February 16, 2026 • 56 mins
Today on The Breakfast Club, Shyne Talks 25th-Anniversary Album Tour, Diddy Doc, Belize. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day, wake up the Breakfast Club, finish for y'all.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Done morning.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Everybody is d j Envy, Charlamagne the gud. We are
the breakfast Club. I want to that warning. Everybody is
d j Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We are
the breakfast Club. Law La roses here as well, and
we got a special guest in the building. We have Sean.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome brother, Good morning, good morning. How you feeling.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I am cold, cold man.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
No, I am Beliez. And this is why when I
was here the last time, I was talking about how
much Belieze is paradise. And this really underpins why I
believe it is paradise. Where you care from Sean?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Did you forget them cold Brooklyn days and nights and
waiting for the bus and taking the dollar?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
This is this is beyond brick. Nothing. Nothing existed when
I was in Brooklyn at this level.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
E've never been seven degrees shot.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You went to school in snow we're now if it
is canceled.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
School snowing, But I don't remember it being this brick.
Oh maybe you know there's a lot of traumas I've
you know, buried some of those memories but I don't
remember being this call.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well let's start off with saying congratulations. You're about to
celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of the Shine album, and
you also have the twenty fifth anniversary world tour, with
New York being the first stop.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
That's right, that's right. The Shine album came out September
twenty six, two thousand, so we're in the year of
the celebration. It was this September twenty sixth that passed, right.
But I was working out my work status here because
(01:49):
the last time I was here, I was here as
the leader of the opposition, if I recalled. So I
was here as a diplomat. But then I had to transition,
you know, a workers. I wasn't able to come earlier
to start the tour, but you know, we started all
of that out and yeah, so now we're gonna perform
and celebrate the album, you know, which was a very
(02:13):
special album to me, very special album to a lot
of people throughout the United States and throughout the world.
You know. I was at the the Africa Awards in
Los Angeles over the weekend, so African American Film Critics Award,
and so Ryan Coogler, who Obviously everybody knows who that is.
(02:35):
Broke the records for most Oscar nominations for Sinners, so
he was getting a bunch of awards, and so when
I saw him, he was like, Yo, you know, we
grew up to your music and he's from Oakland. But
that just shows you the impact that the Shine album had.
And I never got a chance to really, you know,
(02:56):
even appreciate my career because the album came out September
twenty six, two thousand and by March I was in captivity,
so like five months.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And you know that's I would love you to discuss, right,
So of course that album came out and it was
a huge album, right. You had Bad Boys, This Gangster Body,
and Shine. Those were the singles off that album.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Then you had songs like the Commission. You had songs
like N word going. I would kind of change that chorus,
but like Pharrell made that record, that's like one of
my favorite records. When you hear me perform that at
Kingstadar on May second, it's gonna be a movie. But
records on the album.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
My question is you you were huge back then, right,
and you got it locked up.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
You talked about it last.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Time you heard the amount of time you spent and
when you came out, you changed a lot.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, you talked about your change, and you know, you
go to Jerusalem and you're reading the taur Rah and
then you're getting into politics, right, and then you became
the total opposite.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
In my opinion.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And you know of who you were as a young man, right,
at one time you were talking gangster ish and shooting
and blowing people's heads off. And you talk about stories
of you carrying guns, and I've heard stories about you
and the bad Boys office carrying guns and pulling out
all types of nines and blocks and all types of stuff, right,
and you can't you changed totally change.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
You became.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
A gentleman that was speaking positivity, trying to instead of
promote crime, you were against it. You were talking community,
trying to get kids off the streets. But the lyrics
back then twenty five years ago was still the lyrics
twenty five years ago. So as shine to change, gentlemen,
how do you perform those records?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think you got to listen to those lyrics. If
you listen to the America, I'm only what you made me, young,
black crazy, Please save me. I'm dying inside. Can't you
see it in my eyes? Maybe if you would teach
me how to do a craft trade, I come off
(05:01):
the corner, stop serving at yay, build schools instead of prison.
I stop living the way that I'm living. That's that's poetry.
That's me crying out for help. That applies today to
the NBA Young Boys the same way it applied to
Shine back. Then if you listen to you know what
you're gonna do when it hit the fan. That's integrity,
(05:25):
that's character. That's me talking about. You know, I'm telling
my life story and saying that I abide by certain
codes and I get my friends in trouble, and you know,
being honest to who I am and trying to survive
these streets. I don't think my album or my raps
I would say. I know, We're never Quentin Tarantino or
(05:52):
you know, violent rap. I was talking about my life.
I was giving you a dissertation as to what I
was going through. And if you listen carefully enough, I
was always saying this is not what I want to do.
I would like to escape this. But when you talk
about the performance, people like Ryan Coogler and other people,
(06:17):
regular people grew up to my music, and so it's
a celebration of that. You know, maybe when I'm performing,
there might be a few words that, you know, I'll
let the audience say and I wouldn't say. But it's
a celebration of the music, of the evolution and art
is not to be condemned, right, But it's definitely not
(06:38):
as much as what you're saying. If you listen to
those those lyrics, it's really telling the story of you know,
eighteen year old, nineteen year old that's trying to navigate
the muddy waters of you know, what the system created.
That's how I remember. And if you go lyric for lyrics,
you'll find a lot of you know, please help me.
(06:58):
This is not what I really want to do, but
this is what I'm doing. I gotta defend myself, you know,
I gotta protect myself. That that was the energy that
I was given.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And I'm not I'm not judging. Don't think I'm judging
you because I grew up to this music. I played
his music, I DJ his music. But it's always interesting
when when I have somebody like yourself or even you know, Mace,
because Mace was probably one of the first one that
we seen do it where Mace's you know, talking, you know,
bullets hit off the car bling bling ding ding whatever.
And then when he comes out as a pastor and
then he comes back as a rapper, it's like, well,
(07:29):
can he do those lyrics right? And it's not a judge.
It's that when people see people change, they're for it.
They agree with it all right. I agree with the
change because some people don't have the balls to do it.
Some people don't have the haven't evolved to do it.
But then when they do it, it's like, that's a
good thing. I understand why he did it, where he's
going with it. But then when he goes back to
(07:50):
the rap and it's like, well how do you go
back and forth? And I'm like when I hear rappers like,
you know, fuck y'all niggas, hope you die slow death
as I coke tested the Lord's protests, can't fuck with
you week rap niggas with your gay ass raps running
around talking this and that, I'm like, how does shine
do that? You know what I mean? But then on
the other side of like please to my friends that
(08:10):
believe you know, I'm trying to get the kids like
I just and I'm not judging.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I'm just out here, but I think I think creativity.
We were talking about that in the green room. Creativity
is not as simple as you know you just read it.
That's a that's a poem. That's a work of art
that people love, and this is a celebration of that.
(08:35):
And even in my evolved state, I still help artists
and believe and I still support artists, you know, whether
it's Offset or Quavo, Push your Tea or all these
young kids that I see and I run into them
and we talk and I inspire them. I'm not here
to tell them, you know, well you shouldn't rap like
(08:55):
this or you should rap like that. So, you know,
my creative expressions should be studied in Harvard, should be
in the museum, then shrining in history. So it's not
something that I'm ashamed of. That was a young shine,
That's how he felt, that's what he was going through,
and he expressed himself. And so celebrating that expression. This
is not for you know, a twelve year old kid
(09:17):
or a thirteen year old kid to come to my concert.
You know, these are adults that are going to be
in the room celebrating that body of work. Now now,
now if you're asking me about my new album, that's
not what I'm going to be saying. I would hope not'ing,
but but I think I think I think it would
be it would be very unfair to deprive uh, you
(09:41):
know people that loved that body of work, correct from
that celebration. And as I said, there's a way for
me to do it, right, I don't. I don't. I
don't necessarily need to. You know, there's there's crowd participation, right,
so I could you know who want.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
To you know what I mean, what type of what
type of brothers in the street?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I thank you, thank you? Lrden.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I mean MV has a point though, I mean, but
I think you probably got a lot of this even
before this tour when you I mean just as a politician.
Now with people.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Performed, since we've seen them. So the great thing is
to wait and see what is Sean gonna do? Is
he going to say this the album we saw you
in a suit?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Can't come?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Can I hold on? Hold on? Hold on, my good brother,
hold on? Who did it? Who's the first one to
do it? With the fitted fitted going in the court
with the Gucci suit with the time come on, come on,
come on, envy right and look at look at look
at my brother again. Jeez, I just saw jiz at
(10:59):
ar Basle. But GZ performs his residency right now and right.
This is hip hop. There's no there's no one way
to be hip hop. And then, you know, I appreciate
the question, but I go back to you with the
dexterity and the color of hip hop. Hip hop has
(11:19):
always been so multifaceted and multi layered. Where Jay Z
would be wearing you know, his best suit in corporate America,
but then still be talking about, you know, all the
drugs that he was trafficking. Right, it was like, oh, well,
you can't be in corporate America with the Doug Morrises
(11:40):
and the Sylvia Roons and you know whoever else and
talk about drug trafficking. No, hip hop always breaks the
rules because hip hop is an expression of art and
there's no right or wrong way to do art. And
so the twenty fourth anniversary towards a celebration of that art,
and there'll be a way to do that. To be
honest to who I am today.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
What changed your mind? I think last time you were
up here, you were like, you weren't thinking about performing,
and you said, the only time that you think you
would perform is if it was like a Grammys or
a BT and they were showing you love, and that
you weren't interested in performing. What changed your mind?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I mean, twenty five years is as a milestone. People
don't really get to celebrate a twenty fifth anniversary and
still be relevant twenty five years later. And also I'm
no longer in the House of Representatives, so my focus
shifted somewhat. I'm still focused on becoming the next Prime
(12:39):
Minister of believe. At some point I had a twenty
thirty agenda and some way ahead a schedule on that.
I still focus on helping the people in Mesopotamia, which
is a constituency I used to represent. But when I
lost my seat, you know, I had a few things
that I'd been delaying due to being an legislator. So
(13:02):
now I'm involved in real estate development for tourism and belieze.
