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November 18th, 2010
03:58 PM ET
Bad boy rapper Shyne goes kosherEditor's Note: CNN's Kevin Flower files this report on CNN's Inside the Middle East Blog. It's late afternoon in Jerusalem and Moses Levi is making one of his frequent visits to the Western Wall. "They say this is where the presence of God is," Levi says as he ambles across the plaza of Judaism's holiest site, a mere stone's throw away from Islam's sacred al-Aqsa Mosque. "That's why you have Muslims here, Christians here, and obviously you have the Israelites here. When everybody disagrees about everything, they agree about one thing: that this is where they need to come to pray." Like many of the worshippers there, he is dressed in traditional garb – a silver-striped silk robe, black knee-length pants, a white knit skullcap, and specially knotted fringes dangling from the sides of his legs. In many ways, Levi is indistinguishable from the thousands of ultra-orthodox Jews who call Jerusalem home. The only hint of something unusual is the Kurt Cobain T-shirt he wears under the robe, the black Ray-Ban sunglasses, and the signs of recognition on the faces of tourists passing by. Levi is, in fact, far from your standard ultra-orthodox adherent to the Jewish faith. He was born in Belize as Jamaal Barrow, the out-of-wedlock son whose father is now the country's prime minister. At the age of seven, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, with his mother, and grew up in a hardscrabble urban setting. It was on the streets of Flatbush that Levi took up rhyming, eventually becoming the hard-core gangster rapper known as "Shyne." The up-and-coming hip-hop artist's career came to an abrupt halt after a 1999 New York City nightclub shooting incident also involving rap impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs and his then-girlfriend, actress and singer Jennifer Lopez. |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team. |
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this is the same guy that actually did the shooting in that jennifer lopez-sean combs thing a while back
Keep it real, Shyne! I love ur music!
Remnants in the Desert from over 3,000 years ago??? Not Possible. 3,000 years of sandstorms and 100+ degree heat and you will never find anything in a desert. But there is records in the hyroglyphics, and in rare coins of the Israel Museum.
The Book of Moses tells of a man with all his flaws and struggles, punishments, problems, never becoming king, and never entering the promised land due to being punished. If the story of Moses was NOT true, than he would have written all kinds of glorious things about himself, how perfect he was, that he became a king who conquered many nations, never was punished by G-d, entered the promised land– but he didn't- he wrote the truth, warts and all. That's how you know it's the truth.
@CNN
Where are the "good" stories?
@David Johnson
You don't need good stories, you need fundies! We get'em by the bucket-full when CNN posts a blog article on the main page.
Good stories, forsooth! 😯
So, if he has "gone kosher", how does he have to prepare his bacon and eggs? Just wondering.
What a waste of time. He should dedicate his life to something productive and tangible instead of fairytales, even if it means going back to music.
Did they say Shyne is the Prime Ministers son hum is Shyne black r Arab? He still the boy hate how Diddy did him tho.
I love the Kurt Cobain shirt he's wearing. Shyne is a joke and his music is pure garbage. He's been trying to claw his way back into relevancy for a couple months now. Ask 50 Cent how that turned out for Shyne.
But Shyne DID wreck 50 on the one track, "I'm a reunite you with ya moms"
Why give validity to this obvious publicity stunt. This is his publicist's exploitation of a religious tradition to grab a cheap headline. Why does the media always fall for this type of phoney "event" and worship these people who don't deserve to be worshipped. Are we really this superficial, naive, and insecure that we would really buy into this? No wonder the world thinks American culture is a sad joke. Peter Klika, Kapaau, Hawaii far from our celebrity crazed superficial culture. Aloha
let's see what he does.
Wonders will he ever confess that he took the fall for Sean Combs.
That's weird. Usually the inmates convert to Judaism for the freshest prison food. Guess he really liked it.
Bad boy rapper? Are you serious? Get out of here. Rhyming and acting rude, tough and inconsiderate make you a putz, not a saint.
Shock is the word! To think that Shyne is a Orthodox Jew I still have his Bad boy track on my Ipod. At the time he was jailed he had one of the best flows in the game. To see this story I think the hip-Hop world is stunned. Hip-Hop and judism are very strange bedfellows don't know if this will really make a dent in the hip-hop world.
Beastie boys?
Matisyahu? He's a Hasidic Jew and a Reggae singer. And, AWESOME. Anyway....rap isn't about the "gangsta life" its about expressing emotions, ideas and society. There are Muslim Rappers, Hindu Rappers, Buddhist Rappers.....I don't see anything strange in it....
Matisyahu IS awesome! They never play him on the radio here. He's not "mainstream" enough, I guess.
who is this guy?
And I should care about this WHY?
You tell us. You're the one who went to the trouble of not only reading the story but then commenting on it. The headline pretty much said it all and yet you clicked on it, read the story, then left a comment. Strange.
If only the Orthodox Jews and their rappers would evaluate the reality of their religion as have the 1.5 million Conservative Jews and their rabbis. A synopsis of the Conservative Jews' New Torah for Modern Minds:
"Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. The entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible probably never occurred. The same is true of the tumbling of the walls of Jericho. And David, far from being the fearless king who built Jerusalem into a mighty capital, was more likely a provincial leader whose reputation was later magnified to provide a rallying point for a fledgling nation.
The notion that the Bible is not literally true "is more or less settled and understood among most Conservative rabbis," observed David Wolpe, a rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and a contributor to "Etz Hayim." But some congregants, he said, "may not like the stark airing of it." Last Passover, in a sermon to 2,200 congregants at his synagogue, Rabbi Wolpe frankly said that "virtually every modern archaeologist" agrees "that the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way that it happened, if it happened at all." The rabbi offered what he called a "litany of disillusion" about the narrative, including contradictions, improbabilities, chronological lapses and the absence of corroborating evidence. In fact, he said, archaeologists digging in the Sinai have "found no trace of the tribes of Israel – not one shard of pottery."
yawn
I'm guessing you have an empty life...
Meh, @"Reality" is just a troll who frequents religious articles on CNN. Don't pay him much mind.
You don't believe in Santa Claus? I'm guessing you have an empty life.
Reality – Moses existed. The Exodus happened. There is solid archaeological evidence of it all. You are clueless.
Obviously, many of you believe that you have researched Jewish history and archeology to the same extent as the experts who wrote the New Torah for Modern Minds. For those who want to check for themselves, you can buy a copy of "Etz Hayim." from Amazon.com
@Shaman
You can so easily say that, but I would propose you share with us anything to back up your empty claims. And I mean empty as in science ( real archeology) has located nothing of the sort.
@Shaman
Reality is correct. Archeologists have looked long and hard. No evidence whatsoever that the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years. There were some slaves that exited Egypt, but they weren't Jews. There is evidence for these.
Sorry.
Cheers!
The Book of Moses tells of a man with all his flaws and struggles, punishments, problems, never becoming king, and never entering the promised land due to being punished. If the story of Moses was NOT true, than he would have written all kinds of glorious things about himself, how perfect he was, that he became a king who conquered many nations, never was punished by G-d, entered the promised land– but he didn't- he wrote the truth, warts and all. That's how you know it's the truth.
The Conservative (& Reform) movements are recent inventions of the 19th & 20th centuries. We Jews did well with observing Torah and Mitzvot for 3,300 years, often giving up our lives to uphold what was given to 3,000,000 men, women, and children on Mt. Sinai. Not to 1 "prophet" int he woods. An entire nation. Being G-dly means we BELIEVE what is written inside.
i cant stand that kid on the toyota highlander commercial.
??????!