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Editorial Reviews

Jamal "Shyne" Barrow was poised for rap stardom before a 1999 nightclub shooting incident sealed his fate and sent him upstate for ten years. But in an industry where going to the slammer only heightens your street cred, the former Sean "P. Diddy" Combs protégé signed a $3 million record contract and was given a second chance to live up to the hype he failed to justify on his 2000 self-titled debut. Not surprisingly, the Brooklyn MC -- whose sedated, husky flow has been compared to the Notorious B.I.G.'s -- knows how to spin masterful crime-pays rhymes, and there are a few magical moments when the sonics do the words justice. On the opener, "Quasi O.G.," a Bob Marley sample paces a loping beat and a jaded hustler outlook: "Black people don't own no ports or boats / So tell me how the f**k we getting all this coke?" Kanye West weaves a haunting, operatic vocal snippet and somber, canned drum kicks between Shyne's been-there-done-that survivalist gun talk on "More or Less," while on the menacing minimalism of "Godfather," he summarizes: "I don't rhyme / I just talk about life that's mine." Taken as a whole, however, Godfather Buried Alive finds Shyne shackled by his circumstance. Though he's lived the stuff from which rap legends are made, prison has a way of limiting one's options, not to mention beat selection. Much of the disc's 12 songs plod along with deflated funk touches and toothless bass lines, and on "For the Record," he literally phoned in a track full of pointed 50 Cent disses. Fans might be familiar with several songs, either from heavily circulated mix tapes or from previously released discs (the dated "Behind the Walls" with Nate Dogg and Kurupt, was included on the Oz soundtrack, and "Shyne," with Mashonda, can be found on the 2002 Swizz Beats compilation). Prison life may well provide Shyne with the angst and grist to make his next album a true epic, but in the meantime, Godfather Buried Alive captures an artist struggling to make the most of his current harsh reality. Brett Johnson, Barnes & Noble

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