I get to finish my memoir, God bless you. I
have film projects to do, like I have a lot
to do that I couldn't do because I was in
the legislator and I'm one of those people that's singular
obsessed with whatever it is I am doing. And I
(13:25):
just didn't feel comfortable focusing much on the creative as
I did when I was in the legislator. Now I'm not,
so I have a couple of years before the next
election to do this. And this is not random. It's
my twenty fifth anniversary. I'm not gonna be able to
celebrate my twenty fifth anniversary ever again. So it's a
great way to celebrate twenty five years upshine the first
(13:49):
album and to create new music.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And I think it's dope because I mean, I'm from
New York, so I remember the impact that record had
on New York. Yeah, but I also feel a little
bad for you as well, right, And I say that
is when that album came out, I don't think you
ever got a chance to enjoy it because at that
same time, you were on court and you never got
a chance to go to it because you went you
got locked up, So you never got a chance to
(14:13):
enjoy the fruits of your labor during that time.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
October November, December, pick jewelry, January, ready for trial February,
convicted March sixteenth. So I think not just me, but
the people that love the music never got the chance
to celebrate it. So this is really a celebration, you know,
(14:37):
and we're gonna bring some special guests to help me celebrate.
From the hip hop world, from the dancehall world. It's
gonna be incredible.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
So what do you say to people?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Last question on it?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
What do you say to people that say, shy? Is
this about the money?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Money? No, that's that's irrelevant. That's not a don't you
don't take these steps in life just to get a check.
I've been good. I spent millions of dollars in believe
in politics, and that's how I became the leader of
(15:15):
the opposition. Inconsequential, you know, you just gotta do things,
which is in line with what I had said to you.
It would have to be something special, and so this
is specially The twenty fourth anniversary is special. The albums
that I'm gonna come out with are attached. I think
if you go back to that interview, I mentioned it
(15:37):
that I would do albums that were attached to the
film projects. So I never put out the album for
the Honorable Shine documentary. So that's going to be a
specially curated album. Then I have the TV series, the
Bio TV series about my life that's another album. Then
(15:57):
we have the motion picture that's the final album. And
then I would by that time be ready for the elections.
So you know, what should I do? Should I just
sit around for three years and not do anything? Like
what you mentioned? Is the furthest thing from my mind.
It's just how do I spend my time? And what
(16:18):
have I been neglecting? What have I not been doing
that I could do? You know, when you think about
all that I've been through politically, been through a lot.
I'm writing a book on that. You know. There was
a coup in my party. You know, they try to
overthrow throw me. They broke all types of laws. I
had to take them to court like it was. That
(16:41):
was a movie within itself, and so I lost my
seat because I took all that I had and gave
it to my colleagues, because I was a leader, so
I had, I took, and I took what I thought
was enough for myself. But I made sure because in
Belize parliamentary system of governance, you can't become prime minister
(17:05):
unless you have a majority of the seats in the
House of Representatives and as the leader, you're responsible for
getting everyone to sixteen. So we need sixteen seats. So
I made a promise. I'm their leader. We're in the battlefield.
It's bad, we're all about to go down, but I'm
not gonna you know, turn around and be like all right,
(17:25):
well let's get in the tank and you know they
gonna figure it out. I made sure everybody had tanks
and I made sure everyone was good. So that was
a lot. So now as I catch my breath and
I think about, you know, what to do next, I'm
grateful for my own sanity and for you know, my
emotional stability, spirituality, that I have something to do, which
(17:51):
is incredible. To be able to celebrate my twenty fifth anniversary,
to make new projects, to being you know, to be
able to go to California and go to doctor Dre's
house and and you know, to go in the studio
and for him to play beats for me. That's that's
a blessing. That's a miracle. Like a lot of people
(18:12):
can't go to California and get in front of Dreg.
So yeah, So so like that's where I'm at with
with with my art and what I'm doing now in
life and as I said, the the projects to the
real estate projects, you know, being able to work with
somebody like Don Pooh, you know, Robert Cummins, you know
Brooklyn chophouse, to open a Brooklyn chophouse and believe with
(18:35):
a resort, uh you know like so, so I have
a lot of blessings, very fortunate, and I never shied
away from who I was as an entertainer. I reject
the idea that, oh well, if you're an entertainer, just
being entertainer, just being be an athlete, you know, you
(18:55):
shouldn't be involved in politics. I'm not going to get
involved in American politics. That's y'all. That's y'all's problem or
or or whatever it is. But I just believe that
hip hop is so diverse and we could do anything.
You know, we were or are fashion designers, you know,
(19:17):
movie producers, restaurant tears, hoteliers like that's just that's always
been a hip hop.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So speaking of our problem, or do you ask citizenship
in the US or is that you ain't even right
about it?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
No more. I'm I'm a one worker, so shordinary ability worker.
So I have visa as an one stordinary ability worker,
so I could live and work in the United States.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Oh okay, okay. And then when you a couple of months
ago tease the show you're for your twenty fifth anniversary,
you get it at a world to us.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So are we getting as Yeah, yeah, yeah we You know,
Brooklyn is special, so we start there and then we're
going to announce the rest of the days, all right,
yeah yeah, And you know, incredibly Kingstadre I grew up
blocks away, literally five blocks away from Kings Theatre when
we first came to Brooklyn. When we first immigrated to Brooklyn,
(20:13):
we immigrated the Church Avenue in East eighteenth Street, which
is like up the street from kingstad So you know,
I had other offers, live nation, different people, but King
Stadar is special, so it's going to be real special.
And this is what I'm saying for me, you know
when you ask the question, like that's the furthest thing, Like,
(20:36):
you know, I'm in an elevated place, made money of
trying to keep you know, my mind, my spirit, my focus,
and these things are blessings. To go from not being
able to come to the United States for all those years.
Then I came as a diplomat, and I took my
diplomat responsibility serious, so I wasn't so definitely when you
(20:58):
were asking me about I'm focused on the legislature, right,
So I was on that. And then when I lost,
the government took away my diplomatic passport and didn't even
give me time to transition into my work visa, maybe
(21:19):
thinking that because of the climate, I wouldn't have been
able to get a visa. So even people were praying that,
you know, I just being believed in the drain somewhere
washed up. So to be able to return, you know,
as an old one extraordinary ability a visa worker, you know,
is a blessing. You know, it really is a blessing
(21:42):
to be able to return after all this time and
to celebrate with people who love shine and love the
Shine legacy.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
There's so much conversation right now around like immigration and
all these things for people who don't understand, like the
visa process when you're a diplomat, and would they require
of you, like how all that works.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I just break it down a bit.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well that's a bit different than the one visa, So
a diplomatic visa, it's still not guaranteed. Uh, The Homeland
Security and Department of State, and the President was the
ultimate boss. They can, you know, revoke anyone's visa. They
can deny anyone's visa. Not because you're a diplomat. They'll
(22:23):
give you a visa. You know, if you're a diplomat
that's involved in corruption and you know you're a threat
to national security of the United States. I know, I
know people in government right now in Belize and in
other countries who can't come to the States even though
they are a diplomat. So that in itself was a
great thing for me because obviously, you know, the United
(22:46):
States looked at me as a legitimate partner that they
had confidence in. So that was great, but it's never guaranteed.
So now as a worker again, it shows that all
that I've done throughout the last you know, twenty something years,
(23:08):
twenty seven years since I was incarcerated, sixteen years i
was deported, the rehabilitation, transformation, contributions to my community and
believes and the contributions here in the States, you know,
the partnerships that I've developed with Democrats and Republicans when
I was here as a diplomat. You know, my good
(23:31):
friend Representative Ja Moore from South Carolina invited me to
the house in South Carolina and that's a Republican house,
and they, you know, recognized me in the house and
I met with you know, the speaker of the house
was a Republican, you know, the leader of the Republicans
down there, and I've developed relationships you know, with both
(23:54):
because I believe that's important for beliefs, and so all
these things play a part in when they're looking at,
you know, what you're coming here to do, because you know,
I don't, as I said, I don't want to get
into the politics of immigration, but I could understand that
(24:14):
there are concerns about what people are going to come
here and do. That's a valid concern.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
But you you were a convicted of convicted fellat here
in the States. Was it difficult to get your visa
back here? When it's not diplomatic because usually when people
are are convicted, even if it's a small crime, is
other places.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
This is what this is what I'm telling you. The
it's been a long process. So it's been uh sixteen
or seventeen years since I've been deported. So the way
the immigration laws work is, uh, there is a waiver process.
So this is not unique to Shine. Anyone that was
convicted unless it was murder or torture or you know,
(25:00):
terrorists activity, anyone can get a waiver, but it's discretionary.
And that's why I was explaining to you the way
I conducted myself when I was coming here. It's not
like I was coming here and I was taking advantage
of taking the opportunity for granted. I built relationships. You know,
I gave speeches, you know, promoting belize us relations and
(25:25):
you know, I was a positive role model and I
continue to be a positive role model even after I
lost my seat. Uh you know, but so so I
made I made the case and I am an extraordinary
ability worker. You know, I was nominated for Grammys, I
won Grammy, you know, sold over forty million records and
(25:46):
I'm still relevant. I put out a number one documentary
with Walt Disney. You know, I got you know, distribution
deals with you know, the major record labels. Right, So yeah,
it's it's a little bit different, right, But you know,
to the person that's there that made a mistake, never
give up. And you know, you live your life and
(26:08):
you rebuild yourself, you rehabilitate and you know there is
a waiver, right and you just have to have faith.
And for those that have an opportunity to be here,
you know, don't take it for granted because there are
a lot of people that were like this opportunity.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
What would you say to people and I've seen you
talk about, you know, your relationship or lack they're of
with Diddy, But what would you say to people who
feel like you're finally getting kind of like, I mean,
the support that a lot of people didn't give you
back when the child was happening because Diddy was like
the mega superstar. But now people see him in a
different light, so people are more kind of open to
(26:43):
hearing anything that doesn't make him like this big, mega
perfect person.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Well, didd he's not really interrelated with anything that I'm
doing right now. I think that I've been able to
build my legacy and I've always had the support of
the hip hop community. There was a point where, like
(27:09):
the hip hop community, you remember, they kind of hated
Diddy when I went away and they didn't want anything
to do with him. But you know, being the Charlottan,
the very convincing person that he is, he knows how
to get everybody you know back in line. But I've
always had support, you know, throughout my incarceration. You know,
(27:32):
jay Z was coming to Rikers Island on the mayback,
you know when IRV God he God bless his soul,
was at the height of his power and murder inc
they all came up there to try to sign me Nash.
You know doctor Dre. I was just talking, uh to
my guy Monie Helly, who was managing Keisha, Cole and
(27:55):
Future and a bunch of you know, superstars. But yeah,
so he when he first discovered Keisha, it was between
him and Doctor Dre because Doctor Dre had this new
kid called the Game, and they wanted a verse from
(28:15):
Shine and Manny, who I came up with Off flat Bush,
my guy we started in the cradle. He wanted the
record for his artists, but everybody wanted to Shine record,
but it only could be one, and I gave it
to Manny because of our brotherhood. So I wouldn't say that.
