| XXL MAG 4 |
| XXL: But we've seen unfortunately what's happened to so many other rappers... Shyne: Not so many, just Big and 'Pac. Those is two isolated incidents, it ain't like ten niggas done died from murder. It was only two niggas. XXL: I mean, putting aside rap, it's just the sad truth: Rich people aren't immune. You could have any kind of success. I mean, Marvin Gaye was killed by his own father- Shyne: That's real, dog. XXL: Kurt Cobain killed himself. Violence seems to be something in America we can't escape. Shyne: I'm Glad you made that point, man, 'cause like niggas is lookin' at me, man. I tell them little niggas out there, "You don't need no burner, man. You don't need to end up in the position I end up in. Go the other way, man. It ain't worth having your mother up in there broken up." And that's why I was so fucked up, dog, 'cause I never went looking for trouble, man. I wasn't that little nigga out there wildin' out, dumbin' out, like, "Yeah yeah yeah. I got something to prove, man." I was in juvenile homes since I was 11, man. I was carrying and do all that shit: 11, 10, 13. I was in the fuckin' kitchen with my cousin cuttin' up crack when I was nine, nigga. When New Jack City first came out. So I'm here thinking, "Yo, I got a record deal. I'm straight. I'm clean. I could just sit back, go to the studio and live my dream." So when that shit happened I'm like, "Yo, what the fuck?" Like, "Damn, what I gotta do?" I yelled out, "I don't want to die neither." Here come your life right here: Nigga can't go to the studio no more 'cause niggas shot at you, so what you gonna do? I ain't got no paper. I can't afford no security guard. You understand? XXL: I understand. But in light of what you're saying, what made you go out to Club New York that night? Did you just feel like everything was gonna be OK? Shyne: It was the day after Christmas, everybody was like "Yo, we goin' up in there." I don't know what's gonna happen, man. That shit fucked me up, dog. You understand when a nigga... I don't know if you understand, dog. It's one thing when you live by the gun, you die by the gun. But it's another thing when you're living by your pen, and then niggas is trying to get at you. XXL: Don't you think it's probably just jealousy? Shyne: Whatever it was, dog, when it happened, you ain't thinkin' about all that. You thinkin' about survivin', dog. I went back to square one. I went back to when I was on the block and the nigga I had beef with lived right next door. And when I had to walk outside every day, how it had to go down. I went back to sitting on the corner and the nigga passed by, and my man just looked at him funny and said whatever, and the nigga came back 10 minutes later with a Tec-9-we like 13, 14, ya understand?-and blasted the nigga right in front of me, murked the nigga. This nigga sittin' up, having convulsions on the flo', dead. I'm like, "Oh shit, we back here? I thought I left that." I'm thinkin' 'bout when I was lying there in the fuckin' pool of blood, my shoulder ripped off, taking myself to hospital, you understand? I'm like, "Yo, how we got back here?" XXL: You had that flashback in front of Daddy's House or in Club New York? Shyne: I had that flashback up until the incident happened. I wasa scared to death, man. When you on the war ground it's like you immune to it. But when you ain't been there so long and you left it alone, you caught off guard. |