Black Rapper Joins Ultra Orthodox Judaism

CNN News - Like many of the worshippers there, Levi is dressed in traditional garb – a silver-striped silk robe, black knee-length pants, a white knit skullcap, and specially knotted fringes dangling from the sides of his legs. In many ways, he is indistinguishable from the thousands of ultra-orthodox Jews who call Jerusalem home. The only hint of something unusual is the Kurt Cobain T-shirt he wears under the robe, the black Ray-Ban sunglasses, and the signs of recognition on the faces of tourists passing by. Levi is, in fact, far from your standard ultra-orthodox adherent to the Jewish faith.

He was born in Belize as Jamaal Barrow, the out-of-wedlock son whose father is now the country's prime minister. At the age of seven, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, with his mother, and grew up in a hardscrabble urban setting. It was on the streets of Flatbush that Levi took up rhyming, eventually becoming the hard-core gangster rapper known as "Shyne." The up-and-coming hip-hop artist's career came to an abrupt halt after a 1999 New York City nightclub shooting incident