(28:36):
You know, people people always embrace Shine. And when I
came out, remember I did, I did. I did a
deal while I was away went number one again despite
remember and and you know I did the I don't
know if Double XL people remember Double XL the death
before the sign and cover and the most hip hop
most wanted cover, and I was always telling people who
(28:59):
did he But the irony, I guess, is just that, well,
now you know every everything had everything, well everything has
collapsed and every and the curtain has been removed, and
now it's like it's, you know, irrefutable for most people
everything that I said back then, But then for me,
(29:20):
it's like I'm gone. It's like you know Parrel and
the clips, you know, respect to them on that great
album where you know that record where he says, I'm
so I'm so far gone, like I'm you know, as
soon as they wanted, I don't want it no more.
I'm somewhere else. So it's like for me, I'm not
I'm not there.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I don't want to say glad right, well, are you
glad God sat you down when he did, seeing that
everything that happened out of it, because you know, when
it happened, I know you probably was f the world.
But now when you see all less, you think to yourself, damn,
I could have been maybe not part of it, but
in the mix of it.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Well, I definitely wasn't going to be a part of
this part of.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
It, I said, and he makes it, you know, I mean,
you ever look back up like damn. Maybe that was
the reason why I sat down.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I mean, you know, it's tough, man. You know, all
the pain that my mom been through. I wouldn't wish
incarceration on anybody. I don't wish that on Diddy. You know,
I pray for him, but I don't want to take
away from from the victims in his case and the
justice that they want. But it's not something that you know,
I would ever wish on my worst enemy. So I definitely,
(30:29):
I'm just grateful to have been able to endure what
God had planned for me the journey and I made
I made choices. I made a choice to defend myself,
and that came with consequences. So I hope that I
could be a deterrent to young people out there and
to people out there in general, think before you make
a choice, or they're going to be consequences. I chose
(30:51):
to defend myself. I don't shy away from that. The
one of the people that were injured, she came forward
in twenty twenty four, said, oh explicitly it was Diddy
that shot her, not Shine. If she would have said
that in two thousand and one, I would have probably
beat my case and and you know they would have
accepted my defense claim. But no, I could never say
(31:15):
that I'm glad that the difficult, painful things happened to me,
but I am I'm grateful that I was able to
endure those difficulties because endurance is what leads to greatness.
So anybody that's listening right now, and so many of
us are going through things at the Oscar level, at
(31:36):
the janitor level, at the intern level, whatever you're going through,
if you can just endure, if you can just have
to stammina to keep going, the greatness is at the
end of that journey.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That was rumored that they asked you to be part
of the Diddy doc.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
You know, I saw I saw Alex that directed the film.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's her name.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Yeah, yeah, I know it was Alex because I heard
Remember I hit you and I'm like, hey, what happened?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
And I told you I'm coming out with a new album,
and you ain't say that. Listen. She wanted to scoop right,
So I'm like, listen, you know I'm coming out with
a new album, new to all that I'm thinking she
gonna go back. Well, Lissa Sean said he working on
a new album, but he gonna, you know, pop up
on the stret I wanted you to say that.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
I thought you were saying that like when the time
is right.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I didn't know you wanted me to.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I thought, you know, you gotta.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Be specific with me. You got didn't reach out, but.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
She said she did. But I tell you that, I
tell you honestly, I'm so focused on me and believe
and all the great things that are before me. Uh,
if you look at it, when the things started happening
to Diddy, I was never talking to the American media.
There's this degenerate journalist and believe I won't mention his
(33:02):
name and give him any spotlight, but he's the one
that was working for my ops in my political party,
trying to tear me down, and so he would always
come with these gotcha questions and want to incite and
want to, you know, paint me like I had. I
was incarcerated, I was deported. I had nothing to do
(33:22):
with with this. You know, this guy already ruined my life.
You're trying to ruin my life again. I had nothing
to do with that, and so I would have to
as an elected official, I would have to answer those questions.
But I never jumped into the situation. When it came
to the American media, so I would get, you know,
expressions of interest from NBC, ABC, CNN, TMZ, Wall Street Journal, everybody,
(33:49):
and I would decline because I just wasn't interested in
participating in that. So Alex says she did reach out
to me. She probably did, but I saw her congratulations her.
She was nomine for a Director's Guild Award over the weekend,
so I saw at the DJA ceremony congratulations to her.
I didn't see the documentary, but I heard that its great,
(34:14):
as powerful as this award winning worthy. I you know,
they I heard I was in the documentary even though
I didn't speak. But obviously they told the truth about
what I've been saying, so nothing that I'm saying is
different than what I've said before. But I didn't watch
it because I I just that's my trauma. So so
(34:40):
without getting into what he did to Cassie and what
he did to all the other people that have accused him,
and I see that like, there's some people are saying, oh, well,
you know, well Cassie, Cassie wanted it all. Yeah, she
that's what she signed up for. You know, we all
can't be wrong, right, So it's like, I know what
(35:03):
he did to me as far as sending me to prison.
He was one of the most powerful people in the world,
and he used his money and his power to make
sure that witnesses lied. People went in there not to
say listen, Sean was defending did he because we I
owned up to having the weapon. There was no dispute
(35:26):
to that, but it was a matter of self defense,
and he had the power to make sure that if
people went in there, they told the truth, and Sean
was defending all of us. He didn't do that. He
said listen, somebody gotta go down. And he wasn't a gentleman.
He didn't say listen, listen, cop out, or this is
(35:47):
how we're gonna do it. I'm gonna make sure family
good for life. You're good for life, but we need
you to take this hit. No, he was like, you're
gonna take the hit because the DA was offered me
thirteen years so I couldn't even get a reasonable plea
and then I think the judge offered me like seven years.
But I say all that to say what he did
(36:09):
to me, I would never do to another human being.
Worst thing in the world to send somebody to prison,
So I could imagine all these other things that people
are saying. But his celebrity is so loud, was so loud,
and you could still see it creeping in sometimes because
you see people come out and start attacking the victims.
(36:30):
It was the same thing that kind of happened to me,
where after a certain point people are like, shut up,
we don't want to hear about that. You know, let's party,
let's drink some rock. So I don't want to. I
don't want to. I don't even want to talk about that.
But but but I respect my responsibility to you, to
the audience, to you know, when you text me, I
told you when I come up here, you can ask
(36:52):
me what.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
And that's why I didn't mention anything, because I felt
like it was unfair to bring you into that conversation
because we're reported on dating his documentary and it's like, oh,
will shine in new music. So when you said you
were willing to come and talk, I was like, all right,
I make sure it happens so that you can have
your own conversation about Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Good, I like, like, I do.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Have one more question. You want to kind of move
past that stuff. But I know when you dropped the
honorable Shine documentary, did his team has sent you that
he's in decision trying to stop it? Right?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
They said that the Disney ain't no better than to
send me foolishness like that. But yeah, you know, congratulations
to my god Jason Adu over there at Disney and Scape.
He was he got the Vanguard Award at the Africa ceremony. Yeah,
you know, the documentary was great, number one, one of
(37:41):
one of the most successful documentaries that Disney ever put out.
And I told my story. I didn't tell the Diddy story,
you know. Respect to Alex and and and to fifty,
you know, congratulations to them. That was the story that
that they told on behalf of the victims. And in
(38:02):
all fairness, I see a lot of people attacking fifty,
trying to bastardize the legitimate pain and suffering of those victims.
But without fifty, Alex might have had a hard time
with her project. And yes, the enemy of my enemy
(38:25):
is my friend. But you know, they did the same
thing to me. Everybody was like, yo, shut up, you know,
let's drink the rock, right, Even people that respected me
and loved me, they was like, damn, Seane, you putting me,
you know, like, Yo, Diddy's the man, he's Michael Jackson,
Like what you want us to do? Right? So I
(38:47):
feel the pain of the victims, Cassie in particular, and
everyone that went through what they went through. But I
didn't want to tell the Diddy story. So that's the
beautiful thing about my documentary, the documentary The Honorable Shine.
If you haven't seen it, go see it on Hulu.
That's the Shine story. And he just happens to be
(39:10):
a footnote in that because that's a part of the story.
And Disney will tell you. I let them do what
they're supposed to do, because documentaries are supposed to have
the utmost integrity, and I'm not supposed to be in
there saying, oh, I want this out, I want that in.
And I was busy with the legislator, so I made
myself available. I opened up as much as I could
(39:30):
and provided my family, and I didn't see it until
it was done. Saw it twice so that's why I said,
so if I only saw my own documentary twice, I'm
definitely not watching the Diddy documentary to traumatize myself. There's
nothing I could gain from that. Everything that anybody could
say I know to be a fact, right, even if
(39:51):
it's not a fact, I know, I know the potential
and the same way nobody wanted to believe me, I'm
not going to be that person and disbelieve those things.
I'm going to give them the benefit of that. I'm
sorry because he did it to me. So I'm not hating.
I don't want him to be in a position he's in,
but I know what he's capable of. I think when
I was in Atlanta, I did an interview with my
(40:13):
guy Tigger, and I said, and I repeat it, I
pray that did he rehabilitates, that he reforms. He should
Maybe he should be glad that God sat him down
because maybe he was on the verge of odin on
those drugs and whatever else it is that he's doing.
(40:35):
So maybe this is a blessing for him that he
didn't get that rico because if you look because if
you look at the charges, there was a case there
for Rico. So he's very blessed. But I just hope
that he he is able to because I reform, I rehabilitate,
even though I was defending myself, but there was a
(40:57):
lot going on as young he and I had to
make sure that I never put myself on my family
in that position again. And so to this day, you know,
it's not uh tried by twelve or carried by six.
I just let the Lord take me because I'm not
you know, I'm not gonna do that to my family,
not gonna do that to my daughter. And so my
(41:18):
whole mind, my whole everything has changed. I just bring
so much positivity and great energy to the planet, and
that's what I pray for him. So it's not that
I'm condemning him that I wish he got de Rico.
I wish he does his entire time. I just hope
that when he returns to the streets, that you know,
he can return with a genuine transformation and dedicate the
(41:41):
rest of his life, you know, to making people's lives
better and and to healing and you know, making a
positive contribution.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
What's one thing that's misunderstood about Sean?
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I think the most difficult thing for me, I I
would say is in Belieze, not necessarily here in the States.
