Moses Barrow, formerly known as Bad Boy rapper Shyne, says Diddy "destroyed" his life while speaking on his recent legal issues.
The artist-turned-politician addressed Sean "Diddy" Combs' arrest during a conversation with the media in Belize on Thursday, September 19. Barrow, who currently serves as the Leader of the Opposition in the Belize House of Representatives, acknowledged that he once defended Combs. However, even though he forgave Combs and moved on, Barrow still emphasized that his former label boss essentially helped send him to prison two decades ago over the infamous 1999 shooting in a New York nightclub.
“When I was an 18-year-old kid just wanting to do nothing other than make my mother proud and make Belize proud and be recognized for my talent and take over the world,” he said. "I was defending him, and he turned around and called witnesses to testify against me. He contributed … he pretty much sent me to prison. That is the context by which you must always describe that. I forgave. I moved on. But let us not pretend as if I was in Miami for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
On the night of December 27, 1999, Barrow, Combs, his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and his former bodyguard bodyguard, Anthony “Wolf” Jones went to Club New York in Manhattan. While they were there, shots rang out inside the club. Natania Reuben was shot right in the nose right between her eyes and survived. She claimed Combs was the one who fired the gun after he allegedly got into an argument with a drug dealer.
However, Barrow was the one who was charged with first-degree assault, gun possession, and reckless endangerment. Combs and Jones were acquitted of gun possession and bribery. Barrow was sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence in June 2001. He deported to Belize following his release in 2009. The two reunited for the first time on stage in 2022 during his performance the BET Awards and also reconnected at Giggs' concert in London last year. Although he was able to forgive, he has yet to forget. Earlier this year, Barrow admitted that he took the fall for Combs.
“So, let us not lose sight of what the cold, hard facts are," Barrow continued. "This is not someone who I vacationed with and who he and I enjoyed this great, intimate relationship of brotherhood. This is someone who destroyed my life and who I forgave and who I moved on and for the better interest of Belize, because he was in a position at that time to give scholarships and to maybe invest, I would not deny attempting to bring the investment to Belize and contribution to education to Belize.”
“Don’t distort it as if he and I were boom bally,” he concluded. “This is someone that destroyed my life. But do I take any joy with what he is going through? Absolutely not. I am different than other people — no one needs to fail for me to succeed.”