Everything was all good just a week 12 years ago.
So… I’m here on a Sunday night, ready to call it an evening, right? Then, I come across a video of epic proportions. During an interview with Diddy and the Dirty Money girls on Atlanta‘s V103, the one and only Mase pops up and hits Sean with some papers to sign. After the papers are signed, Pastor Mason rejoices that he has finally been released from his Bad Boy Records contract.
Now let’s be clear here: I don’t think Puff did that out of no “goodness of his heart” shit. That paper got signed because Mase had a live mic and Puff wasn’t tryna get put on blast while on the air. After all, he’s already been caught out there on some bullshit once this month. This was probably the culmination of Mase making repeated phone calls, having meetings, walking up to Puff at parties and being told “my office hours… are from 9… to 5″ and all types of shit. Finally, he had to go and put homie on the spot. Now that’s what the fukk I call a Proactive Solution.
See, as much as I respect Poppa Diddy Pop and all that the Bad Boy brand was, I wouldn’t doubt that he’s blackballed or contractually handcuffed a few niggas in his lifetime. Being “LOCKED IN!” is all well and good when you’re just followin’ him on Twitter, but when it comes to your livelihood, it might be a different story. Ah well, both parties’ll be OK after this. Puff’ll continue doing whatever he’s doing, and Mase will continue to make records no one cares about, no harm done. But since we’re on the subject… let’s go back.
Once upon a time, there was a rapper named Mase Murder who rolled with Big L and Children of the Corn (which also consisted of Cam’ron Killa Cam and Cam’s cousin Bloodshed). After realizing that yelling on the mic only works when your voice doesn’t sound like Benjamin Buford Bubba Blue, Mase decides to calm his shit down. After making this creative decision, he finds himself signed to Bad Boy in early-’96. I might be in the minority, or maybe I’m not… but I actually liked him a lot more in his prime Bad Boy years. Some people are much better at the street shit than the “commercial” side, but it goes the other way too, and M-A-dollar sign-E is one of those cases.
So as the story goes, Mase pops up on 112‘s remix for “Only You” and takes off from there. While Jadakiss is busy crying about having to write Puff’s lyrics, Mase gladly does so, and is rewarded as a result. Before you know it, he’s not only on remixes left and right, but also on huge hits like Puff’s “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” and Biggie‘s “Mo Money, Mo Problems”. Then comes his own album, Harlem World, which goes on to sell units out the ass. Then… no sooner does he assemble a group named Harlem World (uhhh, Baby Stase!) and start work on his second album Double Up, Mase decides to “retire” and find God in ’99.
Not for nothin’, Betha had a good damn run for those two years or so. I know the backpack niggas wanted to break his jaw, but he was doin’ his thing. He had the radio shit down pat, he had the star quality, and he still found time to drop some hot verses in the middle of that. I might even go as far as to say that he’s somewhat underrated, due to the perception that he was just some goofy-doofy nigga in a shiny suit. I mean, sure he was- but in that package, he still had some memorable lines. Even on the most candy-ass songs (except for that awful Rugrats shit), there was a chance that some of his slickest shit slipped by those too busy bein’ mad to notice.
All the fuckery that followed his exodus is a story all its own. From calling hip-hop “the devil”, to the weakest comeback album ever in ’04, to the strange G-Unit affiliation in ’05, to being caught out there with the tranny… all a bunch of madness. And now, after leaving the game again back in ’06, he’s decided to come back again for ’09. Only this time, he’ll be doing it without Diddy or Fiddy. I’m sure the world anticipates his project as much as they do the Dirty Money album.
In the meantime, I’ll just remember the old days, cause that’s just what I do. *waves wrist in the sky with no Rolie*
112 feat. Notorious B.I.G. & Ma$e “Only You (Remix)” (1996)
Puff Daddy & Ma$e “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” (1997)
Funkmaster Flex Freestyle feat. Ma$e & Puff Daddy (1997)
Ma$e “Feel So Good” (1997)
Ma$e “Lookin’ At Me” (1997)
The Lox feat. Ma$e & Puff Daddy “If U Want It” (1997)
Puff Daddy feat. Ma$e & Carl Thomas “Been Around The World (Remix)” (1998)
Ma$e feat. Puff Daddy “I’m No Killa” (1998)
Harlem World feat. Ma$e “I Really Like It” (1999)
-D!
EDIT (10/21): Because I’m not big on gossip-mongering, new info states that it wasn’t exactly what it was made out to be. It turns out that Puff actually signed a form that enables Mase to appear on other peoples’ records, but he remains a Bad Boy artist. That is the extent of the “freedom papers”, as they were called by Mason. Eh.
Posted by Danj! 