I think here in the States, I started off kind
of as the Diddy protege, but then I was able
to break through that uh you know, with the with
(42:17):
the number one album while I was incarcerated and becoming
a larger than life figure and then going to Belize
and getting elected to the House and doing things that
are just unprecedented for hip hop. No person, no rapper
now R and B has ever made it to the
House of Representatives, and definitely not the leader of the
(42:39):
opposition in the House of Representatives. But my I think
the one thing I would focus on is in Belize,
you know, which is all being taken care of now
by the grace of God. But my political enemies used
to say that, oh, I'm a deep Orte. I'm a
criminal forgetting the Grammys, forgetting that. You know, I wrote
(43:00):
and produced and published over forty million albums with Usher,
with Lil Wayne, Notorious, Big Puff, Daddy Mace. But they
would just equate me to a deep Portea criminal. And
I'll never forget. When I first signed my record deal
in nineteen ninety eight, I bought my platinum Rolex. I
(43:22):
bought a big chain diamond plate and I got on
the plane to go to Belize. Believes was always a
part of me, Like my mom still speaks believes and
she can't even speak a proper sentence of English, where
like we love believes so much. I used to go
to Belize every summer. So it hurt me if any
and I'm like a duck, you know, water it usually
(43:44):
just flows off my back. But if one thing so
misunderstood and hurt was when people would try to deny
me my patriotism and my love for my country, and
then my integrity because it's like I'm shine, like I
sat and for ten years because of character and integrity.
I'm not that guy. I'm not that guy at fronts
(44:06):
that says one thing and does the other thing. Like
I didn't do that for Diddy because he was he
was trying to crush me. I did that for me
and for what I believe in and for the people
that believed in me. So yeah, that's the one thing
that was misunderstood that I was only in believed because
I was deep deported and I had to be and believed.
I didn't want to be in beliezing. So I got
(44:27):
involved in politics so I could get back to America
and and and watch watch when you get back to America,
you're not gonna come back. So the best thing, that's
why I say, God is so great, So the best
thing is going back. So I come here for a
couple of weeks and I worked, and I can't turn back.
(44:47):
It's not even turning on me. It just feels good
to to prove people wrong. And for the people that
believed in me, because a lot of people that believe
in me and believes and to vindicate them for them
to feel good. And then becoming the prime minister of
a country, you know, the current prime minister of Belize
(45:08):
as much as him and I, you know, I used
to used to be me. I used to go against
his whole team's twenty six of them. Sometimes it's one
of me and the House of Representatives. I shut it down.
The Speaker of the House got to close down the
House of Representative. They throw me out. But I have
a lot of respect for him because he's been there
for thirty years. He's you know, I think maybe late fifties,
(45:31):
early sixties, and so he was a ararepresentative he was
a deputy prime minister and then he became the Prime minister.
And that's what I talk about, endurance and stamina. And
then he got his time. People criticize and people say
he's not the best this, he's not the best at
(45:51):
but he got his time. I'm gonna get my time.
But I got to go through my journey. So part
of my journey is building the relationship with the people
of beliefs. So I got to go through the hits.
Oh he's a deport Oh he's a criminal. Oh he
don't love believes Oh he only there prove him wrong.
So then those same people are going to be like, yeah,
(46:11):
all right, and continue to have the conversation about policy,
about education, How we can you know, provide you know,
student student loans, we don't even have student loans, and beliefs,
you know, how we could develop the economy, how we
could develop you know, the tourism industry. I think the
Tourism Minister is one of the best tourism ministers that
(46:32):
we've ever had. And he's on the other side of
the political divide. We're opponents, but so so that's the
one thing. But it's a good thing because I get
to prove people wrong, and I get to build relationships
with people because I don't hold grudges. I'm not malicious, right,
So so now people could see so we could get
(46:53):
past that and we could get to policy. And that's
how I become the Prime Minister one day, because now
I would have shown them everything, all that they said
about me, I would have disproved, and I could come
to them with a genuine plan to change their lives
and improve things and beliefs, which is what do you
feel like?
Speaker 3 (47:12):
They maybe felt like that at that time because you
didn't pop as an artist over there and belieze, but
you came in, you know, you hanging with the New Yorkers,
and I.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
Think politics, I think politics had a lot to do
with it. You know, my father was the Prime Minister
of beliefs. But my father and I couldn't be more different.
We don't agree on most policies, and he wasn't involved
in my life. He had nothing to do with me
selling over forty million records my mom and I'm my
(47:44):
mother's son. Respect to him, you know, him and I
we have a cordial relationship. There's no ill will. But
I took a lot of hits and believes because of him, right,
And I never got anything from him. You know, he
has another son who has benefited tremendously from you know,
(48:08):
him being prime minister, but that wasn't me. Are you
close with your brother, are you no?
Speaker 4 (48:13):
No?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Yeah, those are his children, my mother's only son. But
I'm just saying so, I think a lot of it
had to do with you know, him being prime minister
for thirteen years, benefits that came to you know, his
son and other people, and so they took that out
on me. And I didn't get nothing. When I say nothing,
(48:34):
not ten right, even going to the House of Representatives.
He had nothing to do with that. As far as
planning that or saying to me, son, I think you
should follow on my footsteps. I decided to do that.
I decided to return to Believe and offer myself to service,
and I put my money into that. Open the resource center.
(48:57):
You know, when my friends would come to Belieze with
professors or entrepreneurs, have them speak to the people in Mesopotamia.
But don't get me wrong, I don't want to be ungrateful.
There were people, the same people that ended up overthrowing me,
that felt a deportee and a criminal should not be
(49:17):
involved in politics, right, So on that end, as the
leader of the party, you know, he and others were like, nah,
that's that's crazy, Like, you know, he didn't do anything,
and believe that was an American and we all know
that he took the fall, but I think he should
have did that for anybody that you know was in
(49:38):
that situation. We have a person right now that was
a former leader of the party that just got arrested
and he's a senator. He got arrested for assaulting the police.
He got arrested for assaulting a woman with a hammer.
He did all types of things and everybody was okay
with that. So I'm saying that wasn't like a father
son thing. I think that was just the right thing
to do. But I take a lot of heat for
(50:03):
you know, the prime minister serving thirteen years, got no benefits,
not that he should have given me anything, but a
lot of people claim he gave his other son everything.
But that's okay, right, but.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
That you looking for his validation and turn into war politics.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
You know, as a child, you always wanted your father. Yeah,
and then when I became successful, as you know, my
first album, million records. So even before I went in
most famous believing ever, most successful commercial belising ever, then
you know, yeah, everybody recognized. And even like I said,
(50:42):
I don't want to throw him under the bus. We
have policy differences, we agree to disagree. It's an agreeable relationship.
But I'm I'm past that right I'm at a place
where you know, my daughter is my life, Believe is
my life, helping believeance, and I have everything at my
(51:03):
disposal to be able to do everything that I want
to do. So I don't you know, it's not about Diddy,
it's not about Pops, it's not about nobody. God has
given me all the tools, a great team, you know,
people like Stephen Victor, Stephen, Carlos, Don Pooh Manny, you
know Smithy for Seane. After all this, I think we
(51:27):
I think we passed redemption right now, it's like what
does what does? What does you know? This great future
of belize and you know, creating more art. It's celebration time.
That's why I really said the twenty fifth anniversary celebration time,
because we got past like all the other stuff and
(51:49):
now celebrate like you know, like I'm making it listen
like my brother. You know, the last thing I did
was watched the Super Bowl with Doctor Dre like quiet,
no pictures, no nothing. Do you know what? Do you
know what it is to be able to to come
(52:11):
to l A and be like, yo, I'm in your
City of Angels and pull up right and he got
some incredible beats, trust me, the Doctor agent timelessly. That's
a great place to be. Like, right, if I go
to Miami, I'm gonna go to Miami in a few weeks.
(52:32):
I'm gonna go see Khalid. You know, see my guy Russian.
I know, you know we're in New York. So all
the Caribbean they know who Russian is. Russian he got
that thing from my album ce J the Chemists, the
Caribbeans know who that is. That's that's that's Brooklyn. No, no, no,
that's that's Brooklyn. That's that's Brooklyn. That's my guy. He
(52:53):
just they just grabbed him Chronic Law and Armani and
you know, the Caribbeans know who that is. But anyway,
I'm just I'm in such a great place that all
the people that that I love and admire love and
admire me. And so I'm making an album from there,
like DJ Toons and the Starboy Collective, whizz Kid. When
(53:17):
I was when I when I was, you know, when
I was in la at Lennis respect to my good
brother Lennis. Those the best parties ever. So he had
a Grammy after party. I hear DJ Toons is at
the party. I go to the turntables like oh Yo, Shine,
(53:37):
like and and and the song he got right now
with Marvel and whiz Kid. That's my favorite song. And
we're working right there. He's sending me stuff. That's a
great place to be, right Like, I don't need nobody
to do nothing because everybody embraces shine and love shine
(53:58):
and they celebrate shine, and so we're celebrating so thank God. Right,
So so we look forward to using this to get
more people to come to Belize. Last time I was saying,
you said you come in, you still ain't reached.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
This year, I went to Dominica. But we're gonna get
out there. I'm gonna bring the family.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Be a politician this year.
Speaker 1 (54:19):
With Dominica, I had to go Dominica. That's where my
father is from, so I had to go here first.
But we're gonna make a stand.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
But that's never been a belize.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
I think I might have did something that long. I
love it, but I got to get back.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
But that's that's what's on the horizon man, to be
able to put these projects out and you know, everything
I do, I'm gonna always talk about believe and just
celebrating from a great space of positivity.
Speaker 4 (54:42):
It seems like in a good space.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yeah, so May second, May second King Steady.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
King in Brooklyn, Shawn, we appreciate you for joining us
and thank you for answering.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
All the questions.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
All right, yes, question it's on the Just go to
king dot com. I'm sure they got a place. Is like, look,
I'm tired of ask about the Lauren. If you're gonna
d m me talk about my content, damn it, talk
about my damn it.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
We're talking about listen, not that not that you you
going back on tour for the money.
Speaker 1 (55:17):
Right, I ain't even know.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
He's had the best questions.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Then you got to ask these people think.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
So, you know, would somebody think that it's not like
I'm out here stunting. I'm like, listen, I take the
train like I'm a regular guy. Like it's not like
I think if people it's not like I'm fronting like
I'm out here, front like I got a hundred millions,
and you heard something.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
The first thing that people say is, well, why did
they come back?
Speaker 2 (55:44):
You know, especially when I never got a chance.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
But last time you said, he was like, I don't
want to because.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
I was in the legislator. I was in the legislator. No, no, no,
But I'm still the whole I got. I got the
I got the Polo crest On, but I still got
You know what I mean by on the tray?
Speaker 1 (56:02):
Shut up?
Speaker 2 (56:03):
It's the breakfast club.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Good morning.
