Rapper's career has obstacle: prison

By Jeff Leeds
The New York Times

Jamaal Barrow was convicted in shooting case.

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In the calculating eyes of music-industry executives, rap artist Jamaal Barrow possesses the sort of street credibility that instantly draws fans and sells records — a prison sentence. Unfortunately for them, he's serving it right now.

Barrow, professionally known as Shyne and a former protégé of the rap-music impresario Sean Combs, was courted heavily last winter despite being only three years into a 10-year sentence for a shooting while he was with Combs at a Manhattan nightclub. But now, after signing Shyne to a multimillion-dollar record contract to put out some of his unreleased recordings, executives at Vivendi Universal's Def Jam Recordings are finding that some of the traits that stirred up such interest — his hardcore image and tangles with the law — may prove to be major drawbacks as they market his new album, "Godfather Buried Alive," due in stores Tuesday.

With the performer behind bars in upstate New York, a concert tour is out of the question. So is the customary swing through radio-station studios in the biggest markets. New York's Department of Correctional Services has started to enforce rules limiting the number of reporters who can visit. And whatever modest publicity efforts Shyne can undertake will not take place on Friday nights or Saturdays — he recently began observing the Jewish Sabbath, a nod, he says, to his great-grandmother, an Ethiopian Jew.

"No one would want to be here," Shyne said last week from the Clinton Correctional Facility. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. I have to make the best of it. I am here, and I have adjusted. I've found a way to stay on top of everything."

Overcoming the hurdles prison places on marketing is not impossible, as rapper Tupac Shakur proved.

"The truth about it is," said Antonio Reid, the chairman of the Island Def Jam Music Group, "there are times when our marketing plans don't really include the artist anyway — maybe it costs too much to move them around, maybe the artist doesn't live in the U.S."

"I know I can't do anything with him," Reid said of Shyne. "We approach it like he's just in Japan."

But in some ways, the prison, in Dannemora, N.Y., is farther away than Japan, and that has cast a cloud over the future for both Shyne and Def Jam executives.

Shyne, 25, who grew up in Belize and Brooklyn, N.Y., was signed by Combs' Bad Boy Records label in 1998, his tales of bloodshed and inner-city alienation eliciting comparisons to another of Combs' rap stars — Christopher Wallace, known as Notorious B.I.G., who was shot to death in 1997.
 
But it was another connection with Combs that led Shyne to his current residence. On Dec. 27, 1999, Shyne was among the entourage of Combs and Combs' girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Lopez, at Club New York in Manhattan. After another patron insulted Combs, a melee erupted and the violence escalated into gunfire, injuring three bystanders.

Witnesses said Shyne had fired a handgun wildly into the crowd. He was convicted in 2001 of assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment, and sentenced to 10 years in prison with no eligibility for parole until 2009. Combs, also known to fans then as Puff Daddy and now as P. Diddy, was charged with illegal possession of a gun and bribery, but was acquitted at the same trial. (Shyne said last week that Combs betrayed him by not speaking up in his defense; Combs declined to comment.)

Before the trial, however, Shyne had recorded his first album, "Shyne," which has sold more than 900,000 copies since its release in 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. So when word spread last fall of other recordings made before he began serving his sentence, top music-industry executives began making the trek to the Clinton Correctional Facility to woo Shyne.

Def Jam beat out competitors, signing Shyne to a two-album deal that could pay him an estimated $6.5 million in advances.

Given the size of the deal, rival record-label executives estimate Def Jam will have to sell about 900,000 copies for "Godfather Buried Alive" to break even. It contains mostly old, unreleased recordings and at least one made by telephone in calls from prison.

But since striking the deal in March, the signs have not been encouraging. Def Jam sent radio programmers a single, "More or Less," ahead of the album. But the raw descriptions of violence and poverty left many of them cold.

"Honestly, I was disappointed" by "More or Less," said Parish Brown, program director of WWHV-FM, a hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues station in Virginia Beach, Va. "It didn't sound radio-friendly. It's not mainstream."

Shyne does not sound concerned about the initial response to his new work.

The meager airplay so far "doesn't affect my game plan," Shyne said. "The Shyne brand isn't built on that," he said, dismissing much of what dominates R&B and hip-hop radio stations as "circus music" that "has no impact on the culture."

Prison stays are not always detrimental to musicians' careers.

Steve Earle, the country-rock singer/songwriter, spent a brief time in jail in the early 1990s on a drug-related charge, but since his release has written critically acclaimed albums. And Johnny Cash's storied concert at San Quentin in California inspired an inmate there, Merle Haggard, to pursue a country-music career.

But the number of artists releasing successful albums while in prison is small. Nine years ago, while serving time at the same Dannemora prison as Shyne, Tupac Shakur came out with "Me Against the World." It made its debut on the nation's pop chart at No. 1 and remained in the top spot for three weeks.

Prison also serves up its own particular obstacles. While speaking last month with Felli Fel, a DJ with the top-rated KPWR-FM in Los Angeles, Shyne said he would have to wind up his interview because there apparently had been an attack inside the prison. The phone line went dead moments later.

Shyne last week was matter-of-fact about the interruption. "This is jail; people get stabbed every day. This is not Martha's Vineyard."

But his imprisonment may affect more than his music's marketing. James Flateau, a spokesman for the New York prison system, said the department was "in the process" of discussing the album with the state Crime Victims Board, which is authorized to examine whether money earned by an inmate can be sought by his or her victims under the state's so-called "Son of Sam" law.

Shyne, as well as lawyers involved with his record deal, contend that his income from the album cannot be seized under the law. In fact, he said the release of an album from behind bars "is against all odds" and should provide inspiration to the public and fellow inmates alike.

"I'm just so grateful I'm in a position of power where I can determine what I'm going to look like, what I'm going to sound like. This is my freedom."