Ma$e

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MA$E

Born: Mason Durrell Betha; Jacksonville, Florida, 27 August 1978

Genre: Rap

Best-selling album since 1990: Harlem World (1997)

Hit songs since 1990: "What You Want," "Lookin' At Me"

Like punch-drunk boxers, rap stars are forever threatening to quit the music business, only to stage triumphant returns before their public has had a chance to miss them. Mid-1990s sensation Ma$e released a pair of hit pop rap albums before deciding that the hip-hop lifestyle was not for him. The rapper turned his back on the riches and rewards of the music business in favor of the ministry, never to return.

Mason Durrell Betha was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1978 into a family of six children, including his twin sister, Stasson. When Betha was six years old, his family moved to Harlem. Fearing he would be lured into the dangerous world of the New York streets, Betha's parents sent him to live with his grandparents in Florida at age fifteen, though he returned a few years later to attend the State University of New York on a basketball scholarship. In addition to his expertise on the court, Betha was encouraged by friends to work on his already impressive rapping skills, which he practiced on the bus on the way to basketball games.

After a brief stint as part of a rap collective known as Children of the Corn—along with another future rap star, Killa Kam, also known as Cam'ron—Betha decided to go it alone following member Bloodshed's death in a car accident in 1996. Hoping to catch the ear of then rising producer Jermaine Dupri, Betha, calling himself "Murda Mase," traveled to Atlanta in 1996 to attend an urban music conference. Though Dupri was not charmed, another rising rap production star, Sean "Puff Daddy" (later "P. Diddy") Combs of Bad Boy Records, was. Combs approached Betha after hearing one of the rapper's demo tapes and offered him a contract.

Before releasing his debut, Harlem World (1997), Ma$e was already a household name thanks to his star-making cameos on hit singles by Puff Daddy ("Can't Nobody Hold Me Down"), Brian McKnight ("You Should Hold Me"), Mariah Carey ("Honey"), 112 ("Only You"), and Bad Boy's biggest star, Notorious B.I.G. ("Mo Money, Mo Problems"). His combination of laid-back, monotone rapping style and humble, dimple-cheeked good looks were at odds with the Bad Boy ethos of shiny suits, conspicuous wads of cash, flashy cars, and copious amounts of expensive champagne. Ma$e, however, eagerly embraced the luxurious lifestyle.

Ma$e joined Puff Daddy on MTV's August 1997 Video Music Awards alongside former Police singer Sting in a tribute to their recently murdered comrade, B.I.G. (born Christopher Wallace). Harlem World, featuring guest rapping from Jermaine Dupri, Busta Rhymes, Lil' Kim, Black Rob, and Puff Daddy, was released two months later, rocketing to the number one slot on the Billboard charts, selling more than 4 million copies.

With a slightly lisping delivery described by some critics as "narcoleptic," Ma$e's debut revels in a hedonistic lifestyle of women, money, and parties, polished to a high sheen by the trademark Bad Boy style, a combination of familiar song samples, uplifting rhythms, and slick, over-the-top music videos. The album includes the hits "Feel So Good" (which samples Kool and the Gang's "Hollywood Swinging") and "Lookin' at Me." Puff Daddy and Ma$e launched a highly successful world tour in support of the album in 1997.

Quitting at the Top of His Game

After his debut's success, Ma$e founded his own label, All Out Records, which debuted with the group Harlem World, featuring his sister, Stasson (also known as Baby Stase). Harlem World's debut, The Movement, trafficked in the same themes as Ma$e's solo work (sex, guns, and money), with tracks that aimed for mainstream, pop-oriented tastes.

Spot Light: Ma$e Joins the Ministry

Rappers retire almost as often as some legendary basketball players, but when Ma$e said he was quitting the rap game for the ministry, few doubted him. In a statement given in April 1999, two months before the release of his second album, Double Up, the rapper said his retirement was "effective immediately" and that he would only do spoken word engagements to promote the album. "It takes a great person to walk away from money," Ma$e told MTV News shortly after the announcement. "It takes a courageous person. It takes a person that you've never encountered. And everybody always questions what's real. 'What's real about Ma$e?' This is the realest thing you ever seen." Betha went on to found Saving a Nation of Endangered Ministries (SANE), in Atlanta in late 1999 and work toward a degree in mathematics at Clark Atlanta University. He was the featured speaker on SANE's summer 2000 nationwide crusade, Hell Is Not Full. That same year, Betha told a Detroit News reporter that one of the reasons he quit the music business was because of a vision he had of leading millions of people into hell with his music.

Shortly before the release of his second album, Double Up (1999), Ma$e said in several interviews that he planned to revive his more hardcore Murda Ma$e alter ego as an antidote to the mainstream "jiggy" style of rap he had pursued with Bad Boy, which placed emphasis on feel-good lyricism and endless materialistic boasting over gritty street reportage.

By the time Double Up was released in June 1999, Ma$e's career was already over thanks to his retirement. Either because it did not blaze any new musical trails or because the rapper was unwilling to promote it with performances, or a combination of the two, Double Up failed to reach its predecessor's sales success.

Ma$e burned brightly but quickly on the rap scene in the late 1990s. His flashy style of rapping quickly lost favor, but he will be forever remembered not only for his rapid ascent to fame, but for an even rarer feat: giving up on music before it gave up on him.