In a press conference at a school in his native Belize yesterday, rapper Shyne, who legally changed his name to Moses Michael Leviy, spoke to students about avoiding the mistakes that helped to derail his promising rap career.

Leviy visited Wesley College, a school he briefly attended in 1993.

“As Shyne, I think they want to hear what I have to say and what I do have to say is not, ‘listen man I am on a gangster roll.’ No listen, look what gangster roll got me. Look where it led me. And I am not telling you what to do because I am not a preacher and I am not everybody’s father but I am exhibit A of what’s going to happen if you don’t stay in Wesley College, you dig. If you don’t go to that sixth form, if you don’t try to go to the university you’re going to spend the rest of your life in the cooker or you’re going to be in the grave. That is what this is about.

This is not about any type of romanticizing. No, this is about me, this is about them, and hopefully them learning from me that listen, I don’t want to make the mistakes that he made but if you do make a mistake you can transform that mistake. That is what a mistake is, not continuing to hit yourself in the brick wall but understand this is a brick wall, I ran into it, let me tear this wall down, or let me just go a different direction.”

On being deported from the United States after serving 9 years in a NY prison:

“Listen people sell tens of millions of records outside of the States. Quite frankly the Euro is stronger than the dollar right now. So I will make far more money in Europe and in Japan and throughout the world than I would make in the States.” Read more…