This ends a bidding war that had industry bigwigs vying for Shyne’s attention, flying to Belize, calling and courting, ever since the Brooklyn emcee was released from prison and deported to Belize back in October.
For Shyne to turn down hard-court pressure from Jimmy Iovine/Dr.Dre and others and instead join LA Reid back at his last known recording-residence actually seems like an inevitable move….because I’ve been hearing that Shyne has been pow-wowing with veteran manager Kyambo “HipHop” Joshua for a while now. Joshua and his HipHopSince1978 partners, Gee Roberson, also manage Lil Wayne, Drake, Young Jeezy and more. Meanwhile, my old friend Al Branch is both a partner in HipHopSince1978 and a high-level exec at Def Jam…see how that works? Synergy! Now there have been recent reports of new label-wide pressures, but with this team in place, Shyne is in good hands.
