduled to begin Jan.
8, with a five-to six-week trail to begin therefore
after. Former Bad boy executive Ron Gillyard recalls his
first impressions of shyne two years ago: �young,
hungry definitely a sponge. He wanted to be in every
situation so he could absorb as much as he could.� The
hunger derived from shyne�s desire to escape a
hard-knock life childhood. Born in Belize, his mother a
teacher and his father a former deputy prime minister, he
lived with an uncle while his mother (who broke up with
shyne�s father soon after his birth) relocated to
Brooklyn�s flatbush neighborhood and worked as a
housekeeper. Jamal followed her there when he was four. After
what he describes as a misspent youth of petty crimes,
culminating in an argument in which he claims he was shot, he
became a bike messenger, writing rhymes on the back of
his clipboard, and met rap impresario Don Pooh, who
escorted the 18 year old to labels. Before long, several-
including Def jam and Inetrscope-were eager to sign the
kid-renamed shyne. The moniker, he say came from a cousin
who, while in jail, heard �shine� meant �jewelry� and
began calling barrow by that name. Why labels
wanted someone with no studio or stage experience became
clear to all who heard his freestyle raps: His deep
delivery was reminiscent of the late Notorious BIG Shyne
still bristles at the thought that the similarity alone
led to interest: �To hear that is an insult when you
went thru the s--- I went through.� Yet it did get his
foot in the door, like that of biggie�s friend combs.
�I knew they had a similar tone,� combs recall, but
I didn�t sign him for that. I thought he�d follow
in the lines of all our artists.� Shyne inked with
Bad Boy in �98, although he and combs deny reports if
a $900,000 advance. �I believed in him,� says
combs, �but I wants gonna pay crazy money either. He
needed a lot of work.�

MORE TO COME SOON!!