S. Samuel
Former Bad Boy Records rapper Shyne is keeping busy these days not only with the music industry but by now launching his very own fashion line called Gangland Clothing.
According to reports, Shyne Po took his Brooklyn, New York background and meshed it into various garments.
Shyne is getting into the fashion game. He’s launching the Gangland clothing line, a partnership with U.A.O.P Ruprai, an emerging clothing designer who has also created custom pieces for Grammy Award-winning musician Pharrell Williams. “The Gangland brand is something we want to build, from music to clothing,” Shyne says in a press release. “I’m from Brooklyn, and the streets have influenced a lot of trends in the fashion industry, and I want to mix street wear with high fashion.” (HHDX)
No stranger to making headlines, Shyne heated up the Internet over the winter after going at President Barack Obama for not tackling Chicago’s real-life problems.
“It breaks my heart to have a president that benefited, that profits from being an African or half African American. He profited from the Bill Clintons, the Civil Rights leaders, Martin Luther King — he profited from them because they were people, Caucasian, Jewish, African American, that fought to ensure that everybody would have an opportunity to succeed, that everybody would have equity, that kids in inner cities would be able to be educated and learn the value of life, about the value of morals, there’s people that fought for that. … I don’t see Obama doing that. Hov got half a billion, Hov don’t represent the 99 percent. So being cool with him don’t help us. It don’t help the sufferers, it don’t help the Southside of Chicago, that’s not enough. You got to go beyond that.” (Vlad TV)
Back in January, the rapper publicly reached out to President Obama over Twitter and referenced his Jay connection.
“Dear @BarackObama there has to be something the former US senator from Chicago can do for his former constituents! The genocide must stop,” he tweeted Sunday (January 13).
“Dear @BarackObama u must declare a state of emergency in Chicago! One of those bodies could’ve been you as a teenager! U now have the power”
“At least 18 murdered in Chicago within the first 10 days of the year — RT http://rt.com/usa/news/18-chicago-year-murder-812/ … @barackobama do something now!” “Dear @BarackObama call Jay-z to fly his private plane Down to Chicago & u fly yours the same way u called in the stars to win Ohio#help” (Shyne’s Twitter)
Last fall, the deported New York emcee questioned President Obama for not helping speed up his return to the United States.
Shyne has spent time in Belize, Paris and Jerusalem, but he has been unable to come back to the U.S., where he grew up and made a name for himself as a rap star. Po says Obama is well aware of his dilemma, noting that he and the POTUS share a mutual friend, Harvard Law professor Charles J. Ogletree. “He knows who I am, he knows what’s happenin’,” the rapper said of Obama. “He’s always talkin’ about he listens to hip-hop and his daughter listens to hip-hop. He knows who Shyne is, he knows I’m deported.” (MTV)
