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Former rapper Shyne has described how Sean “Diddy” Combs “destroyed my life” following a New York nightclub shooting in 1999.
Shyne, now known as Moses Barrow, signed to Combs’s label Bad Boy Records in 1998.
The following year, Combs and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez were with Barrow at a Manhattan nightclub called Club New York. Witnesses said there was a heated argument between Combs and another man, Matthew “Scar” Allen. A scuffle broke out, guns were drawn and three bystanders were injured.
At the resulting trial, Barrow was convicted of assault and reckless endangerment while Combs was acquitted of all charges. Barrow spent nine years in maximum security prison.
In a new interview with Channel 5 News in his home country of Belize, where he is now a politician and Leader of the Opposition, Barrow said of Combs: “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.
“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.
“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.
Referring to Combs’s recent arrest, Barrow added: “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.”
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In an indictment unsealed on Tuesday morning, federal prosecutors allege Combs and his associates threatened, abused and coerced women and others around him “to fulfill his sexual desires” – which allegedly included forcing victims into engaging in recorded sexual activity which he referred to as “Freak Outs”.
A lawyer for the hip-hop artist called Combs “an innocent man with nothing to hide.”
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