January 03, 2006 @ 2:33 pm

Mase - Minister or Gangsta?

Shamika Anglin

Email this article Print this article Send us a tip

It was about nine years ago that Mase shimmied his shiny suit on to the hip hop scene, rapping a limited yet infectious few bars on 112’s “Only You.” With his cute smile, his unique, slur-like rhyming style, and his signature one-two step, the pretty boy rapper had me, and millions of other hip hop fans, sold. It seemed as if he could just not be stopped. He went on to release his debut album, Harlem World, selling 4 million copies and spawning classics that helped mark that era Bad Boy’s golden age. But, in 1999, claiming to be caught in between his limitless career and religious beliefs, and shortly before the release of his highly anticipated follow up album, Double UP, the much hyped about Bad Boy protégé was gone, just like that. And then the rumors started to circulate. I remember the disappointment I felt. Was Mase really scared of Suge Knight? Was he really afraid he’d be next to “go” after Biggie? How was it that he was just able to walk out of his contract with P. Diddy? What really went down? It was later discovered that Mase had moved down south and had converted to Ministering. That’s when I convinced myself there would be no returning from his hip hop hiatus. right But in 2004, 5 years since he first left the scene, we welcomed Mase back, with his unexpected yet appropriately titled release, Welcome Back, though I couldn’t help but wonder, how would the wonder boy manage to stay religious in the very unreligious world of hip hop? His plan was to release a feel good album, music that you could dance to - no cursing, no hoe references, no ‘N’ word, and I was all for it. I blasted Welcome Back at home, in the car, at the office, and no one could tell me that the Harlem boy wasn’t back. Though it might’ve been missing some essential Mase-esque elements, his voice was the same, the dancing was the same, just that the ‘murder’ was out of the Mase, and though some people had a problem accepting an FCC approved version of him, I welcomed the idea of a revised Mase. Welcome Back, unfortunately, didn’t do the numbers we hoped for, and Mase sort of fell back and analyzed the situation. He came back with a new agenda. It was at the 2005 VMA’s that the world was reintroduced to Mase, except he was no longer dancing in bright colored attires, he was now back to being Murder Mase, and instead of dropping on Bad Boy records, he was signed to the drama-ridden power house G-Unit. I knew it wasn’t good business. It was about three months ago that I heard the song that changed my entire perspective on the way I felt and thought about Mase. It wasn’t that “Check Cleared” wasn’t a production that I would have expected from his G-unit co harts, but as a ‘pastor,’ I believed that there was a line that needed to be drawn. The repetitive “niggas” were back in full force and the sexual notations were constant. “Minister Mase” even referred to his once alleged love interest, Brandy, as a hoe, and that’s not all. The worst of the worst was when I heard the end of the song, when his G-Unit family threaten to kill anyone, including children, that say anything about Mase. The song had G-unit written all over it, but the question remained, was G-unit really to blame?Quite frankly, it just seemed as if the holiness was ripped out of Mason Betha, and the gangta was re-installed in Murder Mase. Made me feel as if the entire time, all the praying and the goodness he portrayed was just an act, and that his ministering wasn’t so much a calling, but a way to make some easy money. What a fake. Is the dollar enough to erase your morality? Is it enough to forget a pledge that you gave to many of your followers? These are the questions that I’d ask Mase given the chance. Makes me wonder about the state of the hip hop and just how far some of our favorite artists go for that dollar. I guess Method Man said it best, cash really does rule everything around us, even our morals. The views expressed by this writer do not represent beliefs held by VIBE. Read more vibe.com online exclusives.

Page printed from:
http://www.vibe.com/news/online_exclusives/2006/01/mase_minister_or_gangsta/

Return to previous page