Last Sunday, Shyne Barrow came out on top as the new leader of the UDP, besting his opponent, Tracy Panton, by three votes. And as part of his victory tour he took the hottest seat in town when he came to this studio for his fifth appearance on Uncut.
In an almost two hour show - he took al the tough questions and rolled with the punches. One of them was about his former life as a rapper, if he is concerned that his old lyrics will come back to bite him:
Jules Vasquez
"If you look at your career in rap, you were hardcore and you were a kid, you were trying to make a name, but do you regret the things that you rapped about?"
Hon. Shyne Barrow - Leader of the Opposition
"No, no."
Jules Vasquez
"You once told me you can't listen to it."
Hon. Shyne Barrow
"I was a reporter, it's just like you, every night, even the iconic Indira Craig, one of the most talented news reporters ever, when she reads your scripts, I think sometimes she cringe. When you write your scripts, you cringe at the reality that you have to write about, but you're not making it up and no one can hold it against you. Some people don't want to watch the news because it is so depressing and it is so obscene and profane. And so as a musician, our art reflects life and I wasn't one of those musicians making it up, I wasn't the Fresh Prince of Bel Air who was living the life."
Jules Vasquez
"You spoke about what you knew."
Hon. Shyne Barrow
"That's what I was living. Me and Iemon, you know, God bless my mom who was just here, surprised me and came and prayed with me that whole day. And you know my grandmother is Garifuna from Honduras and it was so much of a blessing that they brought out the Garifuna drums and they didn't know that they were playing the Garifuna drums for me because my ancestors came and intervened for me. But again, me and Iemon grew up in the harshest circumstances in Brooklyn. I was supposed to be dead or in jail for life by the time I was 18 or 21. So what I was rapping about was the harsh reality of a young Afro-Caribbean child, growing up with a single mother who was making enough just to pay her part of the rent. We were so poor, we had to live with my granny and my aunt. And we were so poor, I didn't have my own room, I slept on the couch, until I moved out of my mother's house, so when you listen to my raps, that is what I grew up."
