The release of Jamal
"Shyne" Barrow’s album Godfather: Buried Alive has hit a snag,
as prison officials claim the incarcerated rapper may have violated inmate rules
by doing business from the prison phones.
Officials took
Barrow’s phone privileges away today (August 16) and are now investigating
that rapper’s phone calls. If he is found guilty of violating the rules,
the victims of his 1999 shooting at Club New York will be able to sue for the
proceeds of the album.
Barrow is being
scrutinized over almost 100 phone calls that the state Department of Correctional
Services say are violations.
Under state laws,
prisoners are barred from calling cell phones, have calls transferred, conducting
business over the phone or calling unauthorized media contacts. Officials claim
Barrow did all things.
"If a call is transferred to a cell phone, we have no idea
who that call is going to or where that person is," Department of Correctional
Services spokesman James Flateau told the Associated Press. "In a post
Sept. 11 world, we’d like to know who inmates are talking to."
In addition to his phone privileges, Barrow is barred from face-to-face
interviews as well.
Barrow was sentenced
to a ten-year prison term for his role in the shootout that wounded three bystanders
were wounded in the melee.
The rapper signed
a deal with Def Jam worth almost $3 million dollars. Godfather: Buried Alive,
sold almost 200,000 copies the first week.
The album is expected to land in the Top 5 on Billboard’s
Top 200 Albums chart.
