Exactly one year and five days ago, former incarcerated rapper Shyne told the good folks over at SOHH that he was trying to leave Def Jam Records, having signed to the historic label little over eight months prior to the interview. In the exclusive sit down with the site Shyne stated, ”I’ve been fixing to get up out of there for a while now because [then Island Def Jam CEO] L.A. Reid don’t care about Hip Hop. You give them [Def Jam staff] a Hip Hop record with an R&B singer, you ‘might’ have a chance. L.A. Reid doesn’t want nothing to do with rappers”.

Well it seems as though the Belize born emcee may have been granted his wish, as told by Kanye West‘s go-to beatsmith and renowned producer Ken Lewis in a recent interview with HipHopDX. The producer, who has worked with ‘Ye for over nine years, stated that he had not heard from the former Bad Boy recording artist after working on tracks for his intriguing “comeback” album.

“Well, I mixed 18 songs for the upcoming album and produced two, but he got dropped from Def Jam [Records] and I haven’t heard from him since,” Lewis said. ”That may not be common knowledge. [Laughs] That might get me in trouble. His release date was splattered as May 17 all over the world, but the day came and went, and I never heard from Shyne again. I don’t really know what happened to him, I just know that as far as I’m concerned, I’m not a part of that record anymore”.

Shyne, who was  head hunted by the then chairman of Island Def Jam Records L.A. Reid, signed a reported $5 Million multi-album contract which quite possibly was burning a huge hole in the pockets over at the house that Uncle Rush and Rick Rubin built. In an era of the music industry where cost cutting is essential, such a contract at a label currently laying staff off, for an artist not allowed into the Untied States, Canada nor the United Kingdom to at the very least record and/or promote his albums [due to his gun conviction], may have been too much to bear and I am positive that the widespread indifference to the rapper’s recent music releases, including “The Original“, “King David” and “Trunk Full“, may have been part of the deciding factor.

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