Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former protegee and “fall guy” Shyne isn’t exactly revelling in the hip-hop mogul’s downfall.
Speaking to Page Six about his upcoming Hulu documentary, The Honorable Shyne, the-rapper-turned-politician expressed hope that Combs, 55, could find redemption.
“I don’t say to myself, ‘Yeah… it’s your turn now!’ Like, that’s not the type of person that I am,” Shyne said, adding, “I pray he’s able to reform and fix himself.”
Shyne, born Jamal Barrow, was just 19 years old and breaking into the music industry in 1999 with Diddy’s label Bad Boy Records when a Manhattan nightclub outing with Diddy and Jennifer Lopez turned violent. A shooting left three bystanders injured, and both men faced trial in 2001. Despite accusations against Diddy, only Shyne was convicted, serving eight years in prison.
“I grew up [being told] to not get my friends in trouble,” Shyne shared, explaining that his refusal to rat out Diddy during the trial was rooted in his “code of honour, which is that you don’t get people in trouble.”
In contrast, however, Shyne claims that Diddy “got witnesses to testify against me… which was the furthest from the truth.”
Following Diddy’s arrest for sex trafficking and racketeering charges, Shyne, who has since turned over a new leaf as a Belize politician, noted in a press conference, “This is someone who destroyed my life, and who I forgave.”
Still behind bars, Diddy continues to deny these accusations, with his representative telling TMZ, “Mr. Combs categorically denies Mr. Barrow’s allegations, including any suggestion that he orchestrated Mr. Barrow to ‘take the fall’ or ‘sacrificed’ him by directing witnesses to testify against him. These claims are unequivocally false.”