Speaker 4 (56:05):
Hold up, every day I wake click your glass up,
the breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
You're finished for y'all done. I
Every day, wake up the Breakfast Club, finish for y'all.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Done morning.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Everybody is d j Envy, Charlamagne the gud. We are
the breakfast Club. I want to that warning. Everybody is
d j Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We are
the breakfast Club. Law La roses here as well, and
we got a special guest in the building. We have Sean.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome brother, Good morning, good morning. How you feeling.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I am cold, cold man.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
No, I am Beliez. And this is why when I
was here the last time, I was talking about how
much Belieze is paradise. And this really underpins why I
believe it is paradise. Where you care from Sean?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Did you forget them cold Brooklyn days and nights and
waiting for the bus and taking the dollar?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
This is this is beyond brick. Nothing. Nothing existed when
I was in Brooklyn at this level.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
E've never been seven degrees shot.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You went to school in snow we're now if it
is canceled.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
School snowing, But I don't remember it being this brick.
Oh maybe you know there's a lot of traumas I've
you know, buried some of those memories but I don't
remember being this call.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well let's start off with saying congratulations. You're about to
celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of the Shine album, and
you also have the twenty fifth anniversary world tour, with
New York being the first stop.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
That's right, that's right. The Shine album came out September
twenty six, two thousand, so we're in the year of
the celebration. It was this September twenty sixth that passed, right.
But I was working out my work status here because
(01:49):
the last time I was here, I was here as
the leader of the opposition, if I recalled. So I
was here as a diplomat. But then I had to transition,
you know, a workers. I wasn't able to come earlier
to start the tour, but you know, we started all
of that out and yeah, so now we're gonna perform
and celebrate the album, you know, which was a very
(02:13):
special album to me, very special album to a lot
of people throughout the United States and throughout the world.
You know. I was at the the Africa Awards in
Los Angeles over the weekend, so African American Film Critics Award,
and so Ryan Coogler, who Obviously everybody knows who that is.
(02:35):
Broke the records for most Oscar nominations for Sinners, so
he was getting a bunch of awards, and so when
I saw him, he was like, Yo, you know, we
grew up to your music and he's from Oakland. But
that just shows you the impact that the Shine album had.
And I never got a chance to really, you know,
(02:56):
even appreciate my career because the album came out September
twenty six, two thousand and by March I was in captivity,
so like five months.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And you know that's I would love you to discuss, right,
So of course that album came out and it was
a huge album, right. You had Bad Boys, This Gangster Body,
and Shine. Those were the singles off that album.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Then you had songs like the Commission. You had songs
like N word going. I would kind of change that chorus,
but like Pharrell made that record, that's like one of
my favorite records. When you hear me perform that at
Kingstadar on May second, it's gonna be a movie. But
records on the album.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
My question is you you were huge back then, right,
and you got it locked up.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
You talked about it last.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Time you heard the amount of time you spent and
when you came out, you changed a lot.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, you talked about your change, and you know, you
go to Jerusalem and you're reading the taur Rah and
then you're getting into politics, right, and then you became
the total opposite.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
In my opinion.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And you know of who you were as a young man, right,
at one time you were talking gangster ish and shooting
and blowing people's heads off. And you talk about stories
of you carrying guns, and I've heard stories about you
and the bad Boys office carrying guns and pulling out
all types of nines and blocks and all types of stuff, right,
and you can't you changed totally change.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
You became.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
A gentleman that was speaking positivity, trying to instead of
promote crime, you were against it. You were talking community,
trying to get kids off the streets. But the lyrics
back then twenty five years ago was still the lyrics
twenty five years ago. So as shine to change, gentlemen,
how do you perform those records?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think you got to listen to those lyrics. If
you listen to the America, I'm only what you made me, young,
black crazy, Please save me. I'm dying inside. Can't you
see it in my eyes? Maybe if you would teach
me how to do a craft trade, I come off
(05:01):
the corner, stop serving at yay, build schools instead of prison.
I stop living the way that I'm living. That's that's poetry.
That's me crying out for help. That applies today to
the NBA Young Boys the same way it applied to
Shine back. Then if you listen to you know what
you're gonna do when it hit the fan. That's integrity,
(05:25):
that's character. That's me talking about. You know, I'm telling
my life story and saying that I abide by certain
codes and I get my friends in trouble, and you know,
being honest to who I am and trying to survive
these streets. I don't think my album or my raps
I would say. I know, We're never Quentin Tarantino or
(05:52):
you know, violent rap. I was talking about my life.
I was giving you a dissertation as to what I
was going through. And if you listen carefully enough, I
was always saying this is not what I want to do.
I would like to escape this. But when you talk
about the performance, people like Ryan Coogler and other people,
(06:17):
regular people grew up to my music, and so it's
a celebration of that. You know, maybe when I'm performing,
there might be a few words that, you know, I'll
let the audience say and I wouldn't say. But it's
a celebration of the music, of the evolution and art
is not to be condemned, right, But it's definitely not
(06:38):
as much as what you're saying. If you listen to
those those lyrics, it's really telling the story of you know,
eighteen year old, nineteen year old that's trying to navigate
the muddy waters of you know, what the system created.
That's how I remember. And if you go lyric for lyrics,
you'll find a lot of you know, please help me.
(06:58):
This is not what I really want to do, but
this is what I'm doing. I gotta defend myself, you know,
I gotta protect myself. That that was the energy that
I was given.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And I'm not I'm not judging. Don't think I'm judging
you because I grew up to this music. I played
his music, I DJ his music. But it's always interesting
when when I have somebody like yourself or even you know, Mace,
because Mace was probably one of the first one that
we seen do it where Mace's you know, talking, you know,
bullets hit off the car bling bling ding ding whatever.
And then when he comes out as a pastor and
then he comes back as a rapper, it's like, well,
(07:29):
can he do those lyrics right? And it's not a judge.
It's that when people see people change, they're for it.
They agree with it all right. I agree with the
change because some people don't have the balls to do it.
Some people don't have the haven't evolved to do it.
But then when they do it, it's like, that's a
good thing. I understand why he did it, where he's
going with it. But then when he goes back to
(07:50):
the rap and it's like, well how do you go
back and forth? And I'm like when I hear rappers like,
you know, fuck y'all niggas, hope you die slow death
as I coke tested the Lord's protests, can't fuck with
you week rap niggas with your gay ass raps running
around talking this and that, I'm like, how does shine
do that? You know what I mean? But then on
the other side of like please to my friends that
(08:10):
believe you know, I'm trying to get the kids like
I just and I'm not judging.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I'm just out here, but I think I think creativity.
We were talking about that in the green room. Creativity
is not as simple as you know you just read it.
That's a that's a poem. That's a work of art
that people love, and this is a celebration of that.
(08:35):
And even in my evolved state, I still help artists
and believe and I still support artists, you know, whether
it's Offset or Quavo, Push your Tea or all these
young kids that I see and I run into them
and we talk and I inspire them. I'm not here
to tell them, you know, well you shouldn't rap like
(08:55):
this or you should rap like that. So, you know,
my creative expressions should be studied in Harvard, should be
in the museum, then shrining in history. So it's not
something that I'm ashamed of. That was a young shine,
That's how he felt, that's what he was going through,
and he expressed himself. And so celebrating that expression. This
is not for you know, a twelve year old kid
(09:17):
or a thirteen year old kid to come to my concert.
You know, these are adults that are going to be
in the room celebrating that body of work. Now now,
now if you're asking me about my new album, that's
not what I'm going to be saying. I would hope not'ing,
but but I think I think I think it would
be it would be very unfair to deprive uh, you
(09:41):
know people that loved that body of work, correct from
that celebration. And as I said, there's a way for
me to do it, right, I don't. I don't. I
don't necessarily need to. You know, there's there's crowd participation, right,
so I could you know who want.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
To you know what I mean, what type of what
type of brothers in the street?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I thank you, thank you? Lrden.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I mean MV has a point though, I mean, but
I think you probably got a lot of this even
before this tour when you I mean just as a politician.
Now with people.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Performed, since we've seen them. So the great thing is
to wait and see what is Sean gonna do? Is
he going to say this the album we saw you
in a suit?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Can't come?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Can I hold on? Hold on? Hold on, my good brother,
hold on? Who did it? Who's the first one to
do it? With the fitted fitted going in the court
with the Gucci suit with the time come on, come on,
come on, envy right and look at look at look
at my brother again. Jeez, I just saw jiz at
(10:59):
ar Basle. But GZ performs his residency right now and right.
This is hip hop. There's no there's no one way
to be hip hop. And then, you know, I appreciate
the question, but I go back to you with the
dexterity and the color of hip hop. Hip hop has
(11:19):
always been so multifaceted and multi layered. Where Jay Z
would be wearing you know, his best suit in corporate America,
but then still be talking about, you know, all the
drugs that he was trafficking. Right, it was like, oh, well,
you can't be in corporate America with the Doug Morrises
(11:40):
and the Sylvia Roons and you know whoever else and
talk about drug trafficking. No, hip hop always breaks the
rules because hip hop is an expression of art and
there's no right or wrong way to do art. And
so the twenty fourth anniversary towards a celebration of that art,
and there'll be a way to do that. To be
honest to who I am today.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
What changed your mind? I think last time you were
up here, you were like, you weren't thinking about performing,
and you said, the only time that you think you
would perform is if it was like a Grammys or
a BT and they were showing you love, and that
you weren't interested in performing. What changed your mind?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I mean, twenty five years is as a milestone. People
don't really get to celebrate a twenty fifth anniversary and
still be relevant twenty five years later. And also I'm
no longer in the House of Representatives, so my focus
shifted somewhat. I'm still focused on becoming the next Prime
(12:39):
Minister of believe. At some point I had a twenty
thirty agenda and some way ahead a schedule on that.
I still focus on helping the people in Mesopotamia, which
is a constituency I used to represent. But when I
lost my seat, you know, I had a few things
that I'd been delaying due to being an legislator. So
(13:02):
now I'm involved in real estate development for tourism and belieze.
I get to finish my memoir, God bless you. I
have film projects to do, like I have a lot
to do that I couldn't do because I was in
the legislator and I'm one of those people that's singular
obsessed with whatever it is I am doing. And I
(13:25):
just didn't feel comfortable focusing much on the creative as
I did when I was in the legislator. Now I'm not,
so I have a couple of years before the next
election to do this. And this is not random. It's
my twenty fifth anniversary. I'm not gonna be able to
celebrate my twenty fifth anniversary ever again. So it's a
great way to celebrate twenty five years upshine the first
(13:49):
album and to create new music.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And I think it's dope because I mean, I'm from
New York, so I remember the impact that record had
on New York. Yeah, but I also feel a little
bad for you as well, right, And I say that
is when that album came out, I don't think you
ever got a chance to enjoy it because at that
same time, you were on court and you never got
a chance to go to it because you went you
got locked up, So you never got a chance to
(14:13):
enjoy the fruits of your labor during that time.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
October November, December, pick jewelry, January, ready for trial February,
convicted March sixteenth. So I think not just me, but
the people that love the music never got the chance
to celebrate it. So this is really a celebration, you know,
(14:37):
and we're gonna bring some special guests to help me celebrate.
