The onetime Bad Boy protégé served nearly a decade behind bars following a New York nightclub shooting in 1999 that involved Combs and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.
Shyne and Diddy onstage at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire during an event on Nov. 7, 2023. Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Sean Diddy Combs
Former rapper Moses “Shyne” Barrow has weighed in on the arrest of onetime Bad Boy mentor Sean “Diddy” Combs, by reflecting on a nightclub shooting that led to him serving nearly a decade behind bars.
“When I was an 18-year-old kid, just wanting to do nothing other than make my mother proud and make Belize proud and, do what all of us want to do, be recognized for our talent and take over the world, I was defending him, and he turned around and called witnesses to testify against me,” Barrow told a Channel 5 reporter in his native Belize this week. “He pretty much sent me to prison. That is the context by which you must always describe that relationship. Yes, I forgave. I moved on. But let us not pretend as if I was in Miami for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Barrow, born Jamal Michael Barrow, is now a politician who serves as the leader of the opposition in the Belize House of Representatives as well as a prominent figure in the Belize United Democratic Party. He was reflecting on the events and fallout from a nightclub outing with Combs and the Bad Boy Records founder’s then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez on Dec. 27, 1999. A scuffle reportedly broke out when Combs knocked a drink from a man’s hand after someone tossed money in the mogul’s direction. Gunshots were fired, and three bystanders were injured. Shyne ended up being charged with assault and was sentenced in June 2001 to 10 years behind bars following a high-profile trial. The former rapper had just released his debut album and was on the verge of rising high in the rap world.
“Let us not lose sight of what the cold, hard facts are. 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,” he continued, referencing how they reunited in recent years for philanthropic causes.
Barrow’s comments come in the wake of Combs’ arrest this week after he was charged with sex trafficking and racketeering for allegedly directing a vast criminal enterprise through which he assaulted and trafficked women with the help of his various businesses since at least 2008. In their indictment, federal prosecutors accused the mogul of engaging in a “pervasive pattern of abuse” that included assaulting and arranging forced sexual encounters with women, among other claims.
“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,” explained Barrow.
It’s not the first time he’s commented on Combs this year. Five months ago, as accusations mounted, Barrow told reporters in Belize that seeing Combs’ name in headlines “opens wounds” while reiterating that he maintained his innocence. “Everyone knew all along that I was the fall guy,” Barrow claimed. “My political enemies and detractors tried to make me into this criminal, but everyone knew that I was a young kid that took the fall. That was the story.”
During that interview, he also reminded reporters that a woman, Natania Reuben, one of the three bystanders struck by gunfire that night in 1999, had stepped forward to claim that she saw Combs fire the weapon. “I watched him,” she told The Daily Beast. “I saw him with my own eyes.”
Combs remains behind bars at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn as he awaits trial. His lawyer’s request to overturn a prior ruling denying him release on bail has been turned down.
