Shyne Po: The Greatest Artist To Never Make It...

[Palmolive Thug]

Damn Po was so far ahead of his time when he first got signed and, like most who dance with the devil, caught the heat whilst Puff walked it off. I'd been hyped for this dude since the Bad Boy street team sent me his first released verse

and a whole grip of mixtape featureses/freestyles and I was hooked as I genuinely believed this cat had next. Sure he sounded like BIG but was altogether grittier in tone and content and not that similar once you got down to it. Once he dropped his debut single it was a wrap:

As it was so fresh, raw and angry, not to mention the beat and feature were knocking. Fun fact the promo version of this had a different hook where Po stated "What type of nigga leave you dead in the street? Bad Boy. What type of nigga stay in the Trump for weeks? Bad Boy. What type of nigga fly Bentley coupes? Aim for your head cock the shit then shoot? Bad Boy" the bold parts ended up getting overdubbed as Puff though they ran a bit too close to what really went down that night in the club (listen close and you can hear it) with him, Po, J Lo.

[Palmolive Thug]

What the press didn't report was that they were heavy on the snort and Diddy was rolling around feeling invincible and generally acting like a tool because Wolf had his back and he was still making those regular payments to BMF for protection too and it was in this mood that he ran into a street cat called Scar and spilled his drink before yapping big shit like "I own the city" to which Scar responded by smacking him and throwing money in his face as he was on the ground as, and this is where it gets fuzzy, either Po busted off shots on his own or him and Puffy both started clapping at the cat. Being hip hop gangsters used to holding guns sideways and trying to look cool as opposed to being real marksmen (shout to Nate Dogg and his military training) they didn't actually hit who they were shooting for at all but three other people got caught up in the mix. Whats interesting about the tale I've heard is that it actually matches the facts as the ballistics at the scene matched two weapons and only one was found along with the first round of testimony stating they'd seen Puffy with a gun plus witnesses saw one being tossed from his jeep as it was speeding from the scene.

In the midst of all of this Po dropped his debut album which opened up with a banger:

This album featured 2 guests who performed on the hooks and the rest was all him and in so many ways it laid the blueprint for rap to come as, like Pacs death, a lot of artists got to shine (pun intended) that otherwise would've stayed in the dark. The album was angry, aggressive, drenched in coke tales and all carried by a distinctive flow and simple yet effective lyrics. In many ways Po reminded me more of Pac than BIG even though a lot of his social commentary style songs were left on the cutting room floor for the debut but one track that highlighted his storytelling prowess and keen ear for beats was The Life:

In which he intermingled himself into the exploits of one Mr Nicky Barnes aka Mr Untouchable.

Long story short, Puff stiffed him good and proper by getting witnesses to change their recollections and recant previous statements based on intoxication and other mitigating factors and when that still didn't work he had one of the witnesses place the smoking gun in Pos hand and it was a wrap, he was down for 10. Puffy changed his name and went on bout his business and Po sat in the slammer for 10 years and lost all semblance of vocal tone and flow which was a damn shame as his modern lyrics are dope but his delivery is severely lacking and very distracting.

[Palmolive Thug]

Whats crazy is that it was Shyne getting clinked that allowed The Game to rise who, back in his JT The Bigga Figga aka "I'm trying to get on and signed to a major by using a Bay legend" bit Po so hard in cadence and flow even though most of those early tracks appear to have vanished off the net, compare the hook on this:

To this:

Whilst The Clipse carved themselves a lane talking the same heavy coke tales which in turn led to Rick Ross (whose flow is a combination of Shyne, BIG and 2Pac in my opinion) who combined Shynes ear for lavish sounds and production with large scale drug talk and catchy hooks and took it all to the mainstream level, all of which was only possible because Po was locked up.

Had he been around to steadily promote and capitalize on his controversy instead of placing his faith in Puff who not only got him locked up but dropped him and ceased promoting his album you'd have been looking at a different face on top of the rap game today as this guy, for a 20 year old with no rap experience, had an incredible amount of talent and potential.

