In an effort to send a Belizean student to study in the United States, Shyne has established a brand-new scholarship that bears the name of his former label head, Diddy.
The rapper-turned-politician announced the Sean Diddy Combs Scholarship on Instagram on Wednesday, November 9.
“I am extremely happy to announce the SEAN DIDDY COMBS BELIZE FULL SCHOLARSHIP to HOWARD UNIVERSITY!” Shyne captioned a flyer promoting the scholarship. “Ensuring access to education for those young people who are financially challenged is the only way Belize will ever realize her full potential.”
“Education has always been extremely important to my dear brother @diddy and I thus in that vein I asked Diddy to make Belize a part of his philanthropic support for his alma mater Howard University so that at least one Belizean Student can get the benefit of attending one of the United States most prestigious HBC Universities,” he wrote. “I thank Diddy for always supporting my efforts to help Belize in every way possible.”
He continued by outlining the scholarship’s purpose and justification for being named after Diddy.
Finally the late ’90s, Shyne and Diddy have had a protracted and difficult relationship, but they have since set their differences aside and made up.
In 1999, a shooting occurred in a Manhattan nightclub that Shyne, Diddy, and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez were in attendance at. Shyne, who was only 20 at the time, was forced to make the hasty choice of either defending himself and his pals or running the possibility of being shot by Matthew “Scar” Allen, the alleged aggressor. He then fired the gun.
Shyne was finally charged with attempted murder, assault, and reckless endangerment despite the fact that no one was murdered and three others were hurt. However, Diddy, who was also detained that evening, was found not guilty on all counts, and their friendship was never the same after that. In actuality, Diddy and Bad Boy Records were completely cut off from Shyne.
Shyne was imprisoned at the Clinton Correctional Facility for almost ten years. He was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being released from prison in 2009. After that, he was sent to Belize, where he carried on his struggle for American citizenship.
In the general election of 2020, Shyne—who had changed his name to Moses Michael Levi Barrow in 2006—was supported by Diddy and won a seat in the Belizean House of Representatives. In 2022, Shyne was elected leader of the opposition.
Shyne was welcomed back to the United States in 2021, about ten years after being deported to his native Belize; Diddy also had a hand in it.
Shyne performed as a special guest at the 2022 BET Awards in June together with Diddy, a number of other pals, and other former Bad Boy artists as his former boss received the BET Lifetime Achievement Award.
