He’s the hip-hop Hasid.
Shyne, the once up-and-coming rapper who took the fall when Sean “Diddy” Combs was busted with Jennifer Lopez after a 1999 nightclub shooting, has gone from the hood to the Holy Land, living in Israel as an Orthodox Jew.
And if that weren’t enough for a reality TV show on basic cable, there is this: He’s planning a comeback.
Shyne, whose real name was Jamaal Barrow before he legally changed it to Moses Levi, told The New York Times he sees no conflict between hip-hop and Hasids.
And he insists this is no shtick.
“All these rules, rules, rules,” the rapper said about the strict religious requirements. “But you know what you have if you don’t have rules? You end up with a bunch of pills in your stomach.”
Or handcuffs around your wrists, as he did when he was sentenced to 10 years for a shooting in a Times Square nightclub. Combs was charged with gun possession, but was cleared in a highly publicized trial.
Even though Shyne sports a Hasidic-style hat and a black jacket that hangs to his knees, the Brooklyn-raised rapper said he hasn’t lost his street cred.
“There’s nothing in the Chumash [a Jewish book] that says I can’t drive a Lamborghini,” said Shyne, who was released from prison last year after serving nine years.