Anyway, it is what it is, here's the last track he recorded before he went in for his bid:

[Palmolive Thug]

Whats nuts about the whole thing is there was a huge bidding war to get him on a label with everyone upping the ante and signing bonus (Puffy offered a mill and secured him) and had Suge not been locked and actually been on the scene to run his label you know for a fact he would've signed him up as a) the cat was talented b) he'd go where the money was and c) it would piss off Puff and d) can you imagine the hype of a cat with BIGs voice shouting out Death Row?

Butterfly effect in full effect there for y'all that can see the code of the matrix and how it all connects...

[matsuda92]

Thank you for that bro! I knew the global story but not the details. No doubt Shyne would have been one of the most important rapper of the previous decade alongside 50. When he has been locked up i really felt we were losing something. He had everything to succeed. His mistake was to sign with Puffy.

The most crazy thing about that is that Bad Boy curse. It seems that Diddy has the ability to destroy everything he touches despite his personal success.
The list is long: Biggie=dead, mase=turned religious, Shyne= locked up for 9 years because of Puff, Loon= turned religious, G-Dep=give himself to the justice and doing 15 years for murder.

[Palmolive Thug]

Thank you for that bro! I knew the global story but not the details. No doubt Shyne would have been one of the most important rapper of the previous decade alongside 50. When he has been locked up i really felt we were losing something. He had everything to succeed. His mistake was to sign with Puffy.

The most crazy thing about that is that Bad Boy curse. It seems that Diddy has the ability to destroy everything he touches despite his personal success.
The list is long: Biggie=dead, mase=turned religious, Shyne= locked up for 9 years because of Puff, Loon= turned religious, G-Dep=give himself to the justice and doing 15 years for murder.

No doubt, Puff is a very toxic person. The reason why he didn't get locked it apparently due to Clive Davis to whom he owed loads of money and they just couldn't have their marquee artist sitting in the slammer for a bid hence why he sacrificed Po and the feds didn't bother following any leads that implicated Puff. Very shady.

Have you read Dancing with the Devil by Mark Curry? Great insight into the label and what goes on.

Just imagine if he had signed to DR instead, Aftermath would've had 50 and he would've had a legitimate beef for once instead of just rolling around bullying everyone and cracking jokes (Fif hands down is one of the last real rappers and a very entertaining cat in the broadest sense of the word) as Po went hard with that penned from jail verse in For The Record, with Suge behind him and floating on those westcoast beats it would've really been something to see as this dude really could've been a contender.

[BlacPain]

[MENTION=10086]Palmolive Thug
what about his unreleased album before his official debut? i read somewhere, that there are a few original versions on it. could you shed some light on it?

[Palmolive Thug]

@<a href="http://www.2pac-forum.com/member.php?u=10086" target="_blank">Palmolive Thug</a>
what about his unreleased album before his official debut? i read somewhere, that there are a few original versions on it. could you shed some light on it?

There were three leaks that occurred before the album dropped, first two were called The Truth (the original name for the album). The first one was an advance that was mainly just a collection of vinyl promo rips mixed with mixtape tagged rips of various unreleased songs. A few weeks later there was a studio rip of the unmastered album that featured no guests with Shyne humming their hooks instead and around 5 tracks that didn't make the final cut. About a week before the retail there was a partially mastered pre release that had all the same tracks as retail just not fully mixed down yet.

Most of the version of The Truth advance on the net now are fake homemade comps that were ripped from a promo vinyl that the original leak was pressed to and thus are degraded as you can hear the pops and clicks that weren't originally there. A lot of his unreleased stuff was released on his Godfather Buried Alive album as it had some heat but wasn't cohesive due to how it was put together, standouts were:

This is what I mean about being ahead of his time as he had tracks from Just Blaze and Kanye already wrapped whilst they were nobodies waiting to get on and way before the fame as the dude had a good ear for beats, Po was Pac level of prolific as he was only signed for a minute and just kept cranking out tune after tune after tune, even to this day there are so many joints in the stash that we've only heard bits of on various mixtapes and then there are all the tunes that are ruined with DJ drops throughout his tenure too.

Moral of the story:

Don't let Puffy pay for your lawyer when he's your co defendant.

[BlacPain]

great share, thank you for the background infos. much appreciated

[matsuda92]

[MENTION=10086]Palmolive Thug, no i haven't read Mark Curry's book. It seems interesting so i think i'll get this!

[RoyalPurple]

Brilliant thread w great info