From the hip hop world, from the dancehall world. It's
gonna be incredible.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
So what do you say to people?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Last question on it?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
What do you say to people that say, shy? Is
this about the money?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Money? No, that's that's irrelevant. That's not a don't you
don't take these steps in life just to get a check.
I've been good. I spent millions of dollars in believe
in politics, and that's how I became the leader of
(15:15):
the opposition. Inconsequential, you know, you just gotta do things,
which is in line with what I had said to you.
It would have to be something special, and so this
is specially The twenty fourth anniversary is special. The albums
that I'm gonna come out with are attached. I think
if you go back to that interview, I mentioned it
(15:37):
that I would do albums that were attached to the
film projects. So I never put out the album for
the Honorable Shine documentary. So that's going to be a
specially curated album. Then I have the TV series, the
Bio TV series about my life that's another album. Then
(15:57):
we have the motion picture that's the final album. And
then I would by that time be ready for the elections.
So you know, what should I do? Should I just
sit around for three years and not do anything? Like
what you mentioned? Is the furthest thing from my mind.
It's just how do I spend my time? And what
(16:18):
have I been neglecting? What have I not been doing
that I could do? You know, when you think about
all that I've been through politically, been through a lot.
I'm writing a book on that. You know. There was
a coup in my party. You know, they try to
overthrow throw me. They broke all types of laws. I
had to take them to court like it was. That
(16:41):
was a movie within itself, and so I lost my
seat because I took all that I had and gave
it to my colleagues, because I was a leader, so
I had, I took, and I took what I thought
was enough for myself. But I made sure because in
Belize parliamentary system of governance, you can't become prime minister
(17:05):
unless you have a majority of the seats in the
House of Representatives and as the leader, you're responsible for
getting everyone to sixteen. So we need sixteen seats. So
I made a promise. I'm their leader. We're in the battlefield.
It's bad, we're all about to go down, but I'm
not gonna you know, turn around and be like all right,
(17:25):
well let's get in the tank and you know they
gonna figure it out. I made sure everybody had tanks
and I made sure everyone was good. So that was
a lot. So now as I catch my breath and
I think about, you know, what to do next, I'm
grateful for my own sanity and for you know, my
emotional stability, spirituality, that I have something to do, which
(17:51):
is incredible. To be able to celebrate my twenty fifth anniversary,
to make new projects, to being you know, to be
able to go to California and go to doctor Dre's
house and and you know, to go in the studio
and for him to play beats for me. That's that's
a blessing. That's a miracle. Like a lot of people
(18:12):
can't go to California and get in front of Dreg.
So yeah, So so like that's where I'm at with
with with my art and what I'm doing now in
life and as I said, the the projects to the
real estate projects, you know, being able to work with
somebody like Don Pooh, you know, Robert Cummins, you know
Brooklyn chophouse, to open a Brooklyn chophouse and believe with
(18:35):
a resort, uh you know like so, so I have
a lot of blessings, very fortunate, and I never shied
away from who I was as an entertainer. I reject
the idea that, oh well, if you're an entertainer, just
being entertainer, just being be an athlete, you know, you
(18:55):
shouldn't be involved in politics. I'm not going to get
involved in American politics. That's y'all. That's y'all's problem or
or or whatever it is. But I just believe that
hip hop is so diverse and we could do anything.
You know, we were or are fashion designers, you know,
(19:17):
movie producers, restaurant tears, hoteliers like that's just that's always
been a hip hop.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So speaking of our problem, or do you ask citizenship
in the US or is that you ain't even right
about it?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
No more. I'm I'm a one worker, so shordinary ability worker.
So I have visa as an one stordinary ability worker,
so I could live and work in the United States.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Oh okay, okay. And then when you a couple of months
ago tease the show you're for your twenty fifth anniversary,
you get it at a world to us.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So are we getting as Yeah, yeah, yeah we You know,
Brooklyn is special, so we start there and then we're
going to announce the rest of the days, all right,
yeah yeah, And you know, incredibly Kingstadre I grew up
blocks away, literally five blocks away from Kings Theatre when
we first came to Brooklyn. When we first immigrated to Brooklyn,
(20:13):
we immigrated the Church Avenue in East eighteenth Street, which
is like up the street from kingstad So you know,
I had other offers, live nation, different people, but King
Stadar is special, so it's going to be real special.
And this is what I'm saying for me, you know
when you ask the question, like that's the furthest thing, Like,
(20:36):
you know, I'm in an elevated place, made money of
trying to keep you know, my mind, my spirit, my focus,
and these things are blessings. To go from not being
able to come to the United States for all those years.
Then I came as a diplomat, and I took my
diplomat responsibility serious, so I wasn't so definitely when you
(20:58):
were asking me about I'm focused on the legislature, right,
So I was on that. And then when I lost,
the government took away my diplomatic passport and didn't even
give me time to transition into my work visa, maybe
(21:19):
thinking that because of the climate, I wouldn't have been
able to get a visa. So even people were praying that,
you know, I just being believed in the drain somewhere
washed up. So to be able to return, you know,
as an old one extraordinary ability a visa worker, you know,
is a blessing. You know, it really is a blessing
(21:42):
to be able to return after all this time and
to celebrate with people who love shine and love the
Shine legacy.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
There's so much conversation right now around like immigration and
all these things for people who don't understand, like the
visa process when you're a diplomat, and would they require
of you, like how all that works.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I just break it down a bit.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well that's a bit different than the one visa, So
a diplomatic visa, it's still not guaranteed. Uh, The Homeland
Security and Department of State, and the President was the
ultimate boss. They can, you know, revoke anyone's visa. They
can deny anyone's visa. Not because you're a diplomat. They'll
(22:23):
give you a visa. You know, if you're a diplomat
that's involved in corruption and you know you're a threat
to national security of the United States. I know, I
know people in government right now in Belize and in
other countries who can't come to the States even though
they are a diplomat. So that in itself was a
great thing for me because obviously, you know, the United
(22:46):
States looked at me as a legitimate partner that they
had confidence in. So that was great, but it's never guaranteed.
So now as a worker again, it shows that all
that I've done throughout the last you know, twenty something years,
(23:08):
twenty seven years since I was incarcerated, sixteen years i
was deported, the rehabilitation, transformation, contributions to my community and
believes and the contributions here in the States, you know,
the partnerships that I've developed with Democrats and Republicans when
I was here as a diplomat. You know, my good
(23:31):
friend Representative Ja Moore from South Carolina invited me to
the house in South Carolina and that's a Republican house,
and they, you know, recognized me in the house and
I met with you know, the speaker of the house
was a Republican, you know, the leader of the Republicans
down there, and I've developed relationships you know, with both
(23:54):
because I believe that's important for beliefs, and so all
these things play a part in when they're looking at,
you know, what you're coming here to do, because you know,
I don't, as I said, I don't want to get
into the politics of immigration, but I could understand that
(24:14):
there are concerns about what people are going to come
here and do. That's a valid concern.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
But you you were a convicted of convicted fellat here
in the States. Was it difficult to get your visa
back here? When it's not diplomatic because usually when people
are are convicted, even if it's a small crime, is
other places.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
This is what this is what I'm telling you. The
it's been a long process. So it's been uh sixteen
or seventeen years since I've been deported. So the way
the immigration laws work is, uh, there is a waiver process.
So this is not unique to Shine. Anyone that was
convicted unless it was murder or torture or you know,
(25:00):
terrorists activity, anyone can get a waiver, but it's discretionary.
And that's why I was explaining to you the way
I conducted myself when I was coming here. It's not
like I was coming here and I was taking advantage
of taking the opportunity for granted. I built relationships. You know,
I gave speeches, you know, promoting belize us relations and
(25:25):
you know, I was a positive role model and I
continue to be a positive role model even after I
lost my seat. Uh you know, but so so I
made I made the case and I am an extraordinary
ability worker. You know, I was nominated for Grammys, I
won Grammy, you know, sold over forty million records and
(25:46):
I'm still relevant. I put out a number one documentary
with Walt Disney. You know, I got you know, distribution
deals with you know, the major record labels. Right, So yeah,
it's it's a little bit different, right, But you know,
to the person that's there that made a mistake, never
give up. And you know, you live your life and
(26:08):
you rebuild yourself, you rehabilitate and you know there is
a waiver, right and you just have to have faith.
And for those that have an opportunity to be here,
you know, don't take it for granted because there are
a lot of people that were like this opportunity.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
What would you say to people and I've seen you
talk about, you know, your relationship or lack they're of
with Diddy, But what would you say to people who
feel like you're finally getting kind of like, I mean,
the support that a lot of people didn't give you
back when the child was happening because Diddy was like
the mega superstar. But now people see him in a
different light, so people are more kind of open to
(26:43):
hearing anything that doesn't make him like this big, mega
perfect person.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Well, didd he's not really interrelated with anything that I'm
doing right now. I think that I've been able to
build my legacy and I've always had the support of
the hip hop community. There was a point where, like
(27:09):
the hip hop community, you remember, they kind of hated
Diddy when I went away and they didn't want anything
to do with him. But you know, being the Charlottan,
the very convincing person that he is, he knows how
to get everybody you know back in line. But I've
always had support, you know, throughout my incarceration. You know,
(27:32):
jay Z was coming to Rikers Island on the mayback,
you know when IRV God he God bless his soul,
was at the height of his power and murder inc
they all came up there to try to sign me Nash.
You know doctor Dre. I was just talking, uh to
my guy Monie Helly, who was managing Keisha, Cole and
(27:55):
Future and a bunch of you know, superstars. But yeah,
so he when he first discovered Keisha, it was between
him and Doctor Dre because Doctor Dre had this new
kid called the Game, and they wanted a verse from
(28:15):
Shine and Manny, who I came up with Off flat Bush,
my guy we started in the cradle. He wanted the
record for his artists, but everybody wanted to Shine record,
but it only could be one, and I gave it
to Manny because of our brotherhood. So I wouldn't say that.
(28:36):
You know, people people always embrace Shine. And when I
came out, remember I did, I did. I did a
deal while I was away went number one again despite
remember and and you know I did the I don't
know if Double XL people remember Double XL the death
before the sign and cover and the most hip hop
most wanted cover, and I was always telling people who
(28:59):
did he But the irony, I guess, is just that, well,
now you know every everything had everything, well everything has
collapsed and every and the curtain has been removed, and
now it's like it's, you know, irrefutable for most people
everything that I said back then, But then for me,
(29:20):
it's like I'm gone. It's like you know Parrel and
the clips, you know, respect to them on that great
album where you know that record where he says, I'm
so I'm so far gone, like I'm you know, as
soon as they wanted, I don't want it no more.
I'm somewhere else. So it's like for me, I'm not
I'm not there.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I don't want to say glad right, well, are you
glad God sat you down when he did, seeing that
everything that happened out of it, because you know, when
it happened, I know you probably was f the world.
But now when you see all less, you think to yourself, damn,
I could have been maybe not part of it, but
in the mix of it.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Well, I definitely wasn't going to be a part of
this part of.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
It, I said, and he makes it, you know, I mean,
you ever look back up like damn. Maybe that was
the reason why I sat down.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
I mean, you know, it's tough, man. You know, all
the pain that my mom been through. I wouldn't wish
incarceration on anybody. I don't wish that on Diddy. You know,
I pray for him, but I don't want to take
away from from the victims in his case and the
justice that they want. But it's not something that you know,
I would ever wish on my worst enemy. So I definitely,
(30:29):
I'm just grateful to have been able to endure what
God had planned for me the journey and I made
I made choices. I made a choice to defend myself,
and that came with consequences. So I hope that I
could be a deterrent to young people out there and
to people out there in general, think before you make
a choice, or they're going to be consequences. I chose
(30:51):
to defend myself. I don't shy away from that. The
one of the people that were injured, she came forward
in twenty twenty four, said, oh explicitly it was Diddy
that shot her, not Shine. If she would have said
that in two thousand and one, I would have probably
beat my case and and you know they would have
accepted my defense claim. But no, I could never say
(31:15):
that I'm glad that the difficult, painful things happened to me,
but I am I'm grateful that I was able to
endure those difficulties because endurance is what leads to greatness.
So anybody that's listening right now, and so many of
us are going through things at the Oscar level, at
(31:36):
the janitor level, at the intern level, whatever you're going through,
if you can just endure, if you can just have
to stammina to keep going, the greatness is at the
end of that journey.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That was rumored that they asked you to be part
of the Diddy doc.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
You know, I saw I saw Alex that directed the film.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's her name.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Yeah, yeah, I know it was Alex because I heard
Remember I hit you and I'm like, hey, what happened?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
And I told you I'm coming out with a new album,
and you ain't say that. Listen. She wanted to scoop right,
So I'm like, listen, you know I'm coming out with
a new album, new to all that I'm thinking she
gonna go back. Well, Lissa Sean said he working on
a new album, but he gonna, you know, pop up
on the stret I wanted you to say that.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
I thought you were saying that like when the time
is right.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I didn't know you wanted me to.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
I thought, you know, you gotta.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Be specific with me. You got didn't reach out, but.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
She said she did. But I tell you that, I
tell you honestly, I'm so focused on me and believe
and all the great things that are before me. Uh,
if you look at it, when the things started happening
to Diddy, I was never talking to the American media.
There's this degenerate journalist and believe I won't mention his
(33:02):
name and give him any spotlight, but he's the one
that was working for my ops in my political party,
trying to tear me down, and so he would always
come with these gotcha questions and want to incite and
want to, you know, paint me like I had. I
was incarcerated, I was deported. I had nothing to do
(33:22):
with with this. You know, this guy already ruined my life.
You're trying to ruin my life again. I had nothing
to do with that, and so I would have to
as an elected official, I would have to answer those questions.
But I never jumped into the situation. When it came
to the American media, so I would get, you know,
expressions of interest from NBC, ABC, CNN, TMZ, Wall Street Journal, everybody,
(33:49):
and I would decline because I just wasn't interested in
participating in that. So Alex says she did reach out
to me. She probably did, but I saw her congratulations her.
She was nomine for a Director's Guild Award over the weekend,
so I saw at the DJA ceremony congratulations to her.
I didn't see the documentary, but I heard that its great,
(34:14):
as powerful as this award winning worthy. I you know,
they I heard I was in the documentary even though
I didn't speak. But obviously they told the truth about
what I've been saying, so nothing that I'm saying is
different than what I've said before. But I didn't watch
it because I I just that's my trauma. So so
(34:40):
without getting into what he did to Cassie and what
he did to all the other people that have accused him,
and I see that like, there's some people are saying, oh, well,
you know, well Cassie, Cassie wanted it all. Yeah, she
that's what she signed up for. You know, we all
can't be wrong, right, So it's like, I know what
(35:03):
he did to me as far as sending me to prison.
He was one of the most powerful people in the world,
and he used his money and his power to make
sure that witnesses lied. People went in there not to
say listen, Sean was defending did he because we I
owned up to having the weapon. There was no dispute
(35:26):
to that, but it was a matter of self defense,
and he had the power to make sure that if
people went in there, they told the truth, and Sean
was defending all of us. He didn't do that. He
said listen, somebody gotta go down. And he wasn't a gentleman.
He didn't say listen, listen, cop out, or this is
(35:47):
how we're gonna do it. I'm gonna make sure family
good for life. You're good for life, but we need
you to take this hit. No, he was like, you're
gonna take the hit because the DA was offered me
thirteen years so I couldn't even get a reasonable plea
and then I think the judge offered me like seven years.
But I say all that to say what he did
(36:09):
to me, I would never do to another human being.
Worst thing in the world to send somebody to prison,
So I could imagine all these other things that people
are saying. But his celebrity is so loud, was so loud,
and you could still see it creeping in sometimes because
you see people come out and start attacking the victims.
(36:30):
It was the same thing that kind of happened to me,
where after a certain point people are like, shut up,
we don't want to hear about that. You know, let's party,
let's drink some rock. So I don't want to. I
don't want to. I don't even want to talk about that.
But but but I respect my responsibility to you, to
the audience, to you know, when you text me, I
told you when I come up here, you can ask
(36:52):
me what.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
And that's why I didn't mention anything, because I felt
like it was unfair to bring you into that conversation
because we're reported on dating his documentary and it's like, oh,
will shine in new music. So when you said you
were willing to come and talk, I was like, all right,
I make sure it happens so that you can have
your own conversation about Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
Good, I like, like, I do.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Have one more question. You want to kind of move
past that stuff. But I know when you dropped the
honorable Shine documentary, did his team has sent you that
he's in decision trying to stop it? Right?
Speaker 2 (37:19):
They said that the Disney ain't no better than to
send me foolishness like that. But yeah, you know, congratulations
to my god Jason Adu over there at Disney and Scape.
He was he got the Vanguard Award at the Africa ceremony. Yeah,
you know, the documentary was great, number one, one of
(37:41):
one of the most successful documentaries that Disney ever put out.
And I told my story. I didn't tell the Diddy story,
you know. Respect to Alex and and and to fifty,
you know, congratulations to them. That was the story that
that they told on behalf of the victims. And in
(38:02):
all fairness, I see a lot of people attacking fifty,
trying to bastardize the legitimate pain and suffering of those victims.
But without fifty, Alex might have had a hard time
with her project. And yes, the enemy of my enemy
(38:25):
is my friend. But you know, they did the same
thing to me. Everybody was like, yo, shut up, you know,
let's drink the rock, right, Even people that respected me
and loved me, they was like, damn, Seane, you putting me,
you know, like, Yo, Diddy's the man, he's Michael Jackson,
Like what you want us to do? Right? So I
(38:47):
feel the pain of the victims, Cassie in particular, and
everyone that went through what they went through. But I
didn't want to tell the Diddy story. So that's the
beautiful thing about my documentary, the documentary The Honorable Shine.
If you haven't seen it, go see it on Hulu.
That's the Shine story. And he just happens to be
(39:10):
a footnote in that because that's a part of the story.
And Disney will tell you. I let them do what
they're supposed to do, because documentaries are supposed to have
the utmost integrity, and I'm not supposed to be in
there saying, oh, I want this out, I want that in.
And I was busy with the legislator, so I made
myself available. I opened up as much as I could
(39:30):
and provided my family, and I didn't see it until
it was done. Saw it twice so that's why I said,
so if I only saw my own documentary twice, I'm
definitely not watching the Diddy documentary to traumatize myself. There's
nothing I could gain from that. Everything that anybody could
say I know to be a fact, right, even if
(39:51):
it's not a fact, I know, I know the potential
and the same way nobody wanted to believe me, I'm
not going to be that person and disbelieve those things.
I'm going to give them the benefit of that. I'm
sorry because he did it to me. So I'm not hating.
I don't want him to be in a position he's in,
but I know what he's capable of. I think when
I was in Atlanta, I did an interview with my
(40:13):
guy Tigger, and I said, and I repeat it, I
pray that did he rehabilitates, that he reforms. He should
Maybe he should be glad that God sat him down
because maybe he was on the verge of odin on
those drugs and whatever else it is that he's doing.
(40:35):
So maybe this is a blessing for him that he
didn't get that rico because if you look because if
you look at the charges, there was a case there
for Rico. So he's very blessed. But I just hope
that he he is able to because I reform, I rehabilitate,
even though I was defending myself, but there was a
(40:57):
lot going on as young he and I had to
make sure that I never put myself on my family
in that position again. And so to this day, you know,
it's not uh tried by twelve or carried by six.
I just let the Lord take me because I'm not
you know, I'm not gonna do that to my family,
not gonna do that to my daughter. And so my
(41:18):
whole mind, my whole everything has changed. I just bring
so much positivity and great energy to the planet, and
that's what I pray for him. So it's not that
I'm condemning him that I wish he got de Rico.
I wish he does his entire time. I just hope
that when he returns to the streets, that you know,
he can return with a genuine transformation and dedicate the
(41:41):
rest of his life, you know, to making people's lives
better and and to healing and you know, making a
positive contribution.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
What's one thing that's misunderstood about Sean?
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I think the most difficult thing for me, I I
would say is in Belieze, not necessarily here in the States.
I think here in the States, I started off kind
of as the Diddy protege, but then I was able
to break through that uh you know, with the with
(42:17):
the number one album while I was incarcerated and becoming
a larger than life figure and then going to Belize
and getting elected to the House and doing things that
are just unprecedented for hip hop. No person, no rapper
now R and B has ever made it to the
House of Representatives, and definitely not the leader of the
(42:39):
opposition in the House of Representatives. But my I think
the one thing I would focus on is in Belize,
you know, which is all being taken care of now
by the grace of God. But my political enemies used
to say that, oh, I'm a deep Orte. I'm a
criminal forgetting the Grammys, forgetting that. You know, I wrote
(43:00):
and produced and published over forty million albums with Usher,
with Lil Wayne, Notorious, Big Puff, Daddy Mace. But they
would just equate me to a deep Portea criminal. And
I'll never forget. When I first signed my record deal
in nineteen ninety eight, I bought my platinum Rolex. I
(43:22):
bought a big chain diamond plate and I got on
the plane to go to Belize. Believes was always a
part of me, Like my mom still speaks believes and
she can't even speak a proper sentence of English, where
like we love believes so much. I used to go
to Belize every summer. So it hurt me if any
and I'm like a duck, you know, water it usually
(43:44):
just flows off my back. But if one thing so
misunderstood and hurt was when people would try to deny
me my patriotism and my love for my country, and
then my integrity because it's like I'm shine, like I
sat and for ten years because of character and integrity.
I'm not that guy. I'm not that guy at fronts
(44:06):
that says one thing and does the other thing. Like
I didn't do that for Diddy because he was he
was trying to crush me. I did that for me
and for what I believe in and for the people
that believed in me. So yeah, that's the one thing
that was misunderstood that I was only in believed because
I was deep deported and I had to be and believed.
I didn't want to be in beliezing. So I got
(44:27):
involved in politics so I could get back to America
and and and watch watch when you get back to America,
you're not gonna come back. So the best thing, that's
why I say, God is so great, So the best
thing is going back. So I come here for a
couple of weeks and I worked, and I can't turn back.
(44:47):
It's not even turning on me. It just feels good
to to prove people wrong. And for the people that
believed in me, because a lot of people that believe
in me and believes and to vindicate them for them
to feel good. And then becoming the prime minister of
a country, you know, the current prime minister of Belize
(45:08):
as much as him and I, you know, I used
to used to be me. I used to go against
his whole team's twenty six of them. Sometimes it's one
of me and the House of Representatives. I shut it down.
The Speaker of the House got to close down the
House of Representative. They throw me out. But I have
a lot of respect for him because he's been there
for thirty years. He's you know, I think maybe late fifties,
(45:31):
early sixties, and so he was a ararepresentative he was
a deputy prime minister and then he became the Prime minister.
And that's what I talk about, endurance and stamina. And
then he got his time. People criticize and people say
he's not the best this, he's not the best at
(45:51):
but he got his time. I'm gonna get my time.
But I got to go through my journey. So part
of my journey is building the relationship with the people
of beliefs. So I got to go through the hits.
Oh he's a deport Oh he's a criminal. Oh he
don't love believes Oh he only there prove him wrong.
So then those same people are going to be like, yeah,
(46:11):
all right, and continue to have the conversation about policy,
about education, How we can you know, provide you know,
student student loans, we don't even have student loans, and beliefs,
you know, how we could develop the economy, how we
could develop you know, the tourism industry. I think the
Tourism Minister is one of the best tourism ministers that
(46:32):
we've ever had. And he's on the other side of
the political divide. We're opponents, but so so that's the
one thing. But it's a good thing because I get
to prove people wrong, and I get to build relationships
with people because I don't hold grudges. I'm not malicious, right,
So so now people could see so we could get
(46:53):
past that and we could get to policy. And that's
how I become the Prime Minister one day, because now
I would have shown them everything, all that they said
about me, I would have disproved, and I could come
to them with a genuine plan to change their lives
and improve things and beliefs, which is what do you
feel like?
Speaker 3 (47:12):
They maybe felt like that at that time because you
didn't pop as an artist over there and belieze, but
you came in, you know, you hanging with the New Yorkers,
and I.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
Think politics, I think politics had a lot to do
with it. You know, my father was the Prime Minister
of beliefs. But my father and I couldn't be more different.
We don't agree on most policies, and he wasn't involved
in my life. He had nothing to do with me
selling over forty million records my mom and I'm my
(47:44):
mother's son. Respect to him, you know, him and I
we have a cordial relationship. There's no ill will. But
I took a lot of hits and believes because of him, right,
And I never got anything from him. You know, he
has another son who has benefited tremendously from you know,
(48:08):
him being prime minister, but that wasn't me. Are you
close with your brother, are you no?
Speaker 4 (48:13):
No?
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Yeah, those are his children, my mother's only son. But
I'm just saying so, I think a lot of it
had to do with you know, him being prime minister
for thirteen years, benefits that came to you know, his
son and other people, and so they took that out
on me. And I didn't get nothing. When I say nothing,
(48:34):
not ten right, even going to the House of Representatives.
He had nothing to do with that. As far as
planning that or saying to me, son, I think you
should follow on my footsteps. I decided to do that.
I decided to return to Believe and offer myself to service,
and I put my money into that. Open the resource center.
(48:57):
You know, when my friends would come to Belieze with
professors or entrepreneurs, have them speak to the people in Mesopotamia.
But don't get me wrong, I don't want to be ungrateful.
There were people, the same people that ended up overthrowing me,
that felt a deportee and a criminal should not be
(49:17):
involved in politics, right, So on that end, as the
leader of the party, you know, he and others were like, nah,
that's that's crazy, Like, you know, he didn't do anything,
and believe that was an American and we all know
that he took the fall, but I think he should
have did that for anybody that you know was in
(49:38):
that situation. We have a person right now that was
a former leader of the party that just got arrested
and he's a senator. He got arrested for assaulting the police.
He got arrested for assaulting a woman with a hammer.
He did all types of things and everybody was okay
with that. So I'm saying that wasn't like a father
son thing. I think that was just the right thing
to do. But I take a lot of heat for
(50:03):
you know, the prime minister serving thirteen years, got no benefits,
not that he should have given me anything, but a
lot of people claim he gave his other son everything.
But that's okay, right, but.
Speaker 3 (50:16):
That you looking for his validation and turn into war politics.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
You know, as a child, you always wanted your father. Yeah,
and then when I became successful, as you know, my
first album, million records. So even before I went in
most famous believing ever, most successful commercial belising ever, then
you know, yeah, everybody recognized. And even like I said,
(50:42):
I don't want to throw him under the bus. We
have policy differences, we agree to disagree. It's an agreeable relationship.
But I'm I'm past that right I'm at a place
where you know, my daughter is my life, Believe is
my life, helping believeance, and I have everything at my
(51:03):
disposal to be able to do everything that I want
to do. So I don't you know, it's not about Diddy,
it's not about Pops, it's not about nobody. God has
given me all the tools, a great team, you know,
people like Stephen Victor, Stephen, Carlos, Don Pooh Manny, you
know Smithy for Seane. After all this, I think we
(51:27):
I think we passed redemption right now, it's like what
does what does? What does you know? This great future
of belize and you know, creating more art. It's celebration time.
That's why I really said the twenty fifth anniversary celebration time,
because we got past like all the other stuff and
(51:49):
now celebrate like you know, like I'm making it listen
like my brother. You know, the last thing I did
was watched the Super Bowl with Doctor Dre like quiet,
no pictures, no nothing. Do you know what? Do you
know what it is to be able to to come
(52:11):
to l A and be like, yo, I'm in your
City of Angels and pull up right and he got
some incredible beats, trust me, the Doctor agent timelessly. That's
a great place to be. Like, right, if I go
to Miami, I'm gonna go to Miami in a few weeks.
(52:32):
I'm gonna go see Khalid. You know, see my guy Russian.
I know, you know we're in New York. So all
the Caribbean they know who Russian is. Russian he got
that thing from my album ce J the Chemists, the
Caribbeans know who that is. That's that's that's Brooklyn. No, no, no,
that's that's Brooklyn. That's that's Brooklyn. That's my guy. He
(52:53):
just they just grabbed him Chronic Law and Armani and
you know, the Caribbeans know who that is. But anyway,
I'm just I'm in such a great place that all
the people that that I love and admire love and
admire me. And so I'm making an album from there,
like DJ Toons and the Starboy Collective, whizz Kid. When
(53:17):
I was when I when I was, you know, when
I was in la at Lennis respect to my good
brother Lennis. Those the best parties ever. So he had
a Grammy after party. I hear DJ Toons is at
the party. I go to the turntables like oh Yo, Shine,
(53:37):
like and and and the song he got right now
with Marvel and whiz Kid. That's my favorite song. And
we're working right there. He's sending me stuff. That's a
great place to be, right Like, I don't need nobody
to do nothing because everybody embraces shine and love shine
(53:58):
and they celebrate shine, and so we're celebrating so thank God. Right,
So so we look forward to using this to get
more people to come to Belize. Last time I was saying,
you said you come in, you still ain't reached.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
This year, I went to Dominica. But we're gonna get
out there. I'm gonna bring the family.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Be a politician this year.
Speaker 1 (54:19):
With Dominica, I had to go Dominica. That's where my
father is from, so I had to go here first.
But we're gonna make a stand.
Speaker 2 (54:24):
But that's never been a belize.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
I think I might have did something that long. I
love it, but I got to get back.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
But that's that's what's on the horizon man, to be
able to put these projects out and you know, everything
I do, I'm gonna always talk about believe and just
celebrating from a great space of positivity.
Speaker 4 (54:42):
It seems like in a good space.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Yeah, so May second, May second King Steady.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
King in Brooklyn, Shawn, we appreciate you for joining us
and thank you for answering.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
All the questions.
Speaker 1 (54:52):
All right, yes, question it's on the Just go to
king dot com. I'm sure they got a place. Is like, look,
I'm tired of ask about the Lauren. If you're gonna
d m me talk about my content, damn it, talk
about my damn it.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
We're talking about listen, not that not that you you
going back on tour for the money.
Speaker 1 (55:17):
Right, I ain't even know.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
He's had the best questions.
Speaker 1 (55:23):
Then you got to ask these people think.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
So, you know, would somebody think that it's not like
I'm out here stunting. I'm like, listen, I take the
train like I'm a regular guy. Like it's not like
I think if people it's not like I'm fronting like
I'm out here, front like I got a hundred millions,
and you heard something.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
The first thing that people say is, well, why did
they come back?
Speaker 2 (55:44):
You know, especially when I never got a chance.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
But last time you said, he was like, I don't
want to because.
Speaker 2 (55:48):
I was in the legislator. I was in the legislator. No, no, no,
But I'm still the whole I got. I got the
I got the Polo crest On, but I still got
You know what I mean by on the tray?
Speaker 1 (56:02):
Shut up?
Speaker 2 (56:03):
It's the breakfast club.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Good morning.
Speaker 4 (56:05):
Hold up, every day I wake click your glass up,
the breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (56:10):
You're finished for y'all done